Rethinking Women's Leadership in Agrifood Systems: Pathways to Equality and Resilience

Women are key actors in agrifood systems, participating on and off farm at different scales and across the public sector, private sector and civil society. However, there is a “dramatic imbalance” between women’s enormous and essential contributions to agrifood systems and their leadership and decision-making power. This global pattern holds true in India, where women often have less decision-making power than their male counterparts. Multiple forms of discrimination (for example, related to caste, ethnicity, disability and age) often overlap or intersect with gender inequalities, increasing the challenges for certain groups of women to claim their rights to participation and representation.

Women’s leadership and decision-making at all levels constitute an under-researched pathway to gender equality, justice, and other desired outcomes of agrifood systems development. In response to this, there is a strong push for more targeted research on and investment in interventions that support women’s participation in decision-making and leadership at all levels. Supporting financial and partnership commitments to enhance women’s leadership in agrifood systems constitutes a key part of the global ‘Commit to Grow Equality’ process led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In India, stakeholders from civil society, NGOs and the private sector have expressed interest in developing and scaling interventions that enhance women’s leadership in agrifood systems such as through value chain initiatives or natural resource management and governance. In response, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT under the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality organized an expert roundtable on ‘Advancing Women’s Leadership in Agrifood Systems’ from September 11-12 2024 at the Bangalore International Centre, India.

The roundtable brought together a small group of experts from across India to identify effective strategies, initiatives, methodologies, and measures to advance and assess women’s leadership in agrifood systems. These participants included researchers, civil society, government representatives and private sector actors. It also included several voluntary sustainability standards working in the agri-food sector, given existing collaborations and momentum generated at a 2023 India Sustainability Standards conference session.

Fostering dialogue

The women’s leadership roundtable offered rich and diverse discussions on the evolving understanding of women’s leadership in agri-food systems. One of the central insights that emerged is that women’s leadership cannot be viewed in isolation nor as a uniform concept. One participant noted that women’s roles are deeply intertwined with the family, community and institutions, with power dynamics shaped by their relationships within these spheres. Participants questioned whether it was fair to encourage rural women to take on leadership roles in a context where they face greater risks, take on additional responsibilities to their other (paid and unpaid) work, and are expected to behave in different ways.

As the roundtable progressed, it became clear that efforts to promote women’s leadership sometimes hinge on beliefs that women will lead in ways that create more desirable outcomes for communities. But, why do we hold women to higher ethical standards or expect more from them than is fair? In exploring deeper, it became clear that not every women aspire to hold a leadership role. There was a collective consensus on moving away from the idea that all women desire to be leaders or that women will be the saviors of the challenges faced by agrifood systems, especially when the odds are stacked against them.

Rethinking leadership

Women’s leadership is a process and is not just about delegating position; it is about creating spaces where women can exercise agency and drive meaningful change. Participants emphasised that women’s leadership also entails shared responsibilities, not only among women but across society and institutions to address structural barriers. These barriers, which include limited land rights, gender pay gap and restricted access to decision-making platforms, must be addressed to create an inclusive environment where women can lead effectively. Setting mechanisms of support and advocacy, both at the community and policy level, is important for enabling women to navigate these challenges.

A sector-specific example illustrated by a participant from the Ethical Tea Partnership underlined that in some production systems (including tea), women often perform the most labor-intensive tasks such as tea leaf plucking, while men oversee operational duties. Despite significant contributions, women seldom rise to leadership positions, on average holding 1 in every 50 leadership positions. This disparity highlights the need for targeted intervention to support women’s leadership across all levels, from community to policymaking.

Discussions on creating an enabling environment for women’s leadership highlighted that recognizing where women draw their power from is essential to fostering leadership – whether in their homes, communities, or relationships with others. Concerns were also raised about the need for safeguards against exploitation and harassment, especially as women navigate leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated spaces like the business and market stage of the food supply chain. As we promote women’s leadership, it is equally essential to ensure that protection and support mechanisms for addressing gender-based violence, discrimination, and unequal power dynamics are in place at home, community and in the workplace.

Ways forward

While the roundtable showcased successful programmatic strategies for supporting women’s leadership, it also emphasised the need for a more inclusive and nuanced approach that addresses structural inequities, provides safeguards for women leaders and ensures that men engage as key allies in changing restrictive gender norms. As we continue to foster dialogues and advance our efforts to support women’s leadership, the question remains: How can we ensure this leadership is truly equitable and sustainable?