ABSTRACT
The United Nations has estimated that women grow half of the food of the world but own less than one-hundredth of its land. In Africa, women perform almost 80 percent of agricultural work, and in both Asia and Africa almost all employed women work in agriculture. In the poorest countries, where they grow, harvest, process, and prepare virtually all the food consumed by their families, their work is seen largely in terms of subsistence and is essentially unpaid. Although a surplus may produce items for exchange or some cash, subsistence agricultural labor is not considered income-generating in the same sense as when women are employed for wages. More important, women in subsistence agriculture are unlikely to be counted as members of the labor force, which not only undervalues their vita! role in family and community survival but also distorts the economic reality of the country as a whole.
