Feminist economics and food sovereignty: Progress and challenges ahead.

1
Progress and Challenges Ahead
FEMINIST
ECONOMICS
ANDFOOD
SOVEREIGNTY

Miriam Nobre Pacheco Nobre
Maysa Mourão Miguel
Renata Moreno
Tais Viudes de Freitas
Bárbara Lopes
Monica Corona
Analuce Freitas
Nucleo-i
FEMINIST ECONOMICS
AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
avanços e desafios
AUThORS
ediTOR
COORDINATION
DESIGN
COVER PHOTO Gilvan Barreto/Oxfam

5
35
39
40
45
48
58
60
62
65
2. PUBLIC POLICIES
Policies to confront hunger and poverty
Public policies, programs and actions in Brazil to fight
poverty
Public policies for rural women
Challenges faced by rural women in accessing the MDA
public policies
The obstacles we still have to overcome
The struggle for equality
Some statements by women food producers
Acronyms
SUMMARY
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20
22
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1. FEMINIST ECONOMICS,JUSTIC AND
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
What feminist economics is
How to promote the sustainability of human life
What is the market logic in agriculture?
Dealing with the environmental crisis
The intricate food reality
The constant struggle for access to land
Promoting food sovereignty
11

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PHOTO Gilvan Barreto/Oxfam
INTRODUCTION

9
* http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/cr-growing-better-future-170611-summ-pt.pdf
In Brazil, women have a strategic role in food
production in family farming, which supplies 70%
of Brazilian food consumption. Here as well, little
production information is broken down by gender –
the daily work of women is called help, sometimes
by women themselves. The money resulting from the
sale of their products is not seen as essential or even
included in family income. What they produce to feed
the family, even though it is on the table every day, is
not accounted for as income of the property, nor even
as family income.
The Grow campaign in Brazil gives priority attention to
women, highlighting their role in food production and
consumption, both in rural and urban environments,
seeking to empower them to change the context and
power relationships that make their work invisible and
prevent them from realizing themselves as women and
as “individuals.”
This research was conducted aiming to achieve this
objective, in partnership with Sempreviva Organização
Feminista (SOF), which we hope will contribute to
questioning, rethinking and, ultimately, changing the
imbalances in power relationships that prevent women
from realizing themselves as human beings, especially
with regard to those relationships related to food
production and access.
Oxfam was created in 1942 in response
to a food crisis. Seventy years later, the world faces
another crisis – this time, a crisis that threatens us all.
The 1942 emergency was caused by the Second World
War. On the other hand, the current crisis is a product
of a grotesque global injustice. Approximately one
billion people face hunger every day, while the non-
sustainable standards of consumption and production
from which they are excluded put us all on a collision
course with the ecological limits of our planet.
Oxfam’s “Grow”campaign has a simple
message: another future is possible and we can build
it together. Over the next years, decisive action around
the world could help hundreds of millions of people
feed their families and avoid having a catastrophic
climate change destroy their future (and ours).
However, this will only be possible if we, collectively,
stop sleepwalking in the direction of ecological
disaster. This campaign is a warning cry from Oxfam*.
The “Grow” campaign has defined an important
gender approach by stating that women are essential
players in the agricultural process, especially in family
farming. This important role, however, is invisible,
scarcely recognized or valued, as demonstrated by
the data presented by several studies, and this Oxfam
publication confirms them.

11
FEMINIST
ECONOMICS,
JUSTICE
AND FOOD
SOVEREIGNTY
1

13
Feminist economics, a part of feminist thinking,
is a school of thought that, since the 1990s, has
been established in the field of economic theory,
based on criticism of the non-inclusion of women,
their work and their economic action by economics.
In its resistance to the market-oriented society,
feminist economics was incorporated by women’s
movement organizations in Latin America as a tool
to analyze the economic reality of women and also
to propose alternatives to the dominant model.
Giving visibility to the production of living
and the work performed primarily by women
made it possible to connect the reflections
on and struggles of urban and rural women
for transformation of the current model of (re)
production and consumption.
One of the processes in patriarchal thinking
identified by feminist theory is the creation of false
dichotomies in the entire social field: between
culture and nature, public and private, productive
and reproductive work. In addition to the separation
between these elements, there is a hierarchy
and an assignment of roles to men and women.
Thus, the space of culture, the public world and
productive work is more valued and considered
masculine. Women are responsible for the private
space, of nature and reproductive work, less valued
socially. The feminist concept of “sexual division
of labor” may explain the connection and the
hierarchy that society has established for men’s
and women’s activities. This sexual division of labor
is an ideological and cultural creation that allows
the subordination and devaluation of work that has
historically and culturally been attributed to women
(domestic and daily caregiving work, all related to
the “private” world or family life).
Neste processo, deu-se um aprofundamento de
elaborações feministas sobre a economia, tanto
em relação às experiências das mulheres em seu
trabalho cotidiano, quanto na ação política para a
transformação das estruturas da desigualdade.
In this process, there was a deepening of feminist
thinking on the economy, both in relation to women’s
experiences in their daily work and in political action
to transform the structures of inequality.
Feminism questions this division, explaining the
relationship between production and reproduction
and criticizing the view that reduces the economy
to the market economy. Private space and our
personal relationships are also political and
domestic and daily caregiving work is also part of
the economy. The same can be said for agriculture:
the work of women in vegetable gardens, yards and
in the raising of animals is not recognized.
The family model in capitalism is an idealization and
a myth. It is based on the principle that men are
the providers and women are the reproducers. It is
a myth because capitalism cannot do without the
productive work of women. Even in families in which
women do not earn salaries, goods and services are
produced to meet needs. This is particularly clear at
times of crisis: if there is unemployment, the home
again produces goods (such as food and clothing)
and services (care of children, the elderly and the
sick). For example, as a country industrializes,
women are also incorporated into industry and
services. With their salaries, they begin to increase
their purchases of market goods that were
previously produced in the home.
What
feminist
economics is
Human work passed, historically, through a process of division
(productive work that produces goods or services with market value is
performed by men; and reproductive work, taking care of living conditions,
the domestic environment and children, by women) and hierarchization
(masculine work is more valued than feminine). This process is seen as
natural, based on the view of a woman as a mother who takes care of the
home and family because of love.
“
“

15
Because conventional statistics
hide the scope of non-remunerated labor,
they make it easier for public policies to
be prepared and implemented in a way
that ignores their negative effects on
caregiving, for example.
The social organization of caregiving, whether
between men and women, or between the state,
family and market, explain a good part of the
existing inequalities – of gender and class –,
the reason for which a considerable number
of researchers have dedicated themselves to
building feminist economics.
The fact that employers and economic
policymakers consider housework and
caregiving as economic model externalities
implies, concretely, that the costs of livelihood
production fall on women, since they are not
incorporated either by employers or the state,
nor even by men in the domestic environment.
In addition, since there are no indicators capable
of giving visibility to and measuring this sphere
marked by inequality, construction of equality will
not figure among the objectives of public policy.
Feminist economics, consequently, has sought to
contribute to construction of public policies that
actually break with the sexual division of labor
and with the inequality between women and men.
Giving visibility to
domestic and caregiving
work in economic analysis
is a central issue for
feminist economics,
since it is this work that
ensures reproduction of
the workforce. By ignoring
this, economic analysis
presents an incomplete
diagnosis of the operation
of the economic system and
is not capable of evaluating
the real repercussions of
economic policies.
“
“
“
Thus, work has occupied a place of importance
in feminist studies, in an ongoing effort to unveil
the mechanisms reproducing inequality in the
social relations between men and women. At the
same time, various women authors have indicated
that the economic theory makes women and their
economic contribution invisible. They also have
seen the need to prepare new types of indicators,
capable of overcoming the masculine benchmark to
measure society’s quality of life.
The range of topics analyzed by feminist economics
is wide and encompasses different aspects of
women’s participation in the labor market, the
problems with economic policies and their effects
on the lives of women, the very definition of
labor and the economy, the relationship between
government budgets and the maintenance of
gender stereotypes and inequality, the preparation
of public policies guided by equality, and new
focuses and methodologies for production of
statistics, among others.
For this, a general criticism of the dominant economic
thinking is proposed, emphasizing the need to
overcome the dichotomous structures that restrict
the economy to the limits of the market. Feminist
In Feminist Economics, we witness an
effort to build a new paradigm, including new
methodologies, explanations and indicators
which are not based exclusively on social
constructions of masculinity. It also means
building bridges between public and private
life, that is to say, between the productive
and reproductive spheres
economics brings to the theoretical debate the belief
that, to really question inequality, it is necessary to
transform the structures that organize it.
If, at the origin of feminist theory, the criticism is
that women are considered non-political subjects
because they are relegated to the private world, in
market society the feminist criticism is directed at the
consideration of women as economic non-agents.
For feminist economist Amaia Pérez Orozco, women
pass from non-political subjects to non-economic
subjects. To the extent that they gain rights, the
political sphere is devalued and more inequalities
appear in the economic arena. The political demand
for the right to vote and to have rights, for example,
resulted in formal rights, but not necessarily in
real equality. The same occurred with other groups
unequal to white men, in the sense that “any
privilege or right that becomes universal is a right
that, automatically, is devalued”2
.
“
“
2 PÉREZ, Amaia (2005). Perspectivas feministas en torno a la economia: El caso de los cuidados. (Feminist Perspectives on the Economy: The Case of Caregiving. Doctoral
thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

