Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture: Reflections From a Long-Term Collaboration Using Mixed Methods

This article explores a fifteen-year collaborative process of studying women’s empowerment in agricultural research for development using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The article discusses how this deep collaboration has provided new insights into women’s empowerment. These collaborations were based on feminist principles related to both the processes and the content of the work. Mixed methods were used within single projects, across sub-projects in different contexts, and across projects over time. By using qualitative and quantitative methods together, new insights are generated about how joint asset ownership and decision making may or may not be empowering and the importance of agency over time, not just workload, as an indicator of empowerment. In addition, the article discusses what has been learned about the processes of collaboration with partners across disciplines and methodologies, geographies, and time and its value in knowledge formation.HIGHLIGHTSUsing mixed methods, global and interdisciplinary research collaborations offer new insights into women’s empowerment.Empowerment emerges as a multifaceted concept both within and across locations.Examples on asset ownership, decision making, and time use illuminate this approach.Success in collaborative research requires long-term funding and strong leadership.