Making Egyptian women’s agricultural labor visible and improving their access to productive assets

Abstract

In rural Egypt, social norms frame women as “helpers” to their families and husbands instead of as workers in their own right. Women are assumed not to contribute to agriculture or participate in irrigation. However, a series of recent studies by ICARDA have told a very different story. Women play key roles in agricultural production and food security in rural Egypt, even as their contributions are undervalued and they face difficulties earning decent wages and accumulating assets.