Women make up more than a third of the workforce in agri-food systems across Latin America and the Caribbean, yet they continue to face systemic barriers that limit their access to resources, decision-making, and economic opportunity, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The regional report, The Situation of Women in Agri-Food Systems: A Regional Approach for Latin America and the Caribbean, offers an in-depth analysis of women’s roles and participation in the region’s rural economies. Building on FAO’s 2023 global findings, the latest edition focuses on gender disparities within rural, indigenous, youth, and Afro-descendant populations across Latin America and the Caribbean, while also highlighting policy opportunities to advance equity.
The findings reveal that women comprise 36 percent of the agri-food systems workforce in the region. However, a significant share—71 percent—are employed outside traditional agricultural roles, in sectors such as food processing, marketing, and retail. While women represent the majority in food manufacturing (55 percent) and commerce (52 percent), they remain underrepresented in higher-paying areas like transportation, where their participation drops to just 9 percent.
The report underscores the structural inequalities shaping the lives of rural women. These include limited access to land, water, livestock, credit, training, and agricultural technologies. As of 2022, the gender gap in food insecurity in the region reached 9.1 percentage points, with more women than men experiencing moderate or severe hunger—an imbalance exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maya Takagi, FAO’s Regional Program Leader for Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasized the need for transformative approaches in public policy. “The evidence we are sharing today must serve as a catalyst for decision-making,” she said during the report’s release. “Policies must acknowledge the multifaceted roles of rural women—not only in food production and sales, but also in caregiving—and ensure their equal access to services, resources, and leadership opportunities.”
Despite some gains in workforce participation—Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region where women’s engagement in agricultural activities has increased over the past two decades—this shift has not resulted in greater access to productive assets or influence over institutional decisions. Women are also less likely than men to hold full-time positions, suggesting greater vulnerability to irregular and temporary employment.
The report also notes that while 26 percent of agricultural policies reviewed include gender equality as an explicit goal, fewer than 15 percent address deep-rooted social biases, the impacts of climate change, or the importance of resilience. On a more promising note, the region has shown strong progress in incorporating gender considerations into its climate action plans, with the highest levels of gender integration observed in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) globally.
Key recommendations in the FAO report include implementing legal reforms to secure joint land ownership, expanding access to training, credit, and agricultural technologies, and developing programs that adopt a transformative gender lens. It also calls for greater support for collective organizing, which the report identifies as a powerful mechanism for improving women’s bargaining power and resilience in the face of economic and environmental shocks.
FAO officials stress that without meaningful, inclusive reforms, gender disparities in the region’s agri-food systems will continue to undermine broader goals related to food security, sustainable development, and rural prosperity.
