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MODULE 7: PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS IN OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SECTION 6: GENDER ISSUES IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY - Gender Practices and the Agricultural Sector |
Agriculture is the primary source of employment for women in most developing countries where women produce 60 - 80 % of food 2. Women have the additional responsibility for child bearing, child-care, care of the elderly and the ill as well as unpaid household duties. This "invisible" work of women remains an unrecognised contribution to the formal agricultural sector as well as to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of countries 3. In spite of this important role, far less is known about women’s occupational health and safety (OHS) in agriculture than about men's. The numerous hazards of agricultural work affect women and men, but patriarchal societal norms as well as economic and political discrimination prescribe the nature of women’s work in agriculture and therefore influence the specific hazards they are exposed to.
Health services and medical surveillance tend to be poor in rural agricultural areas and occupational health services in many less industrialised countries are poorly developed. Medical surveillance systems are generally not gender sensitive and this applies to agriculture too. Adverse health outcome, following hazardous exposure, is often missed, especially for women. The training of health service providers, with particular reference to nurses and doctors, is often inadequate with regards to the recognition of occupational exposures and occupational diseases. In the agricultural sector women are generally poorly represented in occupational health and safety (OHS) and trade union structures and opportunities for OHS education and training are therefore limited. The burden of ill-health related to pesticide and other hazardous exposures is therefore seldom accurately documented and opportunities for preventive interventions are not explored.
The economies of many developing countries are heavily dependent on agricultural products. Flowers, fruit and wine for export to developed countries have become an important part of export earnings. In the cut flower industry more than 70% of workers are women. Globalisation and market forces such as structural adjustment reforms and liberalisation of trade policies have resulted in more intense forms of agricultural production in many poorer countries. One of the consequences of this intensification of the production process is the increased use of hazardous agricultural chemicals in developing countries, at a time when developed countries are putting programmes in place to reduce the use of pesticides. There has been much international discussion, before, during and after the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg 2002, about the negative impact that agricultural subsidies in developed countries have on sustainable agriculture and poverty eradication in developing countries. 4, 5
By the end of 1999 more than 12 million women and 10 million men were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa 6. HIV/AIDS has affected the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa in several important ways. The quality and quantity of labour has been reduced because of ill-health of household members who normally engage in work in agriculture. Infection rates tend to be higher among women, who are responsible for 70% of the agricultural labour force and 80% of food production in sub-Saharan Africa. The women who have historically been responsible for household food security and family survival are often not in a position to fulfil these roles. Available productive labour has to be devoted, in part, to caring for household and community members who are sick, for the aged or infant family members of those who have died. HIV/AIDS also affects the availability of cash income as money is used to buy medication, for funeral services and also because widows lose access to land, labour, credit and support services 7. Hazardous organophosphate pesticides are implicated in the suppression of the immune system, increasing vulnerability to the AIDS virus, and their elimination forms part of the report of the Expert Group Meeting in Windhoek in November 2000 8.
Women and men in agricultural work suffer from more or less the same occupational diseases as a result of agricultural workplace exposures. However, as indicated in Table 2, for a number of reasons, including patriarchal societal norms women are more vulnerable to adverse health outcome.
Problem | Gender aspects relating to health outcome |
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Unrecognised and poorly remunerated labour | Results in poverty and often exclusion from the occupational health care system. In Africa, women account for more than 60% of the agricultural labour force and contribute up to 80% of total food production, yet receive less than 10% of the credit available to small farmers 9. In Venezuela statistics on farm labour exclude many women who are seen as family helpers or temporary workers 10. A Canadian study of the effects of agricultural exposures was forced to eliminate women since only the husband of a farm family was identified as a farmer in most provincial records. 11 |
Unequal ownership of land and land rights | More women are affected by unequal land rights and more men have ownership of land. Thus, women are poorer and may have less control over their agricultural work and therefore less ability to protect their health. |
Sexual violence | More women are affected. Seasonal and temporary workers (mostly women) are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and therefore to diseases such as HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. |
Woman-headed households | Lack of employment, rural underdevelopment and war result in seasonal or permanent emigration of mostly men from rural areas. In some parts of Africa, up to 60% of households are headed by women. The absence of men increases the agricultural workload of women, especially in subsistence farming areas with resultant increase in OHS problems. |
HIV | Women have to take care of HIV-affected family members (including the sick but also orphaned relatives) thus adding to their total workload. |
Pension and insurance benefits | Women have lower pensions and fewer health insurance benefits than men. 12 |
Literacy levels | In most developing countries women have lower literacy levels than men. In Ghana in 1995 adult illiteracy rates were 47% for women and 24 percent for men. Hazard communication for pesticides 13 is generally poor and low levels of literacy compound the problem by increasing the risk of exposure as workers cannot read the OHS and first-aid information on labels. |
Agriculture extension services | Only 5 per cent of extension services have been addressed to women, and only 15 per cent of the world’s extension agents are women. Women therefore have limited participation and influence in decisions concerning agricultural practice. |
Use of health care facilities | Because of family and household responsibilities, women do not use health care facilities as often as they need to 14 with resultant loss of opportunities for early intervention in preventable occupational health problems. |
Iron deficiency anaemia | Globally, 43% of all women and 51% of pregnant women suffer from iron-deficiency anaemia 15. This results in chronic tiredness, weakness and poor quality of life and potentiates the adverse health effects of the heavy manual labour and other occupational agricultural exposures. |
Occupational health and safety training | Women are less likely to have time for OHS training due to family responsibilities. Child care facilities are rarely provided to alleviate this problem. |
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) | Because of the perception that women do not do risk work in agriculture, or because their work is not perceived as regular work, PPE is often not made available to them.16 Also, equipment designed for men may not fit the average woman and thus may convey a false sense of security. |
Role in trade union structures | Fewer women than men are actively involved in trade union structures in agriculture 17, which can result in less attention to their problems. |
Lack of toilet facilities in orchards | More women affected with resultant urinary tract infections and other complications. 18 |
War | Women and their children and not soldiers are considered to be the primary victims of today’s wars. 19 War has a profound effect on the ability to engage in agricultural work and also on the availability of land that is safe for agricultural use and for livestock. |
Research in occupational health and safety | Generally limited funding available for OHS research for women and men. Women are studied less frequently by OHS researchers 20, 21, and methods of study are not well adapted to their problems. 12 |