Gender, decision-making and farm practice change : an action learning intervention in Myanmar

A dominant discourse in Myanmar characterises men with ‘farmer’ identities while women, who also undertake farm work, are seen as farm ‘helpers’ and ‘labourers’. We investigated the factors underlying this discourse, exploring gender norms underpinning gender roles, patterns of gendered decision-making, and women's perceptions of gender disadvantage as one component of a study of farmer participatory crop benchmarking (FPCB) in Myanmar's Central Dry Zone. FPCB takes a group-based approach to learning, and in our case, we encouraged mixed-gender groups with the aim of improving women's access to technical learning. Our study identified unconscious bias and adverse gender norms that perpetuate strict gender roles in our study sites and act as a structural barrier to women's access to technical learning, and in turn shape agricultural decision-making and the allocation of household financial resources for farm inputs. Most agricultural roles are defined by gender. Men typically use machinery while women perform manual tasks such as spreading manure and hand weeding. Although women participate in important social welfare groups, self-help groups and micro-credit schemes, they rarely participate in activities that give them access to technical information related to improving farm production. The male household head typically gains this exposure. Notably, women generally play a leading role in managing day-to-day finances while men lead agricultural decision-making. Engaging women in technical learning in the FPCB appears to have encouraged greater integration of these roles, leading to joint agricultural decision-making and both genders becoming better-informed about farm investment, which in turn led to farm practice changes that were agronomically sound. Ways to increase female participation in technical learning are discussed, but the most basic measure may be to address the underlying gender norms that prescribe gender roles in the household, on the farm, and in the community, that are the source of female farmer disadvantage.