17
Individuality is connected to the fact that each
person is unique, with specific experiences.
However, as the author emphasizes, it is a
relational individuality, since every man and every
woman, with their specificities, relate to each
other and interact in society. No one is completely
independent of others or can get along without
others, since there is a necessary interrelationship
between beings.
Well-being is not reached by means of possessing
goods or wealth, but by means of real capacities
that people have to “develop positive states of
life,” in the words of Carrasco, like being well fed,
having good health, and participating in community
life, among others.
The feminist perspective emphasizes that well-
being does not involve only material resources,
but also relationships of caring and affection
that are needs satisfied primarily in the domestic
environment. This perspective places in evidence
the work of caregiving performed by women in
the home, indicating it as essential for human
development. Therefore, this is not a private issue,
but one that has an important political and social
The concept of the sustainability
of human life – or of human well-being
–, as indicated by Carrasco, refers to
people’s quality of life, including men
and women, and considers them in an
individualized, but not individualistic
manner.
dimension because it is an essential element in
ensuring quality of life. Consequently, what is at
play is the proposal of a new guiding paradigm for
society, which does not focus on private profit
and loss and the market economy, but brings the
concern with people’s lives and human well-being
to the center of the discussion.
It is in this sense that feminist economics appears
in contrast to the dominant economic thinking that
hides women and gender relationships.
The dominant economics only considers the
relationships where money circulates, such as
commerce, the government and the market. In
contrast, other topics, such as access to and
distribution of income, land and resources,
between men and women, appear within the
scope of feminist economics, in addition to the
development and proposal of public policies that
lead to the elimination of gender inequality. In this
way, feminist economics has been contributing
with criticism of the dominant model of agricultural
production and with construction of new
paradigms, such as food justice and sovereignty.
“
“
How to promote
the sustainability
of human life
Transforming the economy, for feminists, means
shifting the focus of how the economy functions
and the market analyses to livelihood production.
This perspective makes it possible to go beyond the
inclusion of women in a paradigm marked by market
interests, by presenting a distinct analytical and
political proposal for the economy.
In addition, it calls attention to the fact that
women always perform activities in addition to
housework and caregiving, whether through work
in conjunction with other family members, such as
harvesting, or by working longer days in factories
or in agriculture. However, as Carrasco3
points out,
work, both at home and outside it, performed by
women remained invisible throughout the dominant
economic thinking. Even though feminine work
done in the domestic environment was recognized,
it was considered natural, as part of the duties of
women in the name of love and family.
However, it is important to emphasize that
recognition of domestic and caregiving work as
economic does not mean it is incorporated into
the market logic. Feminist economics recognizes
that this has its own characteristics, being deeply
marked by a subjective dimension and the provision
of part of human necessities.4
Therefore, the
feminist proposal is the break with the dominant
logic of valuing only what was considered
productive, that is, what has monetary value.
Feminist economics,
in its development, tries
to recover the important
economic contribution of
women over the course of
history. The denunciation
consists of pointing out that
domestic and caregiving
work performed primarily
by women is an activity
essential for capitalist
development, since it
ensures human reproduction
and, thus, reproduction
of the labor force, having
historically been provided by
them free of charge.
“
“3 CARRASCO, Cristina (2006). La economía feminista: una apuesta por otra economía (Feminist Economics: A Bet on Another Economy). In: Maria Jesús Vara (coord.)
Estudios sobre Género y economia (Studies of Gender and Economics). Madrid: Ed. Akal.
4 FARIA, Nalu. Economia feminista e agenda de lutas das mulheres no meio rural (Feminist Economics and the Agenda of Women’s Struggles in the Rural Environment). In:
BUTTO,Andrea (org.). Estatísticas rurais e a economia feminista: um olhar sobre o trabalho das mulheres (Rural Statistics and Feminist Economics: A Look at the Work of
Women). Brasília: MDA, 2009, p.11-29.

19
Over decades, agriculture has been completely directed toward
obtaining growing productivity, aiming at larger profits. Both in Brazil and
globally, this agricultural model called the “Green Revolution” has worsened
hunger by making it difficult to obtain land, water and food, and has
contributed to increasing inequality among nations.
“
“From the feminist perspective, the starting point for
understanding inequality in the access to quality
foods is looking at the process known as the Green
Revolution, which has been altering the form of
production in the countryside.
The countries of the Southern Hemisphere export
their products to the countries of the North at low
prices, relying on the intensive use of labor and
the natural resources of their territory. Agricultural
production for export has contributed to make the
food producing countries exactly those plagued
by poverty and hunger, while it enriches large
landowners and companies in the richer countries.
Modernization and mechanization of agriculture,
mainly starting with the Second World War,
contributed to a type of development focused
primarily on the market, a period known as the
Green Revolution. In addition to machinery, use
of chemical products like fertilizers and toxic
agrochemicals began to occur. This modernization
was seen by governments as a way to contribute to
reducing the population’s poverty.
In Brazil, the period from 1960 to 1980 was marked
by modernization of agriculture by means of an
intensive process of industrialization. Even though
the Green Revolution was pointed to as a model
to reduce hunger and poverty of the population,
since it made possible greater production of
food, it had other consequences. Given the
large capital investment in the modernization of
agriculture, only large companies and landowners
What is the
market logic in
agriculture?
– in addition to the financial market – benefited.
Small farmers and their families were not able to
compete with the large companies. The traditional
knowledge and practices of these workers were
considered “backward,” and were discarded or even
appropriated by large companies even though they
had no right to claim them as their own.
Starting in the 1980s, this policy intensified
with the spread of agribusiness. As indicated by
Campos and Campos5
, agriculture and livestock
activities were increasingly controlled by economic
conglomerates that dominate all production and
commercialization of food. This process reinforced
the appropriation of natural and land resources
by these large groups and their use as sources of
capital accumulation. Thus, the decision on what
foods to produce and commercialize was even more
restricted to a few.
Currently, a small group of large companies control
production, from production of seeds to sale of
products. In 2006, the ten largest seed companies
in the world controlled 57% of the commercial seed
market. According the 2007 research by the ETC
Group, Monsanto – the largest of them – dominated
20% of this market.
5 CAMPOS, Christiane S. Soares; Campos, Rosana Soares (2007). Soberania alimentar como alternativa ao agronegócio no Brasil (Food Sovereignty as an Alternative to
Agribusiness in Brazil). Revista Electrónica de Geografia y Ciências Sociales, Vol. XI.

21
natural gas, which harm the environment and
release polluting gases.
In the same way, frequent use of fertilizers and
toxic agrochemicals contaminates the soil and
water, in addition to harming and eliminating a
number of species of flora and fauna. Deforestation
of forests also contributes to the release of carbon
dioxide, and thus, to the increase in the planet’s
temperature.
It should also be emphasized that the current
standard of distribution and commercialization
of products and food also leads to the increased
emission of polluting gases. The way it is currently
organized requires products to travel long
distances to reach the large distribution centers,
using a high number of vehicles that emit polluting
gases. In the same way, consumers also end up
traveling long distances to have access to and
purchase products and food. In other words, it is
a logic that both enriches large businessmen and
leads to environmental degradation.
Thus, development of an agriculture directed
to the market and control of the entire food
chain concentrated in the hands of a few have
contributed to worsening the conditions of life
of small producers, peasants and indigenous
people, increasing the dependence of farmers on
external production inputs, reducing biodiversity,
causing damage to the environment and harming
the sovereignty and right of peoples with regard to
food. The issue of hunger has not been resolved;
on the contrary, the inequalities related to it have
intensified.
In this sense, the debate around the food issue
will soon be the order of the day, appearing as
a challenge on the world stage. According to
Chonchol7
, the current debate is polarized into two
main theses. On one side are those who believe
that production growth will not be able to meet
the needs generated by the way societies have
been developing. Thus, for them, the demographic
increase, higher standard of consumption resulting
from enrichment of the population, environmental
degradation (such as the loss of resources in water
and land, desertification, deforestation, etc.) and
urban expansion, among other factors, place the
productive system in check.
On the other side of the debate are those who
believe that technological progress – such as
biotechnology, the use of genetically-modified
organisms and techniques to value and recover
natural resources – and the progress of production
systems, focused on the sustainability of
resources, will allow production growth to adapt to
the growing needs.
The fact is that the standard of consumption
sustained by some developed countries makes any
model of food production unsustainable, since, if
the global population consumed the same amount
as a citizen of the United States, five planet Earths
would be necessary to satisfy the entire world.
In addition, this small group of companies that
dominates seed production technology is the
same as that which controls herbicide production.
Thus, a company that produces a particular seed
resistant to a certain herbicide forces farmers
that use the seed to also use the herbicide that
it produces, thereby controlling the prices and
production of this entire chain.
The control of seeds by the companies has
contributed to the reduction of the planet’s
biological diversity. According to Febles6
, it is
estimated that in the 20th century there has been
a loss of three-fourths of the species cultivated
by mankind. Currently, only 150 species provide
food for the majority of the global population, when
previously 10 thousand species were used. The
loss of biodiversity has also contributed to the
impoverishment of mankind’s food.
At the other end of the food chain is its distribution
and commercialization, also dominated by a small
group of large multinational companies that end
up imposing the types of foods to be produced and
consumed, as well as their quality and price.
Currently, the ten largest supermarkets are
responsible for 24% of the global market. The first
of them is Walmart (of the U.S.), which controlled
8% of this market in 2006. The supermarkets
tell the producers what size, color, form and
uniformity the products should have. Those that
do not correspond to this standard are rejected by
the supermarkets, thus, a large part of the food
produced is discarded.
Domination of the food chain by large companies
makes it very difficult for small rural producers to
produce and commercialize their products faced
with the unequal competition in the market. Many
are on the edge of poverty, forced to abandon their
production and land.
Dealingwiththe
environmentalcrisis
In addition to widening social inequalities, the
development model based on expansion of
growth and commodification of the social and
life processes causes strong damage to the
environment, which, in turn, leads to an upsurge
of food poverty. The unchecked impulse to attain
maximum productivity degrades and destroys
nature, reducing biodiversity of fauna and flora.
One of its effects has been the contribution to the
sharp increase in the Earth’s temperature, mainly
due to the emission of greenhouse gases. These
gases are released into the atmosphere in various
ways along the food chain.
One of them comes from the regular use of sources
of energy by the agriculture and livestock sector,
mainly for its machinery, such as oil, coal and
6 FEBLES, Nelson Alvarez (2006). Las semillas en la tierra germinan y se multiplicand (Seeds in the Earth Germinate and Multiply). In: Ya es tiempo de Soberania Alimentar.
Biodiversidad, sustento y culturas (It’s Time for Food Sovereignty. Biodiversity, Subsistence and Cultures). (compendium).
7 CHONCHOL, Jacques (2005). A soberania alimentar (Food Sovereignty). Revista Estudos Avançados, 19 (55): 33-48.

