Agrifood systems are a major employer of women globally and constitute a more important source of livelihood for women than for men in many countries. Empowering women and closing gender gaps in agrifood systems thus enhances the well-being of women and their households, reducing hunger, boosting incomes and strengthening resilience.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the status of women in agrifood systems. It analyses the multiple sources of inequality that constrain their participation, well-being and empowerment; describes policies and approaches that have supported gender equality and women’s empowerment; and details how women’s equal participation in agrifood systems can transform individual and global outcomes.

Despite the importance of agrifood systems for women’s livelihoods and the welfare of their families, women’s roles tend to be marginalized and their working conditions are likely to be worse than men’s – irregular, informal, part-time, low-skilled, labourintensive and thus vulnerable. Women also have higher burdens of unpaid care, limiting their opportunities for education and employment. This is true both for women working in primary agricultural production, with wages and productivity systematically lower than those of men, and for women working in off-farm segments of agrifood systems, where their work is mostly in lowervalue nodes. Women may not be systematically excluded from high-value, export-oriented value chains or from entrepreneurship in agrifood systems, but their participation is usually constrained by discriminatory social  norms and barriers to knowledge, assets, resources and social networks.