User:Thekappen/sandbox

//copy edit for specifics, see if time period and regions can be viable; esp under ISI\\ In feminist economics, the Feminization of Agriculture refers to the measurable increase of women's participation in the agricultural sector, particularly in the developing world. The phenomenon started during the 1960s with increasing shares over time. In the 1990s, during liberalization, the phenomenon became more pronounced and negative effects appeared in the rural female population. Afterwards, agricultural markets became gendered institutions, affecting women differently than men.

The term has also been applied to other phenomena, including increasing shares of women in the agricultural workforce, male outmigration from rural areas, decreasing women's opportunities in agricultural productivity, and lower rural pay due to skill exclusions. Activists have argued that the trend is dangerous and leads to food insecurity.

Description
//see if why FOA started in the 1960\\ Women's role in the agricultural sector increased during the 1960s and has continued to grow. Women have been increasingly counted as heads of household, running their own farms without male assistance. These households are often poorer than their male counterparts. Their plot sizes are usually smaller, and have less access to other productive resources, like education, tools, and seeds, something termed “investment poverty”. Women agricultural workers are also less likely to have social connections, like credit and mindex.phparket networks.

In the rural environments there are two types of crop orientations, subsistence and export. Female headed households are more likely to be subsistence orientated, which are often poorer. Export farmers are more likely to have substantial land endowments and to be male headed. After structural adjustmShe doesn't want generalization, always spec time period/region and etc. ents export farmers became more vulnerable to price shocks, and women within this category more so. Female-headed households also became more likely to change from high value export crops to subsistence.

The current level of Feminization is a new phenomenon in contrast with previous orientations. Other major studies of the gender division of labor have tended to show a strong male agricultural lead.

Diversification
Rural incomes gradually fell due to taxation and underproduction during Import substitution policies. This demanded a need to increase household wealth, by diversifying income. Men attempted to increase income by migration to cities and richer areas. Women remained behind to farm alone, and do wage work locally. With male migration, the amount of labor dedicated to farming fell, as women retained the child care responsibilities. This trend continued during liberalization.

Discrimination
Social norms affect how men and women approach and are rewarded from the market. Men are seen as the bread-winners and thus are expected to be paid more and work year-round. Women are seen as secondary laborers, and thus tend to work in seasonal or otherwise temporary jobs. These positions are low wage and low skill. Women are not expected, nor encouraged to compete for higher wages or said jobs. Women who attempt to bargain for higher wages are seen as “distressed”, and viewed negatively.

Export oriented agro-business perpetuates these stereotypes. Often women work seasonal jobs and aren't considered for permanent positions. These low-skill entry level jobs have low wages with no raises. Sometimes these positions require literacy and women wouldn't be eligible, as rates of education and literacy are higher in men than in women.

Food-insecurity
The feminization of agriculture has been associated with food insecurity through poverty and limited crop yields. Structural adjustment of the 1990s abolished fertilizer and seed subsidies to rural farmers. This has decreased crop growing potential and profitability. With some household's being on the brink of food-insecurity. In an attempt to compensate for lack of fertilizer, some have switched to lower quality crops. Measurable impacts on rural mortality rates have started to become apparent.

Liberalization
//copy edit and expand; maybe change liberalization?!\\ get a stronger thesis about liberalization enhancing the trend. Liberalization critics argue the phenomenon is a result of failed liberalization policies. Governmental policy changed in the developing world beginning in the 1980s. The aim was to promote growth through private enterprise and liberalized trade regimes. The policies required state entities to be dissolved as part of the restructuring. Also subsidies and social support mechanisms were ended to reduce government budgets.

The removal of social subsidies on education and health were removed made women became responsible for supplementing the increased cost. This required them to increase in their income which lead to income diversification, and male migration. Women then remain on the farm, with the remainder of the family. In both Africa and Latin America male migration has been associated with feminization of the rural agricultural economy.

Liberalization also removed governmental institutions beneficial to farmers. The reduction of tariffs led to instability of farm income, due to market swings. This led farmers to grow more conservative crops and rely on wage labor, rather than farm income. Before liberalization there existed public credit facilities, as well as input assistance (fertilizer and seeds etc), and marketing. In the period after liberalization, these institutions were never replaced by private mechanisms. Smaller farmers who once benefited from these, now have reduced productivity. These reductions, have negatively affected rural populations.

Other Causes
In Africa, regional issues have an impact on the male rural population. The prevalence of disease (mainly HIV/aids) and warfare have reduced male populations. These effects can combine migration problems leading to substantial differences in gender. In the Congo there are as many as 170 women working for every 100 men in agriculture.

Criticism
go here also into other data about the origins of the phenomenon; what is the diff of ISI and then the Structural. The most common criticism is the lack of available data. A prominent concern is how to interpret the available data. The increase in women's participation in agriculture can be interpreted several ways. One is that more women are working in agriculture than were previously. The second is that men are working less, and women have remained are constant, and thus the share of women is rising. A third possibility is that neither have changed and that recent data have only begun to capture the women already working in agriculture.

Determining causation has also been controversial. Without better data it is difficult to differentiate the regional trends from the universal. The developing world is broad and poorly understood. It is likely that a trend affecting one region will not apply to another.

Organizations
Several organizations have become concerned with the detrimental effects, and have sponsored projects.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations works to improve food security. They stress increasing access to many necessary inputs to productive agriculture, including credit, education and training, and land. They also promote the development of rural female farmers organizations. There has also been a move towards updating the legal codes of countries to give women the legal rights of property ownership and credit, which can allow for increased food security.

ActionAid is also involved in activism towards the alleviation of poverty. Two of their main purposes is to argue for gender equality and women's rights. They are involved in adult literacy and other education projects. They argue for a gender approach to agricultural development. In 2008, the HungerFree Women project was created to address the issues facing rural women. The project was designed to enhance give media visibility to rural women, address discriminatory laws, prioritize women's rights and organize rural women.

Policies
Advocates have argued for policy change to address concerns. Actionaid argues for increasing funding to the agricultural sector for rural development. The World Bank argued that development policy should increaser access to the agricultural resources that men have (e.g. land, credit facilities, health care).