Female Farming Systems

The typology of preindustrial subsistence agriculture consisting of two paradigmatic farming systems, one male and the other female, was first expounded by Ester Boserup in 1970 in her pioneering work, Woman's Role in Economic Development. Agrarian production in Europe and Asia—Eurasia for short— was dominated by men. In contrast, women were in control of most aspects of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, Boserup argued, Europe's colonization of Africa was, among other things, an encounter between two radically different farming systems; this aspect of colonialism underlies the traumatic losses of economic and social status among African women under European rule.

Historically speaking, the relatively high autonomy and mobility of women in sub-Saharan Africa, although intimately associated with the female farming systems prevailing in this region before European colonization, cannot be attributed solely to their control over agriculture. Rather, the connections between farming and gender systems should be viewed within the context of a complex set of interrelated ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural factors. This entry describes some of these factors and the relationship to female farming systems.