23
According to federal government data, 16.27 million
people are in situations of extreme poverty in Brazil,
representing 8.5% of the total Brazilian population.
The rural population represents 15.6% of the
Brazilian population, almost half the people facing
extreme poverty: 46.7%. On the other hand, the urban
population represents 84.4% of the total population
and 53.3% of those facing extreme poverty8
.
Poverty can be understood, not only in relation
to income, but also as privation of purpose and/
or basic needs and the means necessary to meet
these needs. According to Naila Kabeer9
, fighting
poverty involves not only ensuring access to the
job market, but also guaranteeing rights. In the
same way, it involves, among others, access to
water, soil, health services, and social and cultural
spaces, as a way to ensure a decent life.
Thus, to understand inequality in access to quality
food, it is necessary to look at how different
segments of the population access varied
resources. As seen, access to economic resources
is related to food satisfaction and is one of the
fields in which inequality between men and women
continues. Even with more schooling, women
earn less than men. Data from the 2009 Pesquisa
Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) (National
Sampling Survey of Residences) show that working
women earn approximately 70.7% of what men
earn, with this difference being even greater among
those working in the informal market (63.2%).
The sexual division of labor appears even sharper
in the rural environment. According to Melo and
Di Sabbato, female participation in production
is related to family membership, in other words,
their activity is considered to complement that
of their husbands. Above all, women perform
activities connected to domestic work, focused on
self-consumption and without pay. Furthermore,
when compensated, women’s work in the rural
environment shows greater seasonality and
instability – in other words, it is more subject to
fluctuations in demand for production – and less
remuneration. The fact that rural women receive
approximately half the average income earned by
women in the urban environment stands out.
Use of time also demonstrates the disadvantageous
condition of women. According to PNAD data, in
2009, women spent on average 16.6 hours weekly
on domestic tasks, while men dedicated only 10.5
hours to this activity (IBGE, 2010). Numbers from
the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada
(IPEA) (Institute of Applied Economic Research)
show that in larger families and rural households,
the disproportion in the division of domestic work
increases. In families without children, 94% of
women and 54.6% of men dedicate themselves
to domestic tasks. With five or more children,
caretaking is the responsibility of 95.7% of women
and 38.8% of men. In rural areas, this number falls
to 34.3% for men. In other words, domestic work
continues to be primarily a female responsibility10
.
o Limited access to resources
8 Profile of extreme poverty in Brazil prepared by the Ministério de Desenvolvimento Social (Ministry of Social Development) based on preliminary
data from the 2010 census, prepared by the IBGE. Available at <http://www.mds.gov.br/saladeimprensa/noticias-1/2011/maio/11.05.02_
Nota_Tecnica_Perfil_A.doc/at_download/file / 9 KABEER, Naila (1998). “Tácticas y compromisos: nexo entre Gênero y pobreza” (Tactics and
Compromises: The Nexus between Gender and Poverty). In: Arriagada, Irma; Torres, Carmen (editors): Gênero y pobreza: nuevas dimensiones
(Gender and Poverty: New Dimensions). Ediciones de las mujeres. / 10 IPEA (2011). Retrato das Desigualdades de Gênero e Raça (Portrait of
Inequalities of Gender and Race) – 4th
edition. Accessed on 6/10/2013. Available at http://www.ipea.gov.br/retrato/
The intricate
food reality
The production paradigm brought by the Green Revolution had impacts on
the population’s access to food and natural resources. In Brazil, part of the
population experiences strong limitations on access to food, water and land,
whether in the countryside or in the city. Production is capable of feeding the
entire population, but the productive system is made up of a few groups that
dominate and control food production and distribution. The result is that a large
part of the population, even if food producers (like small agricultural producers),
have their access to these limited or reduced.

25
The prevalence of residences with people living
with slight FI was estimated at 18.7%, or, in
absolute terms, 11 million residences, where
40.1 million people lived (20.9% of the population
residing in private residences). The proportion of
private residences with people living with moderate
FI was 6.5% (equal to 3.8 million). There were 14.3
million people in these homes (7.4% of residents)
living with limited quantitative access to food.
Of the total residences, 5% (2.9 million) were
classified as facing serious FI, food restrictions in
which at least one person reported experiencing
hunger during the period investigated. This
situation affected 11.2 million people (5.8% of
those living in private residences).
The rural area had the highest rates of food
insecurity. With regard to moderate and serious
FI, 6.2% and 4.6% of residences in the urban area,
respectively, were in this situation, while these
percentages were 8.6% and 7.0% in the rural area.
Inequality with regard to food access was also
verified in relation to the large Brazilian regions. The
North and Northeast regions recorded, respectively,
a total of 40.3% and 46.1% of residences with food
insecurity. On the other hand, in the Southeast
and South regions, 23.3% and 18.7% were in this
situation.
According to PNAD data, the prevalence
of moderate or serious FI was greater
in residences that had a woman as the
reference person. Among residences in which
the reference person was of the male sex,
10.2% were found in this situation, while this
percentage was 14.2% if the reference person
was of the female sex. It the composition of the
residence included minors less than 18 years
of age, the prevalence of moderate or serious
FI was 11.5% if the reference person was of the
male sex and 17.5% if of the female sex.
“
“
Data collected by the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios, conducted by the IBGE in 200911
,
contribute to identifying inequality in relation to access and quality of food consumed. This survey
sought to identify the food security condition of Brazilians:
In this survey, the PNAD recorded a total of 58.6
million private residences in Brazil in 2009; of
these, 69.8%, or 40.9 million, had food security
(FS). There were 126.2 million people living in these
residences, equal to 65.8% of those living in private
Food security situation Description
Food security Residents of the households have regular and ongoing
access to quality food, in sufficient quantity, without
compromising their access to other essential needs
Slight food insecurity Concern or uncertainty with regard to future access to
food; inadequate food quality resulting from strategies
aiming to not compromise food quantity
Moderate food insecurity A quantitative reduction in food among adults and/or
a breakdown of eating standards resulting from lack of
food among adults
Serious food insecurity A quantitative reduction in food among children and/or
a breakdown in eating standards resulting from a lack
of food among children; hunger (when someone goes an
entire day without eating for lack of money to buy food)
Limited access to food
residents in the country. The remaining 17.7 million
private residences (30.2%) were facing some
degree of food insecurity (FI); close to 65.6 million
people living in them.
11 http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/seguranca_alimentar_2004_2009/pnadalimentar.pdf

27
In addition to difficult access to food, there are
strong inequalities with regard to the costs and
quality of food consumed among the Brazilian
population.
Of the consumption spending in Brazil, the larger
expenses are for housing, followed by food and
transport. The rural population uses 27.6% of their
spending on food, while the urban population
spends less (19%). Another difference is in the
type of food consumed according to the area.
In rural residences, the average daily per capita
consumption was much greater for foods such as
rice, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, cassava
flour, mangos, tangerines, fresh fish, salted fish
and salted meats. On the other hand, for urban
residences, the consumption of ready-to-eat
or processed products, such as salt bread,
cookies with filling, yoghurt, blended fruit drinks,
sandwiches, fried and roasted snacks, pizzas, soft
drinks, juices and beer, was more important (IBGE,
2011).
When asked about sufficiency in relation to food,
64.5% of Brazilian families responded positively,
compared to 35.5% of those that stated the
quantity of food consumed was insufficient or
occasionally insufficient. It should be emphasized
that there was a significant improvement in
this perception in relation to the prior survey in
2002/2003 when this percentage was 53%.
However, dissatisfaction with the quantity of
food consumed is higher in rural areas. In these,
45.6% of families mentioned some degree of
dissatisfaction due to the insufficient amount
of food consumed, while in urban areas this
percentage was approximately 34%.
The prevalence of food security and moderate or serious food insecurity, in private residences and
private residences with at least one person 18 years of age or older, according to the sex of the
reference person of the residence. Brazil - 2009
%
MEN MEN
Private residences Private residences with at least one
resident 18 years of age or older
WOMEN
Food security Moderate or serious food insecurity
Source: IBGE, Diretoria de Pesquisas (Research Board), Coordenação de Trabalho e Rendimento (Labor and Income Coordination),
Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios 2009 (2009 National Sampling Survey of Residences).
WOMEN
71.9
10.2
65.6
14.2
65.9
11.5
17.5
55.9

