The world of the 21st century is still grappling with the long-standing challenges. In today’s world, poverty is not only a feminine face, but the rapid pace of development has also made rural areas in many countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America feminine as well.

The highest number of women who are economically active work in the agricultural sector. Even in America, thirty percent of those who are employed in the agricultural sector are women.

In the three continents, only ten to twenty percent of landowners, who are mostly small-scale, are women. In some parts of these countries, due to tradition or restrictive laws, women are still not allowed to own land.

The majority of employed women in the agricultural sector work without pay, and their labor is only valued for consumption, not for exchange. Agricultural workers face many limitations, and the most prevalent trend is that they are employed in the informal economy. Seventy percent of those working in the informal economy around the world are women. This sector offers part-time, seasonal, and scattered jobs based on market needs, and does not provide job benefits such as various insurances, healthcare, job security, safe working conditions, retirement, and paid leave for holidays and sick days.

This trend is not only true in countries across three continents, but also in the heart of advanced industrial countries such as America; in California, which is one of the states of America where industrial agriculture plays a significant role in the economy, agricultural workers, both men and women, work seasonally, earning daily wages and sometimes without legal permission to be in America, risking their lives and working long hours in difficult conditions to perform agricultural tasks.

In a field study conducted on female agricultural workers in the central region of California, in which I also participated, it was found that these agricultural workers did not have health insurance and as a result of using various pesticides, which were not commonly used in California but were allowed during the Trump presidency, they gave birth to disabled children. There are challenges and difficulties for women in the agricultural sector all over the world, and these challenges are even more severe and complex for many women from an intersectional perspective.

Immigrant women, women who are heads of households, older women, minority women, and women in developing economies face more challenges and obstacles compared to women in the agricultural sector in European countries and North America.

One of the major global trends regarding gender gaps in the agricultural sector is that, despite the fact that women farmers work longer hours compared to men at a global level, the agricultural products produced on farms owned by women, which are often smaller, are 20 to 30 percent less than those owned and controlled by men.

According to various research by United Nations organizations, the only reason for those problems is the underlying gender-based issues.

The features and challenges of female farmers in developing countries, which are gender-based, are as follows:

1. Women have smaller farms and fewer animals compared to men.

2. Women have a higher workload compared to men; because many daily tasks such as preparing fuel and drinking healthy water and managing household and children’s affairs are the responsibility of women.

3. Women have less education and limited information compared to men in the field of agriculture.

4. Women have significantly less access than men to financial resources, agricultural loans, collateral, and utilizing the capital market for the development of agricultural work.

5. Women have less access to buying pesticides, fertilizers, and mechanical tools.

6. If women are agricultural workers, they are mostly part-time and seasonal, and they are assigned heavy tasks that are not specialized. They do not receive equal pay for equal work.

In summary, women have limited access compared to men on a global level.

• Access to ownership of land and natural resources.

• Access to services.

• Access to bank credits and financial facilities.

• Access to technology and information.

• Access to education.

The existence of customs, beliefs, and mental attitudes regarding gender roles and patriarchal structures, disbelief in the role and participation of women in development, and political motivations to maintain oppressive structures that view women as second-class citizens are major inhibiting factors.

In 2011, the United Nations Women’s Commission placed special emphasis on investigating the conditions of women in agriculture and female agricultural workers.

In studies and dissertations presented in the field of women in agriculture, which include both female farmers and female workers in the agricultural sector, the following data has been presented, especially in the Western Asia region (Arab countries and Iran) as well as North African countries:

In the Middle East and North Africa region, seventy percent of the poor live in rural areas and recent studies have shown that poverty is linked to uncontrolled population growth. Along with extremely difficult economic conditions for the poor in Middle Eastern and African countries, there are also major political and economic instabilities, corruption among owners of capital and power, globalization of capital, deepening gap in gross national production between Western industrialized countries and countries in the region, widening class divide, and large-scale migration from rural areas to cities.

This set of conditions has transformed many women into agricultural workers. In general, in this region, we see three major trends based on the existing work.

Despite the importance of agricultural activities in this region, the role of women in the agricultural economy has increased from thirty-four percent during the years 1990-1995 to forty-five percent in 2011, while the role of men has decreased from sixty-six percent to fifty-five percent during the same period. This trend has continued over the past decade. In these countries, in line with other countries in three continents, two-thirds of women are employed in the agricultural sector. Whether they are a few women who own land or the vast majority who work as agricultural laborers, they are part of the informal economy of these countries. The work of women who own or have family land is not considered in the gross domestic product, while the work of women who are agricultural laborers is considered and contributes to the GDP. Women in the agricultural sector are deprived of retirement benefits, occupational safety insurance, comprehensive health insurance, sick leave, and other benefits of the formal economy due to the informal nature of the

Gender differences and disparities in the agricultural workforce encompass differences in the type of work that men and women do, lack of safety and suitable working conditions, and the employment of children (under 18 years old). These differences also extend to discrepancies in wages.

While the trend of migration to cities is dominant for men in various countries, this trend is taking place with different speeds and various characteristics. However, regardless of the approach, challenges and difficulties in the agricultural sector still remain for women.

