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International Women’s Day 101: Empowering Rural Women to Climb out of the Poverty Cycle

This Thursday, March 8^th, marked the 101st International Women’s Day. There are almost as many celebratory themes for the day as there are countries and women’s organizations. Many of the Oxfam Canada branches, in keeping with Oxfam’s GROW campaign, have opted to create International Women’ Day celebrations around the theme of women, food, and the planet.

As I’ve explained in other posts, the GROW campaign draws attention to the fact that our global food system is broken and women—especially poor, rural women who grow much of the food for the world—are most affected by the injustices and power imbalances that have contributed to our dysfunctional global food system. Yet, if we righted the injustices and corrected the imbalances to create a level playing field, the large numbers of women agricultural workers in the developing world could not only lift themselves out of poverty[1] , they could produce enough food to prevent up to 150 million people from going hungry[2].

Breaking Down the Barriers to Empowering Rural Women

This year, the United Nations’ International Women’s Day theme focuses on empowering rural women to end poverty and hunger. Rural women and girls account for 25% of the global population[3] and almost 70% of the agricultural labour force in some parts of the developing world (e.g., South Asia). In addition to their (under)paid work in the fields, rural women and girls also carry the burden for doing the unpaid chores related to caring for family members; they often spend 16 – 18 hour days on both types of work.

Rural women are probably the hardest working group of people in the world. Through their paid and unpaid labour, they make significant contributions to their families and communities as well as to their local and national economies. According to Michelle Bachelet, the Executive Director of UN Women, rural women are key agents of change in the fight to eradicate hunger and poverty and it is crucial that their contributions and voices be heard in decision making processes at all levels of governance.[4]

I completely agree with Bachelet: rural women’s voices should be heard by decision makers at all levels—especially if those decisions have significant consequences for women’s lives. Yet I wonder if, in developing countries, rural women’s lack of education[5]–along with a number of other barriers that contribute to or perpetuate their lack of economic and social power as individuals—leaves them vulnerable to the policy agendas of others. At best, rural women and girls have occasionally been the recipients of poorly planned or haphazardly delivered development programs[6] that failed to consider their priorities, unique needs, or restrictions placed on them by traditional cultural beliefs or practices. At worst, rural women’s contributions have been overlooked and their rights ignored or denied by both local and international hierarchical structures.

We know that education and skills development (along with access to micro credit and other resources) for girls and women is the key to improving rural productivity, employability and income opportunities for women[7]. Yet, training programs that are not tailored to rural women’s priorities and needs add to rather than remove the barriers to getting the skills and resources that will enhance their employability. Likewise, if programs for women and girls are not accompanied by village-wide education or consciousness raising campaigns around the value of educating and training women, there will be little, if any, acceptance for the programs from either the men or women.

There is no doubt that multiple barriers (e.g., limited or no access to resources, lower educational levels, unquestioned norms about “appropriate” work for women) keep rural women trapped in a cycle of low status, low paying work—and the economic scarcity that goes along with it. This cycle is often inadvertently perpetuated by development programs that focus on providing vocational training in traditional (and lower paying) women-dominated fields, rather than identifying and creating training opportunities in non-traditional fields that would support rural women in securing better paying, more secure work[8].

Forward thinking social enterprises and NGOs might conceivably collaborate to design non-traditional job training programs with an educational component (e.g., basic literacy skills) that lead to decent paying jobs and increased independence for rural women with a limited formal education. Quite by chance, I recently learned of a social enterprise (It is comprised of both a business and an NGO) started by three Nepali sisters that offers exactly this kind of program for rural, underprivileged Nepali women. These three siblings chose to push the boundaries of a highly traditional society when they started training uneducated, under-privileged rural Nepali women as Trekking guides and assistants.

Empowering Women in Nepal: Breaking with tradition is an uphill climb—literally

When we think of Nepal, we most likely visualize snow-capped Himalayan peaks towering above valleys and glacier-fed lakes and rivers, peaceful Hindu and Buddhist temples in secluded forests, and of course the male trekking and climbing guides who accompany mountain climbers obsessed with “conquering” the soaring peaks of Annapurna and other peaks in the Nepalese Himalayan range.

Most of us probably haven’t stopped to consider why we don’t see any women in this picture, let alone ponder the status of Nepali women or their quality of life in a mostly rural, highly traditional and patriarchal society. But the three Chhetri sisters knew only too well that most Nepali women, especially in rural locations, work long hours in fields and in their homes for no pay, lead highly restricted social lives (they are expected to stay within the home), receive no or minimal education, and have no sense of their own value or worth as persons. (If I’ve piqued your curiosity, you can read more about women in Nepali society, here.)

In response to hearing stories about female trekkers who’d had bad experiences with their male guides, the sisters saw a need to provide female guides for women trekkers and a means of making a positive difference in the lives of under-privileged Nepali women. The Chhetri sisters started their trekking company in 1994, and started training other women in 1996. In 1999, they founded a non-government organization Empowering Women of Nepal to handle the training program for women trekking guides and take on a number of other charitable projects. The sisters hire the trainees, fully trained, and apprentice guides through their socially responsible adventure tourism company, 3 Sisters Adventures. The trainees and apprentices are paid the same rates as a male guide would be paid and the women are also provided with English language training. The guides are also trained in ecotourism and environmentally sustainable strategies for trekking (e.g., waste disposal, etc).

