World

The critical role of rural women

Lifeblood

Gathering water is an essential task for many rural women. These women in Lat village, India are bringing water that will be used for a variety of activities throughout the day, from farming to cooking and cleaning. The women will also do most of these tasks themselves.

The critical role of rural women

Carrying the load

In the the small African nation of Burundi, women do most of the agricultural work. The women shown here are preparing to plant cassava outside the capital, Bujumbura.While many products from Burundi, such as coffee, are exported to industrialized nations such as Germany, the average Burundian earns just 460 euros ($600) per year. Women often earn much less.

The critical role of rural women

Household responsibilities

Using water from a nearby lake, these women in Ethiopia do laundry by hand. But drought can make the task that much harder. Ethiopia and other East African countries such as Somalia are currently dealing with the worst drought in 60 years.

The critical role of rural women

Similar roles

Like their African and Asian counterparts, women in some South American societies are often expected to do the majority of agricultural work. Here on Lake Titicaca on the border between Peru and Bolivia, that may include such tasks as fishing.

The critical role of rural women

More work, less education

Worldwide, women's literacy lags behind men's. In places like here in India, less than half of adult women can read and write, according to the CIA World Factbook. In many traditional communities, women manage the home in addition to performing farmwork and other manual labor. This creates a situation that leaves them little time for education.

The critical role of rural women

Healthcare challenges

In Robine, Haiti, a nun from the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, hangs a serum bag on a tree for patients suffering cholera symptoms. The geographic isolation, poverty and busy lives of many rural women mean access to adequate healthcare remains a challenge in many parts of the world.

The critical role of rural women

Difficult choices

In war-ravaged and drought-stricken Somalia, women tasked with raising children sometimes have to make an agonizing choice: feed the kids or feed themselves. A 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation survey ranked Somalia as the fifth-most dangerous place in the world for women. Afghanistan was number one.

The critical role of rural women

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva has done much to raise awareness about the issue of women and the environment, discussing it at the First World Conference on Women in 1975. Today, Shiva is an advocate for a more sustainable approach to agriculture she believes can be achieved by focusing more on engaging women. She also advocates fighting against the "patriarchal logic of exclusion" present in many societies.

The critical role of rural women

Worldwide help

Here in Turpan, China, a woman from the Uyghur ethnic minority picks grapes at a vineyard as part of the International Grape Festival. The festival aims to boost the economy in the predominantly Islamic region in less densely populated Western China. Economic assistance can help some rural women rise out of poverty.

The critical role of rural women

War-torn Syria

Working on a farm near Arnaa, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Damascus, these Syrian women seem unaffected by the civil war that has been raging in the country since March 2011. The human rights group Women Under Siege has documented hundreds of cases of rape and sexual assault in the conflict. About 80 percent of the victims have been women and girls.

The critical role of rural women

Fighting for rights

These women in Brasilia, Brazil are organizing for the "March of the Daisies," an annual mobilization to demand sustainable development linked with justice, autonomy, equality and freedom. In 2010, the UN ranked Brazil 73rd out of 169 nations based on the Gender Inequality Index, which measures women's disadvantages in the areas of reproductive rights, empowerment and labor force participation.

Author: Benjamin Mack | Editor : Louisa Schaefer