A Typology Analysis of Agricultural Empowerment Profiles in Rural Egypt with a Particular Focus on Women.

Abstract

The current study examines the extent of empowerment for different types of women in Egypt’s Old and New Lands (Noubariya and Kafr Shiekh). Empowerment in this study is multidimensional and is referring to access and management of capital, time and assets, with a particular focus on land. Research conducted in the past three decades in Latin America, India, and sub-Saharan Africa shows that land access empowers women in their ability to produce food, to participate in public life, as well as in household decision-making. However, relatively little is known about the relations between women, land and empowerment in the Middle East. Some 402 farmers (200 men and 202 women) were surveyed in both locations in Egypt, focusing on tasks within the farm, in addition to ownership and control over the main resources including land and livestock. A set of data including variables reflecting different empowerment dimensions of the surveyed farmers was collected in the study areas, and used for clustering homogeneous groups (men and women) with similar empowerment profiles. Characteristics of these men and women groups were then reported in order to provide better insights regarding empowerment gaps which might be used to develop targeted policy intervention strengthening certain empowerment aspects for these groups.