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How does gender equity improve coffee farmer’s lives?

“It is the 21st century and still more than half of women in the world cannot work, when they do, earn an average of 23% less than men. Likewise, more than 30% of women will suffer some sort of physical or sexual abuse during their lives and women are more likely to be poor and illiterate, compare to men.”

After reading these figures from the United Nations and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, it is shocking to realize women are still the most discriminated human group in history. What it is particularly interesting to me is that women are not just a minority group; women represent 50% of the current global population and half of all humans that have ever lived on earth. It is frustrating to witness how technology and knowledgeable advance we are but at the same time socially immature and primitive. By marginalizing women, society has systematically mutilated itself from half of the workforce and brainpower. We could only speculate about how much more developed we could potentially be whether we would have allowed women to actively participate in the construction of human history.

Although this article is about coffee farmers, these issues are ubiquitous, regardless you are male or female and a resident in a developed or poor nation, these issues concern us all. Surprisingly, some developed countries, quite often score poorly in gender equity.

What is the origin of the discrimination?

It is hard to say for sure and any answer is debatable, but no doubt, maternity played an important role in women exclusion. Early societies experienced high birth and mortality rate; life expectancy was short, and most women spent majority of their adulthood pregnant, nursing or taking care of kids.

Maternity turned women vulnerable to the elements and potential predators. Therefore, a protective male was the evolutionary answer to increase the chances of women and their progeny to survive; although safety around men offered several benefits to women, it soon became a way of control and subordination, compromising women’s potential freedom.

Regardless it was due to male authoritarianism and/or female submission, women stayed relegated only to marginal roles in society. For centuries, history, law, religion and arts developed predominantly around men and nothing change much until early 1950’s were a major scientific breakthrough altered women’s reality forever. For the first time in history, women had the chance to control their own reproduction and fertility. Contraceptives allowed women to plan their lives, to study, to work outside their homes and have a free and more active role in society.

SEE ALSO: How can we help smallholder coffee farmers?

It looks like ancient history now and it is easy to underestimate the role contraceptives had in women’s lives back then. However, their impact was so great, that even today most adult women rely on some sort of birth control method in one way or another. Family planning is the first step to empower and freed women from their circumstances. Unfortunately, either due to economical, religious or social reasons, many women today have no access to contraceptives.

Despite the obstacles, women have been able to expand their domain and influence in all aspects of society. The freedom women currently enjoy is unprecedented and it is changing the foundation of our society. Independent women with no economic ties to men have become leaders, artists, scientists and switched priorities regarding marriage and how and when, start or remain into a relationship. The concept of family and the roles men and women play within it are drastically evolving.

No wonder why many men feel threaten and emasculated by modern women and why conservative’s religious societies are more radical and harsher than ever. The foundations of our society are trembling and the fear of structural change has many people worried, angry and defensive.

I particularly wonder whether my mother would have remained married or even chosen my father as a life partner if she would have enjoyed economic independency and had, as many women today, the freedom of choice.

It is a scary thought indeed, but women economic dependency, submission and fear cannot longer be the glue that keeps families and society together. Although, it would take some time until we reach real global gender equity. I am confident that progress is inexorable and we will get there.

How can we help female coffee farmers?

Besides the issues we already discussed, coffee regions are frequently also patriarchal societies where men act as providers and women assist as workers and/or housewives. The role distribution sometimes represent an overwhelming load for men who assumed too many responsibilities and detrimental to women, whom despite contributing with half of the work, their share is often symbolical, conditioned to their marriage or relationship status. Leaving women with nothing whether the relationship ends. Legal participation and ownership are common obstacles women endure in coffee regions.

Freedom to administer their own capital, access to legal ownership of land/property and business/entrepreneurship training are sometimes all women need in order to become independent.

SEE ALSO: Could coffee be a sustainable crop?

Gender equity is a very delicate and intimate matter, affecting families and societies from within. Most countries have serious gender equity issues and only few have successfully assesed them. Gender equity work demands humility and understanding that we are all different and the solutions are often as diverse as the circumstances and people.

The only way we can approach gender issues is by allowing women and men to analyze their own roles and challenges with a different light; most people follow a set of rules imposed by society, they have never dare to question. Although we cannot actively participate, we could be the light that allows them to see, farther, wider and clearer picture. At the end, the solution and the necessary work would depend on them.

 
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