So how has a “radical” (by traditional Nepali standards) program that trains women to do non-traditional work fared since it started in the mid 1990s? It would appear that while it has been a struggle, the three sisters seem to have succeeded in their vision and mission to both empower Nepali women and provide a valuable service for women trekkers who feel more comfortable with having a woman guide. The Chhetri sisters have gone from training less than 25 women per year in 1999, to 72 women per year in 2010. Furthermore, a feature article about the trekking company in a women’s adventure travel magazine highlights the fact that not only have their women guides made a positive difference in their own lives, they have also made a difference in the quality of life to their families and communities. Their company was also included as a case study in a 2010 UN report, Global Report on Women in Tourism.

Empowering Women through Socially Responsible Travel and Business

I found out about the 3 Sisters Adventures trekking company through a fellow member of a LinkedIn discussion group on international women’s rights. Joe Staiano, a travel consultant who specializes in organizing socially responsible tours, had posted a note describing how he organizes socially responsible, meaningful trips that focus on important global development and social justice issues such as women’s issues, youth issues, eradicating poverty, or environmental sustainability. He had specifically mentioned the 3 Sisters Adventures company in Nepal both as an example of the kind of socially responsible tourism operation that he partners with for his tours, and as an example of how a socially responsible tourism business can serve as a social change agent. I was equally intrigued by the concept of meaningful, socially responsible travel and what inspired Joe to get involved with this kind of travel consulting, so I contacted him and mentioned that I’d like to include him in my upcoming book, Small Business, Big Change: A Micro-entrepreneur’s Guide to Social Responsibility.

Joe willingly agreed to an interview and enthusiastically shared why he’s inspired to merge global issues with meaningful travel. What inspires and motivates him to specialize in organizing meaningful travel tours (mostly for US citizens) is a keen desire to not just introduce people to new cultures but also raise their awareness of social issues and keep them engaged and motivated to be social activists once they return home. For his part, when he isn’t travelling, he volunteers his time with various community organizations, follows various social justice discussion groups, and has recently started a meaningful travel meetup group to get individuals talking about social issues and sustainable tourism.

Through partnering with local businesses who in turn partner with NGOs and Foundations, Joe has been able to organize educational and experiential activities that address important social issues related to empowering women or alleviating poverty. From the business side of the equation, he has a clear policy about selecting local partners (in the destination country) who meet specific standards around environmental, socio-economic and hiring practices (e.g., number of women or other economically disadvantaged groups hired by the organization). For Joe, ensuring that his meaningful travel business is aligned with socially responsible business practices is part of who he is as a person and an entrepreneur.

Business owners can make a difference to women’s economic participation in a number of ways. They can implement socially responsible initiatives related to working conditions and wages for goods produced overseas; find ways to work with local and overseas NGOs that provide vocational training for women; volunteer time or provide in-kind donations to local women’s groups; serve as mentors for women entrepreneurs; include small, women owned businesses as suppliers and vendors in the value(s) chain; and/or partner with employment training programs to give  disadvantaged women a much needed opportunity to gain work experience and confidence.

What Else Can We Do to Make a Difference?

If we want to empower women in developing countries to break out of the poverty trap, we can:

• Choose not to buy clothes and accessories manufactured in sweat shops or sites that do not provide safe, fair working conditions and instead support clothing manufacturers that value women’s labour and/or provide training for disadvantaged women.
• Keep in mind that rural women in developing countries do most of the agriculture work and support those women by opting for organic and fair trade food items whenever possible
• Make socially responsible choices about how and where we travel, and support local women’s businesses at our destination. (You can also contact Joe through his website if you have specific questions about locating socially responsible accommodations, tours, etc.)
• Advocate for policy or legislative changes that would level the playing field for rural women in developing countries who are impacted by unfair trade agreements or land grabs. (Write to your MP or Congress person.)
• Join an organization like Oxfam and actively help raise awareness about the connections between gender inequality, poverty, and hunger.

It’s your turn. What would you add to this list of actions? Do you know of any women owned businesses or socially responsible businesses that make a positive difference in women’s lives? What inspires you about the organization? How could you transform the inspiration into action?

Susan Chambers

March 8, 2012

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[1]Women comprise 70% of the world’s poor. http://www.oxfam.ca/what-we-do/womens-equality

[2] Sixty percent of the world’s hungry people are women and girls. (source: Oxfam Canada, GROW campaign website, accessed March 7, 2011

[3] Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, International Women’s Day 2012 Message, accessed March 7, 2012.

[4] Commission on the Status of Women, 2012. http://www.unwomen.org/how-we-work/csw/csw-56/. Accessed March 7, 2012.

[5] Globally, the rate of secondary school attendance by rural girls is 39%, compared to 45% for rural boys and 59% for urban girls. Literacy rates range from a low of 22% among rural women in Burkina Faso to a high of 52% in rural Cambodia. Cited in FAO-ILO’s Gender and Policy Brief #2: Investing in skills for socio-economic development of rural women (2010, p. 1) http://www.fao-ilo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/fao_ilo/pdf/02EducationAndSkills_WEB.pdf, accessed March 6, 2012.

[6]Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, International Women’s Day 2012 Message, accessed March 7, 2012.

[7] FAO-ILO’s Gender and Policy Brief #2: Investing in skills for socio-economic development of rural women (2010, p. 1.), http://www.fao-ilo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/fao_ilo/pdf/02EducationAndSkills_WEB.pdf, Accessed March 6, 2012.

[8]Ibid, p.2.

March 9, 2012 · Susan · 3 Comments
Posted in: Social Justice

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