Population differences (density, land scarcity)

• Density–land intensive vs land extensive (shortening fallow periods)-not all people in rural areas have access to land . . . this includes the men. Keep in mind, there are wealth differences between men and women, among women, and among men (wealth usually accumulates at the household level, but as we’ve read wealth differences within households are important, too). Land intensive practices generally occur where land is scarce (more likely in Asia), and farmers have to go back to the same land to farm it more often–sometimes annually. Then they have the problem of restoring soil fertility, rather than letting nature and fallowing of the fields do it for them (which they might do given abundant land, and which we most often find in Africa).
• Increased off-season work–With greater intensification of farming comes more obligations to do off-season work (maintaining irrigation ditches, manuring fields, etc.). Women generally have time poverty limits, because so much of their work gets done regardless of the time of year, and is done with low, labor-intensive technology. Thus extra work in the dry season is likely to be performed more by men, and the proportion of work for the farming system shift toward the men.
• Increased labor–When a household invests more labor into a specific parcel of land, rather than clearing whatever looks good, farming it, leaving it in fallow after a few years and clearing another, they’re more likely to protect their labor investments and rights to that land. It’s less likely to be considered part of a ‘common property’ pool of land or resources. In addition, in areas where there is wage labor (higher populations, a class of landless peasants, such as is found in parts of Asia where private property exists), women perform less farm work, and their ‘reproductive role’ becomes more important.
• Individualized property rights–a shift from common property to more specific rights in land is often called ‘individualization.’ This doesn’t mean that only individuals control land, but that there are less and less people with rights to specific plots of land. This could be a household, but it’s patriarchal in general. That means that individualization is more likely to benefit men than women.
  • Boserup says that a class of landless peasants to do the agricultural work benefits women-what do you think? (think about economic independence, division of labor, economic value of women in a culture)

Technology differences

• Introduction of the plow– where there is plow cultivation, women perform less farm work
  • Colonial role (technology gap–Boserup discusses this in her chapter from week 2)
  • Seen most often with private ownership (in Asia)
• Also where landless class exists (where land is scarce-density high)
• Draft animals (animals have to be fed–this requires land, maintenance time, someone to herd or stall-feeding, etc.–animals are not a trivial part of the agricultural picture)
  • Draft animals are generally men’s job, men have first access to them (women may get them, but too late for timely planting, etc. Also, women do often own animals, but usually chickens, goats, sheep–smaller types)
• Intensification–this is actually technology–the technology of farming and restoring soil fertility and increasing yields, which means more crop per unit of land (in other words, instead of a rotation of 5 years every 25 years, they might manure a field and farm it 5 years out of every 10–on average 12.5 years every 25 years)
  • As fallow periods shrink (why would they?), labor input increases (this was mentioned above)
• Irrigation, fallowing, manuring, etc. Irrigated farming systems, while productive, are often very labor intensive. Boserup talks about three kinds of farming systems–land-exensive (where women do most work), plow cultivation (where men do most work), and high-intensity, such as irrigated, where everyone works hard (but men’s proportion of the work may increase). Asian rice paddy cultivation fits into this third category.
  • People know about these technologies, but they are often averse to adopting them until they have to, because they require so much more work. The longer the fallowing system, the more leisure time there is during the year, in general.

Cultural differences

• Polygyny and expansion of the household farm (polygyny is the gender-specific term for polygamy, which means multiple spouses — a one-to-many relationship. When it’s one man, multiple women, it’s polygamy. When it’s one woman, multiple men (not many of these, but some tribes in Nepal do it), it’s called polyandry). In Moslem societies, men are limited to four wives generally (there are exceptions). In rural areas only the wealthiest have four wives, but many men may have two wives (and some only one–this doesn’t mean they’re necessarily into monogamy–it could mean they are too poor to afford a second wife. This also creates a certain amount of ‘time poverty’ for the single wife–you should understand how).
  • Value of women’s productive labor–in the African example especially, women are valued as laborers, and one more likely finds polygyny. When men have extra income, especially if their households are labor-poor, they’re likely to invest in a wife.
  • Value of women’s reproductive role (and household labor)–in many Asian cultures, where land is scarce and hired labor available or plows used, women do less farming and their value as producers of the next generation emphasized. In male farming systems, multiple wives can be an economic burden.
  • Bridewealth versus dowry–in the former, wealth is transferred from the groom’s to the bride’s family (and to the bride). In the latter, the flow is in the opposite direction (a payment to the groom’s family to support the ‘burden’ of a new household member). They both imply that women are in a sense treated as property, and a value placed on their labor, or lack of value, as the case may be.
  • Here’s a question for you: Why isn’t there a gender imbalance in a polygynous system? Why don’t they run out of women?