Rural areas are witnessing a change in the dynamics of gender roles in sustaining livelihoods and strengthening communities. This trend is notable in the small-scale livestock and dairy sector, where women’s participation is higher than in male-dominated agriculture (Karttunen, Rautiainen and Quendler, 2019). In this blog, I discuss the inclusiveness and validity of supporting small-scale farmers’ dairy commercialisation as potential leverage for women’s empowerment.

Rural women household heads rising as central farming agents

Rural areas have been, and still are, often male-dominated (Pilgeram, 2007; Annes, Wright and Larkins, 2021). Male household heads will manage and work on the farm, relying on heavy machinery and chemical fertilisers in conventional agriculture to increase yield and productivity. Female household heads and farmers are often ‘protected’ or ‘excluded’ from the fields of crops that necessitate the ‘dangerous’ materials and long-time labour.

The clear division of gender roles is evident in many rural areas. Men dedicate most of their time to earning an income by growing and selling farm products, tending to engage in economic activities and establishing social networks more actively than their female counterparts. This tendency affects men’s and women’s opportunities in public domains and gender equality (Connelly et al., 2018). Rural women step back from hazardous farming activities but feed livestock, tend to its health throughout the year, and become an essential workforce during harvest. Women’s labour is called for in economic and unpaid care activities, with female household heads substantially assisting in farming practices while simultaneously caring for their children and family members, often without much help from their spouses (Wu and Ye, 2016).

Women making changes to their household economy and their communities

The trends of unequal divisions of labour in farming are changing, particularly in rural areas that have implemented small-scale dairy farming as an alternative source of farm income. Research shows that women actively participate in farming and decision-making processes both at farms and in public domains when their families are engaged in a collaborative pathway of small-scale dairy farming (Dohmwirth and Hanisch, 2018). Here are some examples of how dairy farming improves female household heads and female farmers’ participation in economic activities and social status that I witnessed in two rural municipalities in Colombia, where milk production has gained importance in the past two decades.

Gabriela’s mother became the only household head after her father’s death. The mother and two daughters began rearing cows and selling milk through farmers’ groups. Dairy farming fetched a modest income for the family to maintain a living when the mother and daughters could not rely on other sources of income such as crop farming and day labour in construction or mining areas. Dairy farming does not require an investment of initial fixed costs in facilities and equipment. Not all small-scale dairy farmers need intensive labour or inputs. This allows her young daughters to enjoy their childhood and adolescence and focus on their studies. When the mother gets sick, however, the daughters will help their mother milk the cows and deliver the product to the collection centre run by a farmer-led group, yet this is done without much difficulty.

Sabina demonstrates how women farmers increase participation in public discussion and decision-making. She used to speak up in her village, Paunita, and express her opinions to the public, mainly about how to encourage villagers to collaborate, which led to recommendations from members of the farming group that Sabina be made the leader.

After accepting to join the committee board, Sabina communicated more actively with her neighbours and group members. She organised meetings and collected opinions with neighbours and would escalate them to the upper-level government or public actors. The village-level acquisition of an agricultural reservoir and water tanks for rainwater storage is an example of her effort to organise collective actions.

Female dairy farmers are often active in learning to process milk into dairy desserts. Women usually learn this trade when public institutions organise capacity-building programmes or workshops for dairy farms, an initiative recently taken by the National Learning Service. When women farmers join a group initiative to make dairy desserts, they can supply the finished products to an institutional market, including nutrition programmes for senior citizens or schoolchildren. This initiative allows women to earn an income for themselves and their dairy group by organising a sale in local marketplaces, which also advertises their products to the locals.

Support through public and private initiatives and programmes is needed to encourage rural women’s participation in dairying. Initiatives that provide female dairy farmers with helpful tools such as milking machines that will save manual labour and protect them from injuries will be highly beneficial. Supportive programmes can offer female farmers workshops, encouraging their leadership and providing management skills for farmers’ groups or small businesses. Programmes that aim to transfer production and marketing skills can also be helpful for women farmers—some female farmers use the skill set for on-farm processing of milk into dairy desserts to extend the shelf life and organise joint selling of the processed products, for instance. 

Scholars and policymakers are increasingly concerned about the dairying impact on climate change and the agricultural environment—to name a few, greenhouse gas emissions from manure and contamination of water resources due to poor handling of fertiliser (Klootwijk et al., 2016; Feng and Kebreab, 2020). We will need a cautious approach to addressing the environmental problems of dairy farming while ensuring female farmers receive the support they need.

Many rural women rely on small-scale dairy production as an essential livelihood activity in developing economies. These women dairy farmers will benefit from transfers of low-impact farming skills and facilities that reduce carbon emissions and water pollution, for instance. Resource-poor female farmers may benefit from a route to getting an ecological certificate for their products – products with such certificates will help increase the prices of the products sold in the markets for the added value. 

Dairy production as a pathway for rural women’s empowerment and greater gender equality

Female dairy farmers are changing their lives and communities by joining collective initiatives to produce and market their products. Rural women’s participation in dairy farming benefits their lives and communities as the women acquire skills, exchange ideas, and provide their time and ideas to generate incomes for their families and villagers.

Small-scale dairy production presents an inclusive pathway for rural women—it involves low financial risks, requires no substantial assets and less heavy labour compared to agriculture or other familiar sources of income available in rural areas, thus providing socioeconomically underprivileged women with a means to make a living. Women's high involvement in dairy farming also increases the women’s chances of participating in public decision-making processes, thus enhancing women’s social and economic statuses. Dairying generates an income that will allow women to contribute directly to their households’ livelihoods, improving their quality of life. The deeper inclusion of women in dairy farming offers opportunities for rural women to suggest ideas and make decisions to improve family livelihoods and their communities and even take a leadership role.

Female dairy farmers will carry on dairying as a source of income and a way to connect to the market and rural society. The women's participation in the dairy sector will further gender equality within rural communities—it gives rural women with limited access to income-generating sources and public space more chances to earn incomes and present and reflect their views in their communities.

This is one of a series of blogs supported by the IDS alumni office and written by current IDS students and PhD Researchers from academic year 2021-2022 Spring Term.