29
Average area of establishments according to the condition of the producer and
the sex of the person responsible for the establishment
Condition of the producer Women (ha) Men (ha)
Owner 33.17 84.19
Settler without definitive property 24.33 31.26
Tenant 13.89 41.03
Partner 8.02 14.43
Occupant 7.98 16.53
Source: IBGE, Censo Agropecuário 2006 (2006 Agriculture
The table above reveals one of the forms of
women’s unequal access to land, which is the fact
that they are responsible for smaller units. The
average area of female owners represented less
than 40% of that of male owners, and the average
area of female tenants represented 34% of that of
male tenants. Add to this the evidence of empirical
studies that indicate that women are in areas
with lower production conditions and access to
commercialization12
.
Since the 1980s, a number of changes in legislation
and public policies have been trying to reduce this
discrepancy. The 1988 constitution already provided
for joint title for men and women of lands destined
for land reform. However, the absence of mandatory
joint title generated cultural practices in which
women were subordinated to fathers, husbands
or brothers. A 2003 INCRA ordinance13
made joint
title mandatory in the case of marriage or stable
union. Even so, a significant difference persists,
considering the different initiatives made in recent
years to eliminate barriers to women’s access to
land in the beneficiary selection processes and
support policies for land reform settlements. The
difference is smaller for settlers; the average area
of establishments in which women are responsible
is equal to 78% of the average area administered by
men. Considering the fact that the lots in settlement
areas are of equal size, this difference in area must
indicate a lower presence of women in the regions
of greater fiscal modules, such as the North and
Center-West regions.
Unequal access to land is also explained by cultural
factors. Research conducted by Maria José Carneiro
indicates that, despite the equality established by
the Civil Code, custom codes persist that place the
interests of the family above those of individuals.
In her study of land inheritance among farmers of
Italian origin in Rio Grande do Sul, the author found
that daughters normally do not inherit land when
their fathers die. Both the widow and the daughters
are led to waive their share in the name of men, to
ensure continuation of patrimonial unity. “Their part
of the inheritance is reduced to the trousseau and
some household items, if they marry a farmer, or to
their support in the city while they study and prepare
to enter the urban job market,” says the researcher.
12 CARNEIRO, 2001, p. 49; DOSS; GROWN; DEERE, [s.d.], p. 6
13 Incra - Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (National Institute for Colonization and Land Reform), federal entity responsible
for rural land management.
Women face profound inequality in access to land.
Data from the IBGE’s 2006 Agriculture and Livestock
Census show that the proportion of establishments
where women are responsible as owners (75.9%)
is slightly lower than for men (76.3%), and
practically equal in the case of settlers without
definitive property documentation (3.6% and 3.7%,
respectively). However, women are in worse shape
among those worst off. As tenants, the proportion
of establishments in which those responsible are
women is 2.4%, half of that for men, which is 4.7%.
The situation is reversed for producers without
land: 8.1% for women and 4.5% for men.
The constant
struggle for
access to land
Women’s unequal access to land is even more
evident if we look at the average area by condition
of the producer. Establishments in which women
are responsible have average areas less than half
the size of the average area of establishments in
which men are responsible in the conditions of
owners and tenants, and close to half in cases in
which they are partners and occupants.

31
Before the non-sustainable hegemonic model
of production and consumption, new currents
appear opposing it and proposing new paths.
Social movements have strengthened their unity
in confronting agribusiness and defending food
sovereignty. In this common struggle, movements
of rural, indigenous and peasant workers, urban
social movements and women’s movements,
among others, are aligning.
This principle comprises the right of people to
healthy and culturally appropriate food, produced
with sustainable methods, and the autonomy of
peoples to define their own agricultural and food
systems, in other words, what, how much and
how to produce and consume. Food sovereignty
insists that the needs and ways of life of those
Promoting
food sovereignty
Food sovereignty is a concept
constructed and presented in 1996
by Via Campesina, an international
movement that brings together
peasants, small producers, landless
peoples, indigenous peoples, migrants
and agricultural workers.
who produce, distribute and consume food be at
the center of these systems, and not bound by the
interests of the market and large companies.
Food sovereignty insists on the need to change the
political point of view to achieve food security and
the right to food. It also affirms the change in power
relationships, placing those who suffer injustice in
access to food at the center of the policies.
It should be emphasized that the concepts
of food sovereignty and food security are not
synonymous. The term ‘food security’ – a concept
utilized particularly by government institutions –
appeared after World War I, tying primarily the food
issue to the production capacity of each country.
In its definition, food and nutritional security is
“
She adds that in the case of women who do
not marry an exception can be made. Since it is
believed that these women give up marriage to
meet family demands, single women receive a
small parcel of land to ensure their subsistence.
However, this parcel is smaller in size and quality
than that destined for men14
.
Even with joint ownership, the decision on how to
use land is also influenced by gender relationships.
Based on tables of the 2006 Agriculture and
Livestock Census, made by Nobre15
, it is possible
to verify that, in the case of several products,
establishments in which the largest part of the
workforce is female sell less than those in which
the majority of the workforce is male.
Several women farmers report pressure from
husbands to utilize the largest part of the area
(if not all of it) for commercial planting, while
they push to maintain a productive yard. The
impact of the prevalence of self-consumption
on the economic autonomy of women has to be
14 CARNEIRO, Maria José. “Acesso à terra e condições sociais de gênero: reflexões a partir da realidade brasileira”. Quito, 2006. / 15 NOBRE, Miriam: Censo Agropecuário 2006 –
Brasil: uma análise de gênero. In Butto, Andréa, Dantas, Isolda, Hora, Karla.: As Mulheres nas estatísticas agropecuárias: experiências em países do sul. MDA, Brasília, 2012.
16 The Seminário Nacional Mulheres e Agroecologia took place from April 28 to 30, 2006 in Belém with the participation of close to 150 women and was preparatory for the II
Encontro Nacional de Agroecologia (II National Agroecology Conference) that took place in Recife in June of the same year.
considered. Even authors, such as Carrasco,
who value the economic contribution of women
through their work and permanent availability for
caregiving, recognize that monetary income is
absolutely necessary in our society for access to
vital resources.
Participants in the Seminário Nacional Mulheres e
Agroecologia (Women and Agroecology National
Seminar)16
have reported that this dilemma is
also present in the families of agro ecological
agriculturalists. In relation to the market, the
women have reported situations in which female
farmers have sold honey to buy refined sugar or
sold farm-raised chicken to buy frozen chicken.
Therefore, they were not able to take advantage of
the high quality food they produced. It was feared
that the incentive for commercialization contributed
to worsening food security for the families.

33
it calls attention to the importance of consuming
seasonal products or products grown and raised
in nearby locations and in harmony with the
environment.
In the same way, food sovereignty proposes
change, not only in food production standards,
but also in those of consumption. Consumption
should stop being based on industrialized products
and fast food – valued by today’s society in which
considerable time is devoted to the productive
sphere – and return to quality eating. For this, it is
also necessary to establish public policies directed
at food quality and which collectively serve the
population, such as low-priced restaurants.
Food sovereignty emerges as one of the most
promising and effective responses to the
food, climate and social crises the world is
experiencing today. In addition to affirming the
right of all peoples to food, it proposes regional
and global development of a sustainable model
that necessarily seeks equality in its multiple
dimensions: social, economic, ethnic/racial,
gender, etc.
food production, distribution and consumption.
Therefore, this is a proposal of broad character,
which involves the defense of fair agrarian reform,
territorial control, local markets, biodiversity,
autonomy, health and quality of life. One of its
essential principles is the strengthening of
local food production and consumption. There
is a concern with guaranteeing the use of land,
water, seeds and biodiversity to small producers,
taking power out of the hands of the economic
conglomerates.
By defending local autonomy, food sovereignty
also contributes with proposals for new forms
of food circulation and distribution by means of
circuits that bring producers and consumers closer
together, thus reducing intermediation between
them and strengthening their alliances. In addition,
understood as the guarantee of the right of all
to access to basic foods, in sufficient quantity,
without compromising the satisfaction of other
essential needs, based on healthy food practices,
and thus contributing to a decent existence in a
context of full development of the human being.
This concept approaches the food issue from the
economic and social possibility of obtaining food
and the quality of the food consumed, mainly in
relation to nutritional quality. However, this may not
question the type of production system, coming
to favor agribusiness, the use of transgenics and
toxic agrochemicals, in some cases.
In this sense, the concept of ‘food sovereignty’
emerges as a strategy for transformation of the
current model, by defending the right of peoples
and local autonomy with regard to food systems,
as well as questioning the hegemonic models of

