This month, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is meeting in New York. The theme of the meeting is women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work. And the conversation will center on women like me: Women who work in offices or in wage jobs, juggling work responsibilities, kids and household chores. As a single mother working full time, I know about the double burden of work all too well.
Unfortunately, these global conversations about women’s economic empowerment and unpaid care work exclude some of the women who need it most: rural women farmers. These are the millions of women engaged in agricultural work in small family farms across Africa and much of the developing world.