Women in Livestock: Breaking gender biases, shifting norms
How to support more women to profit from their livestock enterprises
The livestock sub-sector in most developing countries is growing rapidly, offering many poor households a pathway out of poverty. Some two-thirds of the world’s 600 million poorest livestock keepers are women. On a daily basis, they will walk miles to gather forage plants, feed and water their family’s animals, take special care of young and sick animals, clean and maintain their animal shelters, and once or twice in their day, collect milk and eggs for sale in local markets.
What most of these women don’t do is participate in these livestock markets. They don’t sell the milk and eggs that they harvest daily. They don’t sell the family’s surplus animals or the planted forages that they grow. And they don’t sell veterinary drugs or other inputs for livestock owners.
If gender norms and biases that hold women back from fully entering livestock markets were to shift, even modestly, more women would be able to join in the livestock marketplace, contribute more to their household incomes, and share in decision-making of their livestock businesses.
You’ll hear from livestock scientists, development experts and livestock-keeping women about practical and successful ways to begin to shift gender attitudes and practices to support women in entering, participating in, and financially benefiting from, commercial livestock markets.
Details
- When: 4 May 2022, 4pm Eastern Africa Time
- Platform: Zoom