37
Hunger is not limited only to lack of access to food, but involves
(re)thinking the production and distribution system, as well as breaking
with the logic that reproduces social and economic inequality, male
chauvinism and racism, among others, in our society.
“
“The role of the state is crucial in confronting and
combating social inequality, so strong and visible in
Brazil. In a country where hunger and poverty are still
part of the reality of millions of Brazilians, actions
that cause a break in the conditions of misery in
which part of the population lives are urgent. Many
of these actions appear as a result of the initiative
of civil society and social movements, which
seek alternatives to break with the logic of social
contrasts, the case of those undertaken in the field
of food sovereignty. However, action by the state is
essential, both to strengthen these initiatives and to
implement them and ensure that the transformations
occur in a fairer and more equal society.
The heterogeneity that marks Brazilian reality poses
special challenges for public policies that seek to
combat inequality. The actions undertaken by the state
can have different designs and, consequently, different
impacts, depending on their reach, focus, duration
time, and transformational capacity, among others.
Thus, we will analyze the actions undertaken by the
state in confronting hunger and poverty seeking to
understand their limits, advances and challenges and
how they are promoting changes in people’s living
conditions, a transformation of society and a path
toward equality.
FOTO Gilvan Barreto/Oxfam

39
Public policies to fight poverty face three main
challenges. The first is preventing people from
dying of hunger. The second is to guarantee
opportunities for people to escape poverty, which
can be done by means of income generation
programs, microcredit and promotion of local
sustainable development, like family agriculture.
The third is to prevent people from falling back into
poverty, which is possible based on social policies
such as unemployment insurance and social
security, among others.
Since 2003, the federal government has been
implementing a set of measures to confront the
problem of hunger and poverty in Brazil, both in
rural and urban areas, as is the case of the Bolsa
Família (Family Stipend), Fome Zero (Zero Hunger)
and Brasil Sem Miséria (Brazil without Poverty)
programs. Since their implementation, the debate
and the number of studies dedicated to analyzing
their reach and limitations have grown.
The effect of these measures, as well as the
actions of social movements that press for these
actions, has been shown by national surveys. The
data collected by the Pesquisa de Orçamentos
Familiares (POF) (Family Budgets Survey), conducted
by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística
(Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics)
(IBGE, 2010b), indicate that families are feeling
improvements in relation to the food consumed.
According to the survey, in 2008/9, 64.5% of families
stated they had sufficient quantities of food to last
until the end of the month, while in 2002/3, 53% had
made this statement. With regard to investigating
whether families consumed (always, not always
or rarely) their favorite food, the survey also
indicated an improvement: while 73.2% stated some
dissatisfaction in 2002/3, this percentage was 65%
in 2008/9. However, although the families perceived
an improvement in relation to prior years, the
problem of hunger is still a reality for a large number
of Brazilian families. According to data of the federal
government itself, there are still 16 million Brazilians
living in situations of extreme poverty.
Some programs cover the entire national territory
(even though there are specific guidelines for the
countryside and the city), such as is the case of the
Brasil Sem Miséria plan, the Bolsa Família program
and the Fome Zero program. Other programs are
directly focused on the rural environment. Among
these, initiatives dedicated to incentivizing family
agriculture, involving precepts of agro ecology,
food sovereignty and economic solidarity stand
out. The Programa Nacional de Agricultura Familiar
(Pronaf) (National Family Agriculture Program) and
the Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) (Food
Acquisition Program) stand out among them.
In the same way, some programs take a look at
gender relations in their guidelines, seeking
to promote changes in women’s lives. Other
programs, even though not focused directly on
women, end up having them as their main targets.
Thus, we will try to insist in our analysis on how
gender relations are incorporated into these
policies and which challenges still have to be
confronted with regard to equality of the sexes.
Policies to
confront hunger
and poverty

41
The Brasil Sem Miséria Plan is directed to the
16 million Brazilians (indicated in the IBGE’s
2010 census) who live in situations of extreme
poverty in the country, in other words, those who
live in homes with income of no more than R$
70 per person. According to data of the federal
government itself, the actions of the plan are
conducted jointly, with some directed specifically
to rural areas and others to urban areas, and
they add to other existing programs, such as the
Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) and the
Programa Bolsa Família.
In rural areas, 47% of the population benefits
from the plan. For this portion, the strategies are
focused on increasing the production of farmers
and sales of their products. This is done by
means of offering technical assistance, support
for acquisition of inputs and seeds, guaranteed
access to water by means of the construction of
cisterns and other systems, and guaranteed sale
of their products (by means of the PAA, in addition
to purchase incentives for other institutions, such
as universities and hospitals).
On the other hand, the strategies directed to the
population in extreme poverty in urban areas,
according to the federal government itself, involve
access to a job and income generation. Thus, the
plan offers professional qualification courses for
training this population; provides intermediation
between the population and companies to guarantee
insertion in the job market; seeks to expand
the microcredit policy and the incentive for and
strengthening of the popular and solidary economy.
In 2012, the federal government launched the
Programa Brasil Carinhoso (Caring Brazil Program)
that falls within the set of actions of the Brasil Sem
Miséria plan, directed at families in the country,
which have children in the 0 to 6 year age group
and live in extreme poverty. Its proposal aims to
guarantee that all families with at least one child
in this age group exceed the amount of R$ 70 per
person, in addition to seeking to expand access
to daycare and education for these children and
promote improvements in health care (guarantee of
food vitamins, access to drugs, etc.).
The Brasil Sem Miséria Plan
The Bolsa Família Program
The Bolsa Família Program is considered a highlight
of the current administration’s policy and is allied
with the poverty eradication plan in the country.
This program is one of the income transfer
policies that have the objective of improving living
conditions for poor and extremely poor people.
However, it considers that this improvement does
not come only from income transfer, and that
the development and expansion of basic social
services should complement it.
In relation to income transfer, there are five types
of benefits that involve poor or extremely poor
families, with values that vary according to family
situation and composition (depending, for example,
on the number and age of the children).
A recent report released by the International Labor
Organization (ILO) indicates that, from 2003 to
2009, there was a 36.5% reduction in poverty in
Brazil, in other words, over this period, 27.9 million
people escaped from this condition. According
Public policies,
programs and actions
in Brazil to
fight poverty
FOME ZERO
The Fome Zero program is a federal government
strategy that aims to directly confront the
problem of hunger in the country. Its actions try
to guarantee the right of adequate food to the
entire population, based on the precepts of food
and nutritional security. The actions of Fome Zero
are conducted in conjunction with programs and
actions driven by the federal, state and municipal
governments, and involve the guarantee of access
to food, strengthening of family agriculture, income
generation and strategies of mobilization and
social articulation.
In terms of gender, among the emergency
actions prioritized by the program, an action
central to women, the fight against mother and
child malnutrition, can be identified. To realize
this action, the Fome Zero project includes the
following propositions: i) supply of food products,
like milk, and basic nutrients, like iron and
vitamins, to the children registered in the health
and social aid network, aiming to universalize
the already existing programs; ii) early diagnosis
and treatment of malnutrition, associated with
nutritional guidance and monitoring of children
and families by health teams; iii) strengthening
of the Sistema de Vigilância Nutricional (Sisvan)
(Nutritional Monitoring System) as a tool for
identifying, registering, visiting and guiding families
in relation to their health and food; and iv) programs
to incentivize and guide breastfeeding (Instituto
Cidadania, 2001).
In spite of the recognized importance of the
measure, it cannot be said that it is a gender
initiative, since empowerment and the autonomy of
women are not the goals of this action, but rather
that of solving a problem that involves women as
essential agents of social reproduction.
The selection of gender only appears to be present
in the Programa Cartão Alimentação (PCA) (Food
Card Program), an income transfer modality present
in the specific actions of the Fome Zero program.
The PCA follows a tradition begun by other programs
of this nature by giving preference to women in
granting resources. In addition to consolidating
this orientation, the PCA has expanded it, because
it does not tie prioritization of women to their
conditions as mothers17
.
17 PRATES, Ceres A.; NOGUEIRA, M. Beatriz. Os programas de combate à pobreza no Brasil e a perspectiva de gênero no período 2000-2003: avanços e possibilidades (Programs
to Fight Poverty in Brazil and the Gender Perspective in the 2000-2003 Period: Advances and Possibilities). 2005. Available at http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/9/22229/
lcl2309p.pdf

