Rural Women, Human Rights

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She is a rural woman who works from daybreak until sundown and often beyond.

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The right to a decent standard of living

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Around the world, almost a third of women’s work is in agriculture.

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Markets are vibrant hubs of economic activity in many places, providing shoppers with a ready supply of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, grains and other staples.

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Munira Hussein created a business selling products made from goat milk

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Quote:Women come to me and ask me about how I started my business. They say they'd like to do the same. I encourage them to do that. Starting a business gives women independence.

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A woman working in a hydroponic lettuce farm in Malaysia

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For many rural women, limited economic opportunities push them to migrate in search of better work and lives.

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Women farmers learning to use new tool and technology

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Technology has increasingly become a tool for women farmers to improve their livelihoods.

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The right to land and productive resources

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Rural women often have unequal access to land and other productive assets needed for income, food and well-being.

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Now, for the first time in my life I can say something is mine. This land, as far as the eye can see is mine—this paper says so.

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Musu Junius and Marie Weeks attended Barefoot College solar engineer training in India

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Clean, reliable energy improves health and livelihoods, and eases work burdens inside and outside the home.

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Mirjana Hemon moved to a rural area in Serbia in the hope that her husband’s failing health would improve.

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Laws and legal practices must uphold women’s equal rights to land, and women should be equally represented in all collective decisions on using land and natural resources

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In Quito, rural women activists from Bolivia and Ecuador gathered to articulate their demands, such as better access to land, credit, training and technology.

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Quote: “It is time to recognize rural and Indigenous women that work the land and produce food for the people.” Felipa Huanca Llupanqui

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The right to live free from violence and harm

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In six Indian states, a special education programme supported by UN Women and a local non-governmental organization helps women understand their right to live free from violence and to protect themselves from the scourge of human trafficking.

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In Ethiopia, Mulu Melka, 13, raises her hand to answer a question in school.

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The right to food security and nutrition

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In a remote village in Bangladesh, a young woman sorts rice. Her harvest must last a long time, as the weather usually allows cultivation only once a year.

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Maria Quej San de Moran, smiles watching her garden grow in her village in Guatemala.

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Gender discrimination limits rural women’s rights to food security and nutrition in multiple ways, constraining access to agricultural technology and credit, and to knowledge and essential services.

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Quot“With what we cultivate, we support our household income. My husband cultivates corn, beans and yucca for the market. At home, where the whole family participates, we cultivate tomato, cabbage, pepper and indigenous herbs; now we eat better.” Maria Qu

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Drought, increasingly severe and common in a changing climate, means much more than water scarcity.

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Quote: “We don’t have anything for lunch and even in the evening, it depends. If we get it, fine, if we don’t, we will still sleep. Whenever we wake up, we do not anticipate any meal. On a good day, we have a single meal.” Adikor Lopunga Nangiro, Ken

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Women in a hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Health care for many rural women is out of reach or poor in quality. Privatization can impose additional costs, felt most acutely by the poorest women. Poor health and lack of reproductive rights can compound other deprivations, limiting rural women’s and

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In a remote village in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, young women study the national language.

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Education is a cornerstone of individual and social well-being, shaping informed and productive citizens. It should teach the next generation, girls and boys alike, how to read, write and calculate/

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A number of developing countries are now ageing at a rapid rate, and will be old long before they are rich.

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Where:

United Nations Headquarters, Visitors' Lobby

Date:

8 March - 18 April 2018

The exhibit highlights some of the issues rural women and girls are confronted with, among them poverty, discrimination, lack of access to assets, education, health care and other essential services.

Portrayed in the exhibit are stories of rural women and girls setting up successful businesses and acquiring new skills, pursuing their legal entitlements and running for office, using innovative agricultural methods and taking advantage of new technologies.

The photo exhibit was presented by UN Women in connection with the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62).

Photographers: Janarbek Amankulov, Lauretta Ah Sam, Shaista Chishty, Thomas Dworzak, Rena Effendi, Andrew Heavens, Christopher Herwig, Kennedy Okoth, Joe Saade, Jashim Salam, Faria Salman, Franz Stapelberg, Sven Torfinn, Miguel Vargas, Ari Vitikainen, Staton Winter.

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