ABSTRACT
Figure 5.1 depicts two chickpea fields just past the optimum moment of harvest. The field on the left is owned and managed by a man, who was able to plant his crops in a timely fashion and to mobilise enough labour to ensure that the fields were weeded and harvested well, while the one on the right belongs to a woman whose other responsibilities meant that she planted late, after the rains had already fallen, and who was not able to call on the labour
of neighbours and relatives to plough, plant, or cultivate the crop in a timely fashion. These juxtaposed fields tell a story of gendered discrepancies and of women’s disempowerment relative to men.