43
Although the Bolsa Família program
is not directed specifically at women,
in practice, they have been the main
beneficiaries, since they are in situations
of greater social vulnerability, in addition to
being the main caregivers in families. They
have also become the focus of the program
since they are considered to better direct the
resources in benefit of the home and family
than men.
“
“ According to the definition of the
Brazilian government, the Bolsa Familia
Programme is based on three main
pillars: cash transfer as an immediate
poverty reduction measure; participation
requirements that ensure access to basis
rights such as education and health; and
complementary initiatives.
to the report, increase of the minimum wage in
the country and the Bolsa Família program have
contributed to the improvement of these indicators.
Some studies indicate that the Bolsa Família
program contributes to relieving family poverty,
but is not able to promote a break in this situation
on its own. The work of Maria Ozanira Silva18
on the Bolsa Família program indicates that
programs that monthly transfer the amount of a
minimum salary, as is the case of the Benefício de
Prestação Continuada (Benefit of Continuing Social
Assistance) and Seguro Social Rural (Rural Social
Security), are those that have most contributed
to reducing inequality and poverty in the country.
According to the ILO, income coming from social
security benefits and the continuing social
assistance benefit (BPC) was responsible for raising
23.1 million people out of poverty in Brazil in 2009.
The continuing social assistance benefit (BPC) is
part of social assistance policy and is directed
at people 65 years of age or older and people
with special needs that live in families whose per
capita family income is lower than one fourth of
the minimum salary. The benefit consists of the
amount of one minimum salary for each beneficiary,
and there can be more than one per family. In other
words, it is an income transfer destined for those
who demonstrate that they do not have the means
to provide for their own subsistence or have it
provided for by their families. According to data
of the Ministério de Desenvolvimento Social (MDS)
(Ministry of Social Development), in 2012, 3.6 million
people were beneficiaries of the BPC in the country,
with 1.7 million of them being elderly and 1.9 million
being people with special needs.
A more specific analysis of the Bolsa Família
program allows examination of elements related
to its actions to deal with poverty in the country,
taking a look at the way it has altered the
conditions of Brazilian families, including women.
18 SILVA, Maria Ozanira da S. O Bolsa Família: problematizando questões centrais na política de transferência de renda no Brasil (The Family Stipend Program: Questioning Central
Issues in the Income Transfer Policy in Brazil). Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 12(6):1429-1439, 2007.
“

45
Public policies
for rural women
At the end of the 1980s and in the 1990s, the search
for economic and social autonomy of rural women
became stronger, by means of movements of women
from rural areas and the self-organizations of rural
women. These movements and organizations started
to call for recognition of women as agriculturists,
equal access to land in the agrarian reform and
social rights, focusing on access to social security.
After their recognition as agriculturists by the
government, women started to call for their inclusion
in the Rural Producer Invoice Pad20
and the right to
join local unions, to seek rights, public policies and
land in an egalitarian fashion.
With the Marcha das Margaridas21
, the Via
Campesina demonstrations and the “March 8”,
rural women’s claims got more visibility, since
these are events of large, national mobilization,
thus establishing a promising dialogue with public
managers to implement public policies for women
family agriculturists.
With the recognized existence of gender
inequalities in rural areas, the federal government
created public policies of equal access to land,
a program to issue basic documentation for rural
women and support for production and trading. The
Secretariat of Policies for Women (SPM) was also
20 It is a rural producer invoice document, authorized by Sefa (State Secretariat of Finance). The Rural Producer Invoice Pad is the document necessary for rural
production individuals to trade their products (those resulting from their work in their property.) E.g.: corn, soybeans, beans, pine, eucalyptus, chicken, beef
products, etc.) / 21 A Marcha das Margaridas teve quatro edições, a primeira em 2000 e as outras em 2003, 2007 e 2011.
“
“Access to income, made possible by means of
the program, has contributed not only to an
improvement of the social situation of families,
but also to raising the purchasing power of women
and, consequently, families, with regard to the
quantity and quality of goods and products. For
some of the families, this is the first experience of
having a monthly income.
According to research on the program conducted
by Ações em Gênero, Cidadania e Desenvolvimento
(AGENDE) (Actions in Gender, Citizenship and
Development) and by the Núcleo de Estudos e
Pesquisas sobre a Mulher da Universidade de
Brasília (Center for Studies and Research on
Women of the University of Brasília), by requiring
documentation to register beneficiaries, the
program has contributed to promoting citizenship
among a portion of the population that,
previously, in many cases, did not even possess
an official identification document. In the same
way, the study further indicates that increased
consumption tends to also represent a benefit for
the municipality as a whole, since it stimulates
development of the local economy19
.
Although there has been this
improvement, the program does not
provide greater participation for women in
social and economic activities or in public
spaces. Many of the beneficiaries continue
performing activities restricted to the
domestic sphere – such as the home, yard
and neighborhood –, with no incentive to
begin participating in other public, political
or social spaces.
19 AGENDE – Ações em Gênero, Cidadania e Desenvolvimento (Actions in Gender, Citizenship and Development) and the Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre a Mulher da
Universidade de Brasília (Center for Studies and Research on Women of the University of Brasilia). O programa bolsa família e o enfrentamento das desigualdades de Gender (The
Bolsa Família Program and Confronting Gender Inequality. (S/d) Available at <http://www.ipc- undp.org/doc_africa_brazil/Webpage/missao/Pesquisas/PESQUISA_MULHER.pdf>.
Accessed on 10/22/2010.
This same research indicated that women feel
they have increased their authority within the
family thanks to their greater purchasing power
and that this allows them to negotiate positions
in the domestic space. They feel their economic
autonomy has expanded since they do not depend
on money from the husband or partner, who
begin to value their contribution to the domestic
economy. In this way, even though it is not its
objective, the program leads to an increase in self-
esteem and empowerment of women, which later
tends to contribute to change gender relations
within the family and society.
However, access to income should be guaranteed
together with access to other rights and social
services (such as education, daycare, and
collective restaurants, among others), that make
it possible for people – and, we highlight, women
–, to not only break with the condition of poverty
and misery in which they find themselves, but to
also break the logic of gender relations that make
women exclusively responsible for domestic and
caregiving work.

47
created, with ministerial status, and the Special
Advisory on Gender, Race, and Ethnicity (Aegre),
which has now become the Directorate for Policies
for Rural and Quilombola Women (DPMRQ), part of
the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA).
To ensure the expansion and inclusion of rural
women in public policies, the federal government
created a strategy establishing the integration
of some plans and programs by the MDA, such as
the II National Plan for Agrarian Reform (PNRA),
the National Program for Agriculture Enhancement
(Pronaf), the National Program for Sustainable
Development of Rural Territories, the Brasil
Quilombola Program, and the National Program
of Rural Extension and Technical Assistance.
Noteworthy is the increase in the budget for public
policies for women in the Multiannual Plans (PAA)
for 2004-2008 and 2008-2011.
The federal government established, in 2003,
regardless of the marital status of the couple,
mandatory joint title for land in the plots of agrarian
reform settlements. Another measure, in 2007, gave
women who are family heads preference in the
Systematic Classification of Families Benefitting
from Agrarian Reform, and determines that, in case
of separation, plots stay with women if they retain
custody of children.
The National Rural Woman Worker Documentation
Program (PNDTR)22
ensures the issuance of free civil
and labor documentation for rural women. These
documents are issued in collective documentation
efforts, which also guide and inform women of their
rights and public policies for family agriculture and
the agrarian reform.
The National Policy of Technical Assistance (PNATER),
in 2004, incorporated gender relations into its
content. Now the needs of women are taken into
account when selecting project financing and also
in methodological instructions. This policy aims to
recognize and stimulate the participation of women
in preparing designs, deconstructing the notion of
women’s work as aid, and to value and enhance the
knowledge existing in women’s practices.
In 2003, after women’s movements called for the
creation of a specific financing line for women
that would stimulate their economic autonomy,
women’s access to Pronaf was expanded, and it is
now mandatory to have joint property documents
as a criterion for credit, and a special credit line
was created: Pronaf Mulher.
22 PNDTR is a key action to socially include rural woman workers, either in the agrarian reform or in family agriculture, because it enables free
issuing of civil, labor or social security documents, by means of itinerant, collective documentation efforts. The program is also responsible
for educational actions for beneficiaries, to clarify use of the documents, to present public policies and guide their access to them.
A criação do Programa Organização Produtiva de Mulheres Rurais
foi uma iniciativa muito importante para que as mulheres pudessem
alcançar sua autonomia econômica e social. O Programa viabiliza o
acesso das mulheres às políticas de comercialização e de organização
produtivas por meio da difusão dos princípios da economia feminista
e solidária, com o objetivo de fortalecer as organizações produtivas
de trabalhadoras rurais, incentivando a troca de informações,
conhecimentos técnicos, culturais, organizacionais, de gestão e de
comercialização, valorizando os princípios da economia solidária e
feminista, de forma a viabilizar o acesso das mulheres às políticas
públicas de apoio à produção e comercialização.
“
“

49
In recent years, the number of rural women
provided with technical assistance has risen,
but women still face a number of difficulties in
accessing these services. Data from the diagnosis
of the implementation of public policies for
gender equality by the Agrarian Development
Ministry (MDA) indicate that the main difficulties
faced by productive groups of women are lack
of information about how to proceed and where
to go, lack of continuity in the services supplied
and the difficulty of not having their reality and
knowledge considered during the preparation of
productive projects.
By means of Miriam Nobre’s analysis23
, it is
noticeable that establishments in which men are
in charge receive more technical assistance. While
men get around 22%, women get only 11% of the
service. “To reach the level of establishments run
by men, more than 66,000 establishments run by
women should benefit”, says Nobre.
Lack of technical assistance and technical teams
unprepared to carry out projects with rural women
means that women have no access to other public
policies, like credit and participation in food-
purchasing programs.
Thus, it is necessary to train the Ater technical
teams about unequal gender relationships, sexual
division of labor and productive organization of
groups of rural women, so that these teams can
change their views about the family, the structure
of the production unit and the power relationships
and hierarchy of men over women. These questions
must be considered when preparing a project to
manage family unit productive areas. It is evident
that if there is an effort of capacity building and
interaction with rural women, technical teams and
public managers, there is also greater access to
Ater policies by women.
The Directorate of Policies for Rural Women of
the MDA has been engaged in a dialogue process
with rural women and the Ater policy managers
to survey demands. The main demands relate to
management of enterprises, internal organization,
formalization of the groups and adapting to
sanitary inspection norms for sale of products.
The groups have also expressed demands for
leadership building and for gender and public
policies as a means to build the social, political
and economic autonomy of rural women.
The Ater act, in effect since 2010, makes it
mandatory to hold a national conference every four
years. Thus, the technical assistance policy starts
to have greater social control and the territorial,
regional, state and national conferences become
potential arenas for women to express their
demands and proposals in order to guarantee their
technical assistance and rural extension services.
Technical Assistance and Rural Extension – Ater
23 NOBRE, Miriam: ibidem
Challenges faced
by rural women in
accessing the MDA
public policies

