Gendered aspirations and occupations among rural youth, inagriculture and beyond: A cross-regional perspective

Abstract

Based on 25 case studies from the global comparative study ?GENNOVATE: Enabling genderequality in agricultural and environmental innovation?, this paper explores rural young women?sand men?s occupational aspirations and trajectories in India, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Mexico,Nigeria, and the Philippines. We draw upon qualitative data from 50 sex-segregated focus groupswith the youth to show that across the study?s regional contexts, young rural women and menpredominantly aspire for formal blue and white-collar jobs. Yet, they experience an aspirationachievementgap, as the promise of their education for securing the formal employment theyseek is unfulfilled, and they continue to farm in their family?s production. Whereas some youngmen aspired to engage in knowledge-intensive or ?modern? agriculture, young women did notexpress any such interest. Framing our analysis within a relational approach, we contend thatvarious gender norms that discriminate against women in agriculture dissuade young womenfrom aspiring for agriculture-related occupation. We discuss the gendered opportunity spaces ofthe study sites, the meanings these hold for allowing young women and men to achieve theiraspirations and catalyze agricultural innovation, and implications for agricultural policies andresearch for development. Our findings show that youth and gender issues are inextricablyintertwined and cannot be understood in isolation one from the other