Globally women comprise over 37 percent of the world’s rural agricultural employment, a ratio that rises to 48 percent for low-income countries.

The year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and represents an unprecedented opportunity to mobilize global action to achieve gender equality and rights of all women and girls.

Below is a selection of FAO publications that sustain the momentum and foster gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. For more FAO titles on gender equality and rural women’s empowerment, have a look at the Publications catalogue.

Empowering rural women, powering agriculture: FAO's work on gender
This brochure provides examples of FAO’s work towards gender equality and rural women empowerment, and shows that enabling rural women to have the same access as men to resources, services and opportunities, translates into economic and social gains for families, communities and nations at large.
Dimitra newsletter – Issue No. 30: Success stories
This newsletter features a variety of success stories in the areas of food security and nutrition, social cohesion and peace, climate change adaptation, rural organizations, access to information and sharing of knowledge, and the voice of the youth in the countries listed.
Good practices for integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment in Climate-Smart Agriculture programmes
This paper provides concrete examples of the successful integration of gender responsive programming in climate smart interventions in agriculture, which include the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme, and the Global Water Initiative.
Women’s access to rural finance: challenges and opportunities
This paper gives an overview of the challenges and opportunities linked to the promotion of women’s access to finance in rural contexts, while also presenting a number of good practices and strategies that can improve women’s access to financial services.

Further reading

Building connections Information and communication technologies for gender equality and rural development
Sex-disaggregated data in agriculture and sustainable resource management. New approaches for data collection and analysis
Leaving No One Behind: Empowering Africa’s rural women for Zero Hunger and shared prosperity
Country gender assessment series

Additional sources

Gender website