51
These issues are interconnected. Thus, measures to
tackle them must be taken together, to promote real
inclusion of women rural workers in credit policies.
Besides, this lack of information about access
possibilities prevents women from participating in
decision-making and economic processes of the
family, so men predominate in productive processes.
Another aspect affecting women’s access to credit
is default of the family unit, preventing them from
accessing other lines of Pronaf credit. In some
cases, women have no knowledge of these debts
and their husbands use the Pronaf resources as they
wish, without taking women’s opinion into account.
One of the difficulties for women to gain access
to financing is the fear of not being able to pay
for it and becoming indebted. In the diagnosis of
the implementation of public policies for gender
equality of the MDA, the fear of not being able
to pay the debt was mentioned by 18.4% of the
productive groups of rural women interviewed as
one of the obstacles to accessing Pronaf.
Another aspect related to the lack of information is
that there is little knowledge about Pronaf Mulher
A > Difficulty in obtaining the property documentation from Incra;
B > Lack of technical teams to issue the Declaration of Aptness for Pronaf;
C > High default rates in the municipalities, leading banks to suspend the issuing of
new loan contracts in these municipalities;
D > Delays in making the approved project resources available, rarely following the
agricultural calendar of the region;
E > Lack of resources, according to the banks, for Pronaf Mulher;
F > Banks without enough employees to analyze the projects;
G > Excessive bureaucracy for access to financing throughout the process of
obtaining credit.
credit by financial agents in the municipalities
and by local technical assistance services, who
often do not know what can be financed by this
line. Some technical assistance technicians inform
women about Pronaf Mulher credit access with
information from the year of its creation, when
credit was associated to productive activities of
the site, thus reinforcing the notion that family unit
credit is for men and this special line is for women.
Another difficulty is the insufficient number of
technicians in the field to provide the service
to women, both in creating projects and in
supervising production.
The main operational issues that make access to
Pronaf difficult relate to the difficulty in obtaining
the necessary documents to make contracts
effective; and the rules, bureaucracy and lack of
personnel at bank branches, as seen below.
Another important issue is the fact that even
among women with knowledge of the procedures
for accessing credit, many mention the difficulty of
traveling from their homes to the agency responsible
for the technical assistance and/or the bank.
Since Pronaf was implemented, the number of
women with access to this type of credit has
been increasing. In the period from 2004 to 2006,
women’s income grew 31.5%. However, there are
a number of challenges to be faced, because it is
clear that few women have accessed financing
lines in Brazil. This happens for different reasons,
for example, the lack of information among women
about credit and access to it; inequality in gender
relations; a lack of technical assistance; difficulty
finding technical assistance technicians who can
prepare projects and supervise their execution;
little information from the local financial agents and
from the technical assistance service; and difficulty
issuing the Declaration of Aptness for Pronac (DAP)24
.
Lack of information about existing credit
lines and how to access them is one of the major
hindrances for women. They often do not know that
credit accessed by husbands is credit for the family
unit, which the family should decide how to make
best use of, because it is commonly said that the
family unit Pronaf is “man’s credit”.
Some times, even though the woman is the person
receiving the credit, it is the man who decides
how to use it. There are cases where the woman
accesses the credit because the husband was in
debt and was not eligible; in these cases, also, it
is the husband or male partner who decides how to
use the resources and their income.
Program to Enhance
Family Agriculture (Pronaf)
24 Created by the Family Agriculture Secretariat, DAP is used as an identification tool for family agriculturists to access public policies, such as Pronaf. To obtain it, family
agriculturists must go to a body or institution accredited by the MDA, with their CPF (Individual Taxpayer ID) and data about their production establishment (area, number of
residents, workforce and income composition and full address).
“
“

53
The national program for school food, created by
the Ministry of Education, is another mechanism
to contribute to the development of family
agriculture and nutritional and food improvements.
This program, in effect since 1955, sets aside
financial resources to acquire food for students in
the basic education network enrolled in public or
philanthropic schools in Brazil.
Law 11,947, of June 16, 2009, determines that a
minimum 30% of the total received by the national
fund for education development – FNDE – for school
food be used for direct purchases from family
agriculture and from the rural family entrepreneurs
or their organizations.
Food production must respect culture, traditions
and healthy food habits, contributing to the
growth and development of students, as well as
improving their learning conditions; and “support
for sustainable development, with incentives to
acquire diverse food items, produced locally and
preferably by family agriculture and by rural family
entrepreneurs, prioritizing traditional indigenous
communities and surviving quilombo populations.”25
National Program
for School Food (Pnae)
25 Law No. 11,947, of June 16, 2009, published in the Diário Oficial da União (Official Federal Gazette), No. 113, Wednesday, June 17, 2009. Available at
<http://www.fnde.gov.br/component/k2/item/3341-resolução-cd-fnde-nº-38-de-16-de-julho-de-2009?highlight=YToxOntpOjA7czo0OiJwbmFlIjt9>.
Accessed on 07/24/2013.
The Program of Family Agriculture Food Acquisition
(PAA) is based on two important aspects:
recognition of food production by family agriculture
and the right of citizens to eat adequate, quality
food. Family agriculture is responsible for a great
deal of food production in Brazil. It also accounts
for 87% of production of cassava, 70% of beans,
and 46% of corn.
Families producing for PAA who also consume
these foods improved their food quality, especially
those in poverty and food insecurity. The program
ensures there are investments for inputs and
commercialization of products, so the productive
capacity and the income of agriculturalists
increase. Increased production and trade create a
new social dynamic, intensifying the relationship
between town and country and generating the flow
of money in the local market.
Despite significant advances, there are some
challenges to be overcome by the Program,
especially with regard to rural women. PAA tends
to focus on the family unit and not on family
composition and the situation of its members. This
logic results in making women’s productive work
invisible. The women’s movements have brought
changes with regard to the perception of women
agriculturists in the family and in society, allowing
more and more beneficiaries to be included.
The federal government changed access
procedures to PAA in 2011 to expand women’s
participation. Women’s participation became
a priority criterion in selecting and executing
proposals in all modalities and by all PAA operators.
It was defined that at least 5% of the yearly PAA
budget shall be destined to organizations made up
exclusively of women or mixed organizations with a
minimum 70% of women in their total composition.
With regard to the local direct purchase with
simultaneous donation and incentive to produce
and consume milk modalities, the participation of
at least 40% and 30% of women, respectively, will
be required of the total supply producers.
Program of Family Agriculture
Food Acquisition

