Women farmers in Central America: myths, roles, reality.

PIP: In Central America, women's productive roles are negated by the widely held belief that women do not work in agriculture or do so only temporarily for reasons of poverty. Working as unpaid laborers, working seasonally in cash crops, and engaging in informal sector activities off the farm, women are not seen as agricultural producers or full-time wage laborers. That notion is enhanced by rural women, who tend not to describe themselves as producers. Women farmers are therefore invisible and deprived of social and legal recognition and protection. Recent studies, however, have found that women throughout Central America have played a long-standing role in agriculture as permanent, not temporary, workers. Official statistics indicate that almost 20% of rural households are headed by women who are fully responsible for agricultural production. Indeed, there are villages in Central America inhabited solely or mainly by widows and single women and their children. Despite the growing body of evidence on women's true productive role in Central American societies, their agricultural roles still remain largely invisible in government census and labor statistics. The author discusses barriers to opportunity and supporting women farmers in Central America.^ieng