Women and Control of Food Systems: How the Land Reform Sought by Food Sovereignty Movements Can Empower Women
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2017
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Haverford College. Department of Political Science
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Tri-College users only
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Abstract
Women play an integral role as producers and providers within our food systems. However, their work is often underrepresented or unacknowledged. As the effects of climate change threaten our food systems with unpredictable weather patterns, more frequent natural disasters, and varying access to water, we must find ways to protect our food. Additionally, women are disproportionately affected and threatened by climate change. Therefore, there is a dual problem of protecting our food systems and the women that play an integral role within them. By empowering women, there is the potential to not only improve gender equality but also to protect our food systems. Although empowerment changes by individual contexts, the definition remains to increase agency and decision-making power. There are several ways to do this, but one important strategy is improving access to land. Land offers a source of income, employment, and food, creating a sense of agency. Women are often underrepresented as landowners and landholders, and so there is a great deal of potential within these systems. By increasing women’s effective control over land, there is potential for empowerment. Due to the potential empowerment of women through land access, the genderegalitarian, redistributive land reform, advocated by food sovereignty, becomes an important strategy to consider. Food sovereignty is the access to nutritional, culturally appropriate food and the ability to control one’s food system. There are movements worldwide promoting these ideas. In order to achieve their goals, food sovereignty movements advocate for effective agrarian reform. By analyzing the case of Ecuador, a country that has instituted food sovereignty through their 2008 Constitution, we can see that agrarian reform, as advocated by food sovereignty, has the potential to empower women. The case of Ecuador provides an important lens through which to consider food sovereignty, demonstrating the need to incorporate a legal framework, as well as challenges with implementation. Despite difficulties, the gender-egalitarian, redistributive land reform, which food sovereignty promotes, has the potential to empower women.