Systemic pressures on women in agriculture: How 'resilience' rhetoric obscures structural failures in farming support
Original framing: “The term 'resilience' becoming a burden for women in agriculture, study shows” — Phys.org
Cross-culturally, resilience in agriculture is often tied to communal networks and land rights, not individual endurance. For example, in Indigenous Australian practices, resilience is embedded in kinship systems and shared labor, contrasting with the Western emphasis on personal grit.
The study reveals how the glorification of 'resilience' in agriculture obscures systemic failures, particularly for women farmers.
Historically, women have been excluded from land ownership and policy decisions, a pattern that persists today, exacerbated by neoliberal policies and corporate consolidation. Cross-culturally, Indigenous and Global South communities offer models of collective resilience that contrast with Western individualism. The solution lies in structural reforms, such as gender-inclusive policies, climate adaptation funding, and the integration of Indigenous knowledge into agricultural practices. Without addressing these systemic issues, the burden of resilience will continue to fall disproportionately on marginalized farmers, perpetuating cycles of precarity.