55
and the lack of adequate transport and roads to
deliver the production. The lack of documentation
necessary to trade, such as invoices and the
sanitary inspection certificate, is also a hindrance.
The lack of infrastructure, premises and machines
for production is also a real problem. With no
concrete conditions to ensure permanent, quality
production, the groups are afraid of having more
expenses with regard to the taxes generated by
their formalization, which could lead them to debt.
Another important obstacle is the lack of capacity
building to manage the enterprise and the technical
procedures that can be incorporated, such as an
efficient tool to record sales and income obtained.
There is a trend in which the smaller the size of the
enterprise, the greater the participation of women.
Women predominate largely in enterprises with less
than 10 partners (63%) and men predominate in
enterprises with over 20 partners (60% in solidary
economy enterprises (EES) of 21 to 50 partners and
66% in EES with over 50 partners.) In enterprises
headed by women identified through the solidary
economy information system, 97.9% earn up to one
minimum salary and the vast majority (83.7%), earn
only half of that. Only 11% accessed financing for
production (Faria, 2011)26
.
Surveys conducted by the Directorate for Policies
for Rural and Quilombola Women (DPMRQ), of the
MDA, between 2005 and 2009, identified 920
productive groups of rural women, in virtually
every state of the country, some of them already
accessing the PAA. However, a recent research
by Siliprandi & Cintrão (2011)26
indicates a low
percentage of women beneficiaries in the
contracts, which shows that the PAA is not
reaching more women formally yet, in its various
operation modalities. One of the reasons for the
low participation of women in the PAA is perhaps
the organizational format prioritized by the program
– usually unions, associations and cooperatives.
These more formal organizational modalities
tend to have only one member per family, usually
the husband, the “head of the house”, as if he
represented the interests of the other members.
Since the women’s groups engaging in economic
activities tend to work informally, it is more
difficult to access policies such as PAA and Pnae,
because they cannot compete with formalized,
more structured organizations, with prior access to
markets.
To make the access of women to public policies
to support production and trading feasible and
to strengthen their productive organizations, the
program of productive organization of rural women
(POPMR) was created in 2008. However, to make
access to the program a fact, it is necessary to
make sure there is qualified technical assistance,
able to service each individual in the family unit
with their specificities.
26 FARIA, Nalu. Mulheres rurais na economia solidária. (Women in the solidary economy) In: Butto, Andréa; Dantas, Isolda: Autonomia e Cidadania (Autonomy
and Citizenship): Políticas de Organização Produtiva para as Mulheres no Meio Rural (Productive Organization Policies for Rural Women). MDA, 2011. /
27 Siliprandi, E. & Cintrão, R. As mulheres agricultoras e sua participação no Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) [Women agriculturists and their
participation in the Food Acquisition Program (PAA)]. In Butto, Andréa; Dantas, Isolda. Autonomia e Cidadania (Autonomy and Citizenship): Políticas de
Organização Produtiva para as Mulheres no Meio Rural (Productive Organization Policies for Rural Women). MDA, 2011.
In every region of Brazil, groups of women are trying
to be self-sufficient, while at the same time looking
for ways to qualify their productive capacity, aiming
to enter local and regional markets, especially those
that recognize agro ecological production by women.
In 2006, women were responsible for 16.4% of fruit
and vegetable cultivation, while men accounted for
only 8.1%. This data is important because it reveals
greater participation of women in self-consumption
and agricultural or non-agricultural activities that do
not earn remuneration, in monetary terms.
In recent years, there has been an increase in
economic enterprises of groups of rural women
in several regions of the country, representing
an alternative for income generation faced with
the transformations in productive processes. The
majority of these enterprises are informal, with
little access to legal procedures, which makes it
difficult for them to enter the formal market. Other
problems identified are operational and structural,
such as the lack of working capital, the difficulty
in ensuring product enhancement and advertising
Program for Rural Women’s
Productive Organization

57
Male chauvinism and power relations also weigh on
women’s productive organizations. It is common to
hear about women whose husbands say “they like
to get home and find them there, they feel more
assured when they know they are home, or that
‘that’, referring to the group, will come to nothing.
Faced with little encouragement from the family,
women are not stimulated to take on a productive
activity that will require more time to manage and
produce than the usual time they dedicate to
productive activities together with home tasks.
Finally, the lack of public and social policies, such
as those for health, socializing the elderly and
nurseries, are real obstacles to women investing
more in productive activities.
The creation of some policies, such as the food
acquisition program (PAA) and the national program for
school food (PNAE), structured in a national policy of food
and nutritional safety represent important alternatives
of income generation for groups of productive women, by
means of government purchase strategy.
“
“

59
“ The convergence of rural and urban
movements can democratize the food
system, ending the monopoly of agro food
corporations and promoting localized,
socially just agro ecological systems (Holt-
Giménez and Shattuck, 2011, p.321).
“
The obstacles we
still have to overcome
Efforts to incentivize and strengthen family
agriculture aim to ensure access to food and
products for both the rural and the urban
populations. However, we still face some challenges.
One of them is the fact that rural producers find
it difficult to compete with large agro industrial
producers, to sell their products and to generate
income. Much production ends up serving as self-
consumption of the family group or having a very
restricted and limited sales space. Therefore, the
importance is evident of capacity-building and
investment guarantees, from the incentive to sell
and purchase agro ecological products coming
from family agriculture, to the priority for acquiring
these products by bodies and institutions, and the
creation of trade networks and spaces.
Specific food legislation is also a barrier for a
number of small producers, whose production is
traditional or homemade. The sanitary certification
requirements, which include infrastructure that
family production cannot provide, makes many
products circulate in the informal market.
A major challenge is the creation of policies and
alternatives for the urban population and the
reinforcement of the town-country relationship. In
urban centers, large food and product distribution
establishments predominate, rather than small
sales and businesses. It is worth remembering these
establishments dominate the entire food production
chain, from seeds to distribution, placing restrictions
on what is eaten and what is produced by all other
agriculturalists and the entire population.
Similarly, initiatives aimed at producing food in urban
areas are still scarce. There are programs trying to
guarantee food for the population living in cities,
connecting urban consumers to rural producers,
but trade is still restricted to fairs, which are often
periodic and not permanent and are located in
specific neighborhoods, which restrict their public.
In this respect, a necessary way to make such
policies effective is expanding these intermediation
spaces between producers and consumers.
The purpose is to articulate actions and empower
them in a challenge to the agro food system
controlled by corporations.
On the other hand, the existence of public
policies to support production and trade for
family agriculture paves the way to strengthen
experiences combining public, governmental
initiatives with those of social movements
representing alternatives to the corporate market.
The largest challenge, however, is to build
policies designed to end the sexual division of
labor and inequality between men and women.
The contradictory character of the Bolsa Família
program is a good example of the difficulty in
tackling both the separation and the hierarchy of
productive and reproductive work. When women
become managers of the resources received,
the program, on one hand, promotes women’s
autonomy in using the money, creating a sentiment
of greater value among the beneficiaries. On the
other hand, it reinforces women’s traditional role of
responsibility for family care.

61
Public policies aimed at targeting hunger and
poverty, therefore, involve multiple actions
that together gain strength in the fight against
inequalities. These strategies contribute to
strengthening family agriculture and small
agriculturalists, fostering the development of
agro ecology and a sustainable economy in the
long run. Similarly, policies for women contribute
to their economic autonomy and promote equality
between genders. Thus, the dialogue between
public policies and social movements associated
with food sovereignty, the solidary economy
and feminism can pave the way for a fairer, more
sustainable and egalitarian society.
The struggle
for equality
Public policies to tackle hunger, as we have seen,
involve facing and eliminating poverty, as well as all
forms of inequality – gender, race, ethnicity, etc. In
this sense, actions must take into account those
affected by hunger and poverty and in what way,
considering the heterogeneity and specificities of
each social group.
Food sovereignty, widely discussed throughout
this document, brings extremely important
contributions to thinking about food production,
distribution and sales, by defending and valuing
local culture and knowledge, protecting biodiversity
and the sustainability of natural resources, and
strengthening local economies and family agriculture
production. Consequently, sovereignty points not
only to the importance of the type and quality of
the food produced, but to who produces it and
who consumes it, trying to establish new product
exchange and circulation dynamics, in a fairer, more
solidary manner. As a part of this, women’s role is
key in producing and consuming foods. Because
of their socialization, women are the ones primarily
responsible for ensuring the care and well-being of
family members. In rural areas, it is women who grow
the food for family consumption in yards and plots. In
urban areas, they also play a key role in food: buying
the products, cooking and feeding the other family
members. Despite their importance, these activities
were historically taken for granted, with no social
recognition, and this still occurs today.
Consequently, public policies must be
developed that focus specifically on women’s
conditions. It is still difficult for women to
participate in such policies, because of
their socialization restricted to the domestic
environment, historically distant from the
public, social, economic, and political spaces.

63
We’ve shown that we can survive based
on the forest without destroying it, cutting down
trees or burning anything. It is a very important
process, an example by the women from the forest
themselves. This is really important.”(Doçura
Cooperar Cooperative – agro extractive settlement
of Maracá – AP)
The group is a reference in
women self-organization, in what
women have managed to build.
There are good things. People
want to follow the example. Today,
most people in the settlement
are involved in agro ecological
production, refusing to use
poison.”(Group of Women Decided
to Win – Mulunguzinho settlement –
Mossoró – RN)
“
“
“
“
Some statements
by women food
producers
I think women’s work for the town and the community
is indeed very important, because if women’s work were
not recognized, there wouldn’t be such a large supply of
products.” (Xixá Group of Women – Itapurunga – GO)
Before, we had difficulties holding
meetings, today we can have this
communication relationship. Even though
women have their limits. Some of them
are very submissive to their husbands,
but we can already see them in a
different way, with different thoughts.”
(Cootipesca – Tibau Cooperative of Fish –
Tibau-RN)
“
“
“

65
ACRONYMS
Aegre – Special Advisory on Gender, Race, and Ethnicity
Ater – Technical Assistance and Rural Extension
BPC – Continuing Social Assistance Benefit
CAR – Rural Environmental Registry
DPMRQ - Directorate for Policies for Rural and Quilombola Women
FNDE – National Fund for Education Development
IBGE – Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
Incra – National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform
Ipea – Institute of Applied Economic Research
MDA – Ministry of Agrarian Development
MDS – Ministry of Social Development
PAA – Program of Food Acquisition
PCA – Food Card Program
Pnad – National Sampling Survey of Residences
Pnae – National Program for School Food
Pnater – National Policy of Technical Assistance
PNDTR - National Rural Woman Worker Documentation Program
PNRA – National Plan for Agrarian Reform
POF – Family Budgets Survey
POPMR – Program of Productive Organization of Rural Women
Pronaf – National Family Agriculture Program
SAF – Family Agriculture Secretariat
Sefa – State Secretariat of Finance
Sisvan – Nutritional Monitoring System
SPM – Secretariat of Policies for Women

Feminist economics and food sovereignty: Progress and challenges ahead.

Feminist economics and food sovereignty: Progress and challenges ahead.

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