Invisible actors: conditions of women work in agriculture

Cairo 15 March 2010

Zhour Bouzidi, Saker El Nour, Wided Moumen

• Introduction

• Objectives

• Choice of study zone

• Work Methodology

• Results

• Discussions

• Conclusion

Outline

How to characterize the working conditions of women labor in agriculture? To what degree this could be a factor of empowerment or insecure?

•Women's work studies refers to the access to work rather than work conditions

• Remarkable Feminization of the agricultural workforce

•"Ambiguous" Definition of labor and employment especially in the informal sector

•Forgotten Women in Development & Research

•Absent of workers syndicate

•Homogenizing vision on "Rural Women" (identity, status, projects ..)

•Few studies addressing the issue of female work in agriculture

•Confining women in income generating activities

•Importance of qualitative analysis

Introduction

• Understand of women wage working conditions in agriculture

• Bring a crossed perspective on the issue in the 3 countries of the MENA (similarities, differences, lessons ,...)

• Renew the look often made on the work of rural women

• Insert the problematic of women employed in agriculture in the current debate around gender and work in developing countries and especially in MENA

Objectives

Study zone choice

• Female agricultural wage fairly close in the

three countries

• Similar political and economic reforms

(economic adjustment policies,...)

• Similarity of socio-cultural context

• Diversity of situations in 3 context to clarify

• Interest in our PhD thesis progress

Questionnaire with a scale of

attitude : 150 interviewees

Characterize the role of work /

workers

In-depth interviews: individual

and group (women, different

actors & institutions involved,

observation, life stories)

Analyze the various circuits and

representations of all the actors

involved

Identify the role of work in the

trajectories of workers

Study the attitudes of workers /

agriculture labor and their work

perception

bib

liogra

phic

al re

searc

h a

nd r

evie

w a

rtic

les

Methodology

• West Delta area is a boom agricultural economy estimated between $300 million to half billion dollars annually, serving both domestic and export markets specially for EU and elsewher

• Moreover, the area provides about 250,000 jobs in the agriculture sector

• the high-value of agricultural exports demand more females labor with temporary labor hired system.

Presentation of study zoneWest Delta/ Egypt

• modern agriculture "capitalist“

• Strong demand for labor for crops with high value added

• 90% of labor forces are women for cultivating Strawberry

• contract for seasonal women to work in Spain

Presentation of study zoneCoastal zone of El-Gharb region in Morocco

Zone d’étude

Tunisie

•Nadhour young girls work

in industrial zone Industrial

(Fixed salary…)

•Agricultural area : tradition

•of Irrigation: adoption of

short cycle cultures

•(market productions)

•Girls come form

neighborhoods

regions work in agriculture

Second site: Region of Nadhour in Tunis

Presentation of study zone

Results

• Egypt, West El-Delta ;– (95%) of the sample are single, (5%) are divorced. The average age is

19 , average age at first experience of work is 10 years. - workers come from a large families (5-9) just one family less than 5 members and one 11 members, about the education status (80%) of the sample are Illiterates less has a primary schools and let finance there education by working on the holidays and summer vacations.

• En Morocco; Coastal area of Gharb– 57% are 29 married, 8% divorced, and 6% widowed, average age is 25,

average age at first experience of work is 15 (40% between 8 and 13 years), 92% of workers are illiterate

– 73% of them contribute between ¼ to ½ the family income / pluriactivity (2 to 5 active members) multifaceted activities of the worker

• En Tunisie; region Nadhour – 82% single, Average age of 31, 96% of the sample are Illiterates

– 35% contribute more than 50% of income, 20% there contribute is the total total income

caractéristiques

Transportati

on to the

farm

Work

duration/ day

Activities Real

salary

The

payment

circulation

Egypt,

West El-

Delta

•En group

•«El-mafariaue»

•Contractors

cars

•8+2hrs de

transport

collection,

cultivation

seedlings, carry

&transport,

•15-17LE

(by Day or

by week)

• form

Contractors

( take 40% as

commission)

Morocco,

Coastal

area of

Gharb

-By foots

- collective

transport

• moyenne 8 h

(2h de transport )

Planting, weeding,

mulching plastic,

picking, packing

list

•45-50 MAD

(by 15

days)

•The workers

directly

Tunisie;

region

Nadhour

•En group

•foots, public

transport

•Farm owner

camion

•9 à 10 h irrigation, tilling,

fertilizing,

harvesting

• 5DT

( multi)

•The workers

directly

( member of

her family)

ResultsConditions générales du travail

General precarious in the three context

• Egypt ; West El-Delta– The minibus with a capacity of 12 people, carrying 25 workers. The

contractor responsible for payment of workers takes 40% of net earnings attributed to the workers who is about 25 Egyptian pound (3.50 euro). 55% of women insist on the hard work of farm work. 80% of them were

facing health problems

"I feel suffocated in this bus, I can barely breathe, we're tight like a box of sardines. The vehicle is still slightly better than the minivan ... (Female worker, 19 years)

