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Changing gender roles in agriculture?: Evidence from 20 years of data in Ghana

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  • Lambrecht, Isabel
  • Schuster, Monica
  • Asare, Sarah
  • Pelleriaux, Laura

Abstract

At a time when donors and governments are increasing efforts to mainstream gender in agriculture, it is critical to revisit long-standing wisdom about gender inequalities in agriculture to be able to more efficiently design and evaluate policy interventions. Many stylized facts about women in agriculture have been repeated for decades. Did nothing really change? Is some of this conventional wisdom simply maintained over time, or has it always been inaccurate? We use longitudinal data from Ghana to assess some of the facts and to evaluate whether gender patterns have changed over time. We focus on five main themes: land, cropping patterns, market participation, agricultural inputs, and employment. We add to the literature by showing new facts and evidence from more than 20 years. Results are varied and highlight the difficulty of making general statements about gender in agriculture.

Suggested Citation

  • Lambrecht, Isabel & Schuster, Monica & Asare, Sarah & Pelleriaux, Laura, 2017. "Changing gender roles in agriculture?: Evidence from 20 years of data in Ghana," IFPRI discussion papers 1623, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1623
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    4. Janssens, Charlotte & Van den Broeck, Goedele & Maertens, Miet & Lambrecht, Isabel, 2018. "Mothers’ non-farm entrepreneurship and child secondary education in rural Ghana:," IFPRI discussion papers 1705, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Ölkers, Tim & Liu, Shuang & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2023. "A typology of Malian farmers and their credit repayment performance - An unsupervised machine learning approach," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334547, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
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    7. Hongyun Zheng & Yuwen Zhou & Dil Bahadur Rahut, 2023. "Smartphone use, off‐farm employment, and women's decision‐making power: Evidence from rural China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1327-1353, August.
    8. Janssens, C. & Van Den Broeck, G. & Maertens, M. & Lambrecht, I., 2018. "Mother s Non-Farm Entrepreneurship and Child Secondary Education in Rural Ghana," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277038, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. E. Duncan & L. Ashton & A. R. Abdulai & T. Sawadogo-Lewis & S. E. King & E. D. G. Fraser & S. Vosti & J. Haines & F. Knight & T. Roberton, 2022. "Connecting the food and agriculture sector to nutrition interventions for improved health outcomes," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 657-675, June.
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    11. Kathleen Ragsdale & Mary R. Read-Wahidi & Qian M. Zhou & Kerry Clark & Mawuli A. K. Asigbee & Courtney Tamimie & Peter Goldsmith, 2022. "Low-cost soybean input bundles impact women farmers’ subsistence livelihood traps: evidence from Ghana," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 1045-1062, August.
    12. Selorm Kobla Kugbega & Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, 2023. "Gendered dynamics of state‐led smallholder commercialisation in Ghana. The case of Nkoranza traditional area," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 716-737, July.
    13. Yokying, Phanwin & Lambrecht, Isabel, 2020. "Landownership and the gender gap in agriculture: Insights from northern Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

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