While the majority of women are also working longer hours in this area, the type of work that men and women are assigned is different and gender roles mainly involve mechanical work, farm protection and security, and managing product sales for men, while responsibilities in the private sector, such as obtaining fuel, clean drinking water, caring for animals, preparing food, and maintaining household operations, are assigned to women.

Some of the features and prevailing trends in the agriculture sector in the Middle East and North Africa region include:

1. Feminization of Agricultural Workforce.

While men are moving to the outskirts of big cities or migrating to neighboring countries in search of job opportunities and improving living conditions for their families, the number of female workers in the agricultural sector is growing.

2. Migration from agricultural work.

A large number of farmers who are migrating towards cities can be seen in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Additionally, due to war and instability, a massive migration of men from the agricultural sector, sometimes with their families, has led them to neighboring countries. This includes over two million Afghans in Iran, who are settling on the outskirts of cities.

Furthermore, another notable case of migration is the migration of female farmers from Morocco to Spain. This migration, which has been officially arranged by the governments of Spain and Morocco, on one hand reflects the difficult conditions of female farmers in Morocco, but several studies have shown that this organized migration has also increased the sense of agency, economic empowerment, self-confidence, and capabilities of Moroccan women, despite the specific laws and restrictions that were put in place.

The cultural and educational effects of male migration on children have also been studied extensively. The absence of men in the agricultural sector has led to the responsibility of caring for the family and ensuring the healthy upbringing of children falling solely on the mother. The absence of fathers has had a greater impact on gender roles and the upbringing of boys compared to girls, resulting in many negative consequences such as lack of presence and encouragement in continuing their education. This is because the power dynamics between mothers and children cannot be managed effectively, and the major responsibilities of agriculture alongside family responsibilities have resulted in girls being encouraged more to take on household tasks and distancing themselves from education.

The importance of women as a productive force in society, a force that can facilitate their economic participation and make development easier, is one of the major challenges in Middle Eastern and Iranian countries, where the gender gap is much wider than in other countries.

In Middle Eastern and North African countries, there is a lack of political will to encourage women’s economic participation, and women often face traditional gender stereotypes that limit their opportunities.

Farmers in this region, especially women, do not have full access to mechanized agriculture facilities. Many modern methods of agricultural production, which are available to large companies in the Western world, are not accessible to countries in the region due to the heavy costs involved. This poses a multi-layered challenge for women. For example, mechanization of lentil production has been taking place for three decades, but the need for large investments has hindered its effective use. Overall, in agriculture in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, due to the fact that many of these countries rank low in gender indicators and the gender gap in economic participation is significant, both female farmers and female agricultural workers face much more pronounced challenges than other regions in Asia.

Iran.

In Iran, women farmers and agricultural workers face challenges that are characteristic of women in the agricultural sector in the Middle East and North Africa, and in many cases, are in line with global trends today.

The share of women in the agricultural sector of Iran is eleven percent, which is a stark difference compared to the share of women in the agricultural sector of other countries on three continents and global statistics. In Iran, there are also more women working as daily wage workers and laborers in agriculture than women who work on land owned by their families or themselves.

Women’s wages in Iran also have a huge difference with men’s wages. Women receive less wages than men in all areas, whether in the field of weaving, vegetables, or agricultural products. This huge difference is based on statistics provided by Iranian institutions, which show a sixty percent difference. Therefore, equal wages for equal work is one of the demands of women’s rights in cities and villages in Iran. In Iran, high production costs have eliminated farmers. Men in Iran have more low-paying jobs than women, but women still accept low-paying jobs to cover their living expenses.

Women farmers and agricultural workers are deprived of social support. Those who are employed in the informal sector of Iran’s economy are deprived of all the benefits that are rightfully due to women. In Iran, with the support of the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, more than 130,000 rural women have been placed under protection based on reports. These dimensions of support are only drops in the ocean of the needs of rural women.

Lack of access to financial resources, difficulty finding a guarantor and providing collateral for obtaining loans are major challenges for rural women in Iran.

Rural women, like other parts of Iranian society, are deprived of organizations that pursue their professional demands; the lack of democratic institutions has silenced their voices in their economic demands and policies that could help their capabilities.

The population of marginalized cities in Iran, which has doubled in the past eight years, also includes rural men who have moved to cities with the intention of providing for their families and seeking a better life.

Furthermore, a significant portion of the 26 million Iranian citizens who are currently living below the poverty line are either working in the agricultural sector and have migrated to the outskirts of cities, or are female agricultural workers with low wages. According to Hashemollah Falahat Pisheh, member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the 10th Parliament, during the years when the population of poor people in Iran increased, Iran has only spent 30 billion dollars in Syria.

Women farmers, in the absence of men due to patriarchal structures, have neither economic security, nor financial facilities, and in many cases they are not able to use the limited resources available for land management. This is because the power dynamics and gender roles in Iran are very restrictive. Moreover, the political desires of those in power are not focused on solving the economic problems of rural society and women farmers, but rather on other priorities.

The demands of female farmers, who are among the most marginalized groups of women in Iran, must be at the heart of the demands for the rights of the Iranian people for social justice, economic rights, and human rights. Let’s break the sky and create a new plan.