– The relationship between the contractor and the workers is often marked by physical violence and moral

• En Morocco; Coastal area of Gharb- The remuneration is considered low by 75% of workers, (69%)

saw the activities painful and may present health risks

- 19% of workers complain about the authoritarian and sometimes humiliating and aggressive labor chef (especially if he is a man)

Results

•En Tunisie; region Nadhour•The workload is in addition to homework

"... It is rare to see women sitting doing nothing, when we gather to chat and whenever we have a free moment, we weave. Besides, blankets and carpets are a real value of savings, because whenever he needed cash, the head of the family can go and sell the weekly market and deposit the amount he weaves these relate ... "

•38% had experienced a health problem because of farm work, (15%) had

harassment by the farm owner, and also 12% of women suffer from

domestic violence following the late return of work

•In the three context the total absence of social rights (insurance, retirement ,...) at farm level

farm. Also, none of the workers indicated her participation in a NGOs or local

association or union labor

General precarious in the three context

Results

empowerment through Work

• In the West El-Delta - The increase of wages, it was 5LE, in 1995 it increased to 10The 2000 he became 20The and now it is 25LE. - Work in farms has changed the traditional organization of work, lets take a village setting, finance their studies and their marriage "... During the summer, I recruit girls, even university students wishing to finance their studies. ... It was never ashamed to work on farms ...” (Contractor).

• In the coastal area of Gharb-Morocco – The financial autonomy, and self esteem are all factors linked to the

empowerment of women work seasonally in agriculture (12% use there income to prepare for marriage, purchase clothing and jewelry, etc.)

– use of a workforce is specifically female and access to “contracts origins” to work in Spain

– Possibility to be worker chef self esteem and recognition of women's knowledge

"I worked for a period at the factory, it allowed me to save 10,000 dirhams which I intend to use it to buy jewelry and furniture for my wedding next summer"

"The boys can not work in the cultivation of strawberries, it is the women who perfectly conduct technical from planting to harvesting and packaging"

Results

Gharb-Morocco

Transformation of gender relations;

"My husband forbade me to work in agriculture even though

we were poor, I went twice to work in secret, the manager

observed my intelligence and my ability to quickly calculate

the number strawberries of boxes and trays, so he appointed

me as workers chef. since When I told the story to my

husband he was proud of me, I owned his respect and he

authorized me to work "

The desire for mobility is accompanied by a hope of a life and a better

future ... ;

"I always wanted to travel, go to Europe, I am now

divorced with two children, I want be selected this one for

the “original contract” to out from my daily suffering in side

the family, in the village and to care about my children "

empowerment through Work

Results

In the region Nadhour in Tunisia:

•the women work to increased the household income or to for her

self needs, to be able to provide that the household income head

does not.

"... I do not earn much, but I am pleased this work allows

me to help my husband needs to provide for my

children. ... I feel that im useful and independent ..."

•They spend her salaries for the house needs, her children (health,

school supplies, food, clothing, marriage) and they spend relatively

less for herself (buying jewelry)

• 92% of women interviewees indicated that they are meet and

change together there problems and live experiences

•Because of competition between agriculture and the industrial

labor force, workers intervene in the selection of the farms and

keep a positive position vis-à-vis the farm owner.

empowerment through Work

Results

• The study confirm the variability of profiles, status, projects and aspirations related to the exercise of this activity (marital status, age, trajectories of forces ...) contradicts the light homogenizing

In one side, the different contexts the precarious takes a variety forms

• West Delta: Work Organization represent the main precarious factor, the social acceptance and precarious dodition of work and transport conditions

• Morocco Gharb: social legitimating and prioritization of work and low salary

• Nadhour Tunisia: salary indirect, patriarchal relations, and unequal man / woman salaries

In other side the empowerment take also different forms;

• self-esteem, access to schooling, marriage preparation, mobility indicators of empowerment at the individual challenges of victimization vision of working

Discussion

• The concentration of the empowerment on the individual press on ask about the ability of women to transform their situations and lead to profound transformation for agricultural work and rural situation in rural zone in general.

• Empowerment may hide a substantive precarious, like the case of the “original contract” for Spain in El-Garb; worker faces difficult working conditions, closed on the farms, with forces control of there movements.

• The work presents – In west El- Delta; Periodical stage (passage work, as only the singles

and n)

– In Coastal area of Gharb; women Continuity working even after the marriage (social acceptance, contracts of origin)

– In region Nadhour; the marital status of women does not question his right to work is much more linked to the family socio-economic.

Discussion

• Empowerment of workers is limited to adaptations with a precarious situation as a whole. These invisible actors be always forgotten by the research and development they try any legislation or social security

• women Self-empowerment; This self-empowerment initiative faced by two types of Counter-empowerment,

– the traditional power; local contexts;

– neo-liberal exploitation system in agriculture; work condition

• enforce self-empowerment; institution empowerment, and community empowerment

• precarious empowerment; women work in agriculture on the context of our region make her on this situation.

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention