Problems of rural women are discussed in New York

This year, the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York on March 12-23,  led by the International Women’s Day under the slogan “The time has come: rural and urban activists transform women’s lives “, focused on the rights and activeness of women in rural areas.

Rural women constitute a quarter of the world’s population and 43% of global labor force. Although they are mainly providing food security for their communities, however, women in rural areas are in a much worse situation than women in rural areas or urban women due to gender inequality and discrimination. They do not have access to infrastructures and services, they are more vulnerable to social protection from the impact of climate change. In the world, less than 20 percent of landowners are women, and if the average wage difference between men and women is 23 percent, in rural areas it can be over 40 percent.

The 62nd session of the UN Committee on the Status of Women addresses the issues of rural women in the context of Sustainable Development Goals, guided by the requirement not to give up the promise of not leaving behind. It requires urgent action from rural activists and states to increase the standard of living of women in the village to ensure their survival, access to resources and production assets, food security and nutrition, decent work, education and health, social and legal protection.

Agriculture is the largest employment sector in Armenia, where around 34% of employed people are employed in it. 52% of them are women, which makes women the most important part of the development of agriculture. In the structure of men’s employment, 31% are in agriculture and 37% in the structure of women’s employment. In fact, most of the agricultural products are created by women and they are the main guarantors of food supply and the survival of households in rural areas. At the same time, women’s employment in the agricultural sector is largely informal, which gives grounds for characterizing women as the lowest paid and socially unprotected segment of the labor market. According to the Agricultural Census, 25% of rural households are headed by women. Households headed by women are most vulnerable due to the lack of agricultural equipment, difficult access to land plots, irrigation opportunities and financial resources.

Full text in Armenian