This presentation about intra-household dynamics between men and women around decision making, livelihood strategies and agriculture production in Western Honduras was created by Paige Castellanos, Janelle B. Larson, Leif Jensen, and Elisabeth Garner for the Horticulture Innovation Lab project focused on "Empowering women through horticulture in Honduras." These slides were presented at the 2018 Rural Sociological Society Conference. 

This Horticulture Innovation Lab project is a collaboration between The Pennsylvania State University and the Panamerican Agricultural School, Zamorano, based in Western Honduras. The project's mission is to understand how the horticulture value chain can be a source of equity and empowerment for Honduran women. The team's research objectives are grounded in a gendered economy perspective, which acknowledges labor markets and social institutions as the "bearers of gender." These factors coalesce to manufacture and reinforce gender-based inequities through culture, the economy and policy which, in turn, impact opportunity structures, the household division of reproductive and productive labor, control over resources and opportunities for empowerment. 

This presentation is focused on intra-household dynamics between men and women. It explores how decision making, livelihood strategies and agriculture production are observed by female and male household partners. 

To gather this data, researchers surveyed 162 single-female head of households, 400 women from dual headed households and 391 men from dual headed households.

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Characteristics of the couples surveyed

Age difference: Most couples had a male partner who was older than the female partner. Among 41% of the couples, the male partner was 6-25 years older than the female partner and among 39% of couples, the male partner was 1-5 years older than the female partner.

Education: Education among the couples was equitable. 63% of the couples had the same level of education — with 19% of male partners having a higher education than their female partners and 18% of female partners possessing a higher education than their male partners.

Literacy: The majority of couples were literate. Among 59% of the couples, both partners were literate. Eleven percent of the couples had neither a male or female partner who was literate. And in 15% of the couples, the male partner was literate while the female partner was not literate. In the remaining 15% of couples, the female partner was literate while the male partner was not literate.

 

Perceptions of gender norms

The biggest discrepancies over women's empowerment between men and women involved women deciding what to plant (77.7% of men agreed that women have this authority compared to 85.5% of women), women deciding what to plant for the market (79.5% of men agreed to that women have this decision making power compared to 85% of women), men and women having specific tasks in horticulture (50.4% of men agreed to this statement compared to 64.6% of women), women having the capacity to produce horticulture just as much as men (78.2% of men agreed to this statement compared to 88.9% of women) and men controlling the income from horticulture production (52.5% of men agreed to this statement compared to 42.5% of women). 

Seventy-eight percent of the couples agreed with the statement, "Women can decide what to plant for market" if the man was educated and the women wasn't. While 66.7% of the couples with both partners possessing some level of education agreed with the statement. But, couples with an educated female partner and a male partner who was not educated only agreed to this statement at a rate of 61.7%. When neither partner in the couple had any education, this rate of agreement dropped to 51.7%.

Eight-four point three percent of the couples agreed with the statement, "Women can produce horticulture just as well as men can" if the man was educated and the women wasn't. Seventy one percent of the couples with both partners possessing some level of education agreed with the statement. But, couples with an educated female partner and a male partner who was not educated only agreed to this statement at a rate of 53.2%. When neither partner had any education, couples agreed to this statement at a rate of 64.5%.

Only 20.3% of couples who both possessed some degree of education agreed with the statement, "Men control the income from Horticulture production." If the man was educated and the women wasn't, this rate of agreement jumped to 26.9%. While 28.3% of the couples with only the female partner possessing some degree of education agreed with the statement. But, couples in which neither partner was educated agreed that men control the income from horticulture production at a rate of 36.7%. 

A majority of couples agreed that men make decisions about food crops (56.8%) and commercial crops. Fifty-one point seven percent said that women make decisions regarding livestock (54%). And couples reported that neither men nor women make decisions about non-farm labor (79.5%) or wages or salaries (55.8%). 

A majority of couples who both had some level of formal education said that men made decisions about food crops (56.7%). But, when only the male partner was educated, couples were even more likely to report that men make these decisions (67.3%). When the woman was educated and the man wasn't, couples still reported that men made decisions about food crops at a rate of 58.3%. Couples in which neither partner possessed education were the least likely at 48.4% to report that men made the decisions about food crops. 

A majority of couples reported that the male partner makes decisions about commercial crops. Couples in which both partners were educated reported this at a rate 51.5% and couples in which only the male partner was educated said that men make decisions about commercial crops at a rate of 59.6%. Couples in which only the woman was educated agreed to this statement at a rate of 50% and uneducated couples said that men make decisions about commercial crops at a rate of 41.9%, 

Conclusions and next steps

Through these surveys, the researchers discovered that agreement was found between couples for gender attitudes and perceptions, but important differences still persist. In general, women had more progressive attitudes regarding gender norms than men and also had less leverage than men to make decisions regarding crop production. Some differences in opinion correlated with discrepancies in education. 

The project team's next steps will be to explore how other variables influence disagreements over gender norms and to create an index of overall consonance and disagreement regarding gender and its relationship to other variables.

Additional slides focus on group membership, dietary diversity, access to credit, control over income and lessons learned from farmer field schools.