149 Journal of Volume 149 February 2018 Special Issue on Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihoods Guest Editors: Dr Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder and Dr Avigail Morris Contents Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihood Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. & Morris, A. Vulnerability of women to climate change in arid and semi-arid regions: The case of India and South Asia Yadav, S.S. & Lal, R. Women's food security and conservation farming in Zaka District-Zimbabwe Hove, M. & Gweme, T. Purdah, purse and patriarchy: The position of women in the Raika shepherd community in Rajasthan (India) Köhler-Rollefson, I. Warlpiri experiences highlight challenges and opportunities for gender equity in Indigenous conservation management in arid Australia Davies, J., Walker, J. & Maru, Y.T. 1 2 16 28 38 Exploring the potential of household methodologies to strengthen gender equality and improve smallholder livelihoods: Research in Malawi in maize-based systems Farnworth, C.R., Stirling, C.S., Chinyophiro, A., Namakhoma, A. & Morahan, R. The connective strategies of Bedouin women entrepreneurs in the Negev Biernacka, A., Abu-Rabia-Queder, S. & Kressel, G.M. The suburbanization of rural life in an arid and rocky village in western Turkey Hart, K. The economy of survival: Bedouin women in unrecognized villages Abu-Rabia-Queder, S., Morris, A. & Ryan, R. February 2018 ISSN 0140-1963 Journal of Arid Environments Vol. 149 (2018) Arid Environments Volume 149 51 60 71 78 Special Issue: Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihoods The Internet home page for Journal of Arid Environments can be found at: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Abstracted/indexed in: Abstracts and citation database SCOPUS®. Full text available on ScienceDirect®. 0140-1963(201802)149:C;1-H ELSEVIER Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press, Dorchester, UK Special Issue Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihoods Guest Editors: Dr Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder and Dr Avigail Morris Journal of Arid Environments Editor Emeritus: Professor J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson Editor in Chief Professor Damián Ravetta Museo Egidio Feruglio CONICET, Fontana 140 Trelew (9100), Chubut, Argentina (Inquiries and submissions to: Elsevier Ltd., Stover Court, Bampfylde Street, Exeter, Devon, EX1 2AH, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 (0) 1392 285800; Fax: +44 (0) 1392 425370 Email: JAE@elsevier.com) Associate Editors C. Armas D.Eldridge L.K. Horwitz M. Sternberg D.S.G. Thomas E.R. Vivoni L. Wang Estación Experimental Zonas Áridas, Almería, Spain University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Tel Aviv University, Israel University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Consulting Editors Y. Bai Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China R. Boone Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA J.S. Carrion Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain A. Cibils New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA N. Drake King’s College London, London, UK J. Garatuza Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Cd. Obregon, Son., Mexico N. Lancaster Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada, USA T. Luo Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China M.E. Meadows University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa F.M. Padilla University of Almería, La Cañada, Almería, Spain F. Parrini University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa B. Roundy Brigham Young University, Provo, USA S. Soliveres Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain Editorial Board Dr S. Archer University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA Professor R. Balling, Jr Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA Dr K.H. Berry U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Moreno Valley, California, USA Dr B.T. Bestelmeyer New Mexico State University, La Cruces, New Mexico, USA Professor J.N. Blignaut University of Pretoria, Derdepark, South Africa Dr D. Burnside URS Corporation, East Perth, Western Australia, Australia Dr W.R.J. Dean University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa Professor M.J. Delany University of Bradford, Bradford, UK Dr D.L. Dunkerley Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Ing. J.C. Guevara Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas, Mendoza, Argentina Professor H. Heatwole North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA Dr J. Henschel South African Environmental Observation Network, Kimberley, South Africa Professor M.T. Hoffman University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS: ISSN 0140-1963. Professor C.F. Hutchinson University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA Dr F.M. Jaksic Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile Dr E.G. Jobbágy Grupo de Estudios Ambientales, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, San Luis, Argentina Dr G.I.H. Kerley Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa Professor K.T. Killingbeck University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA Dr S.R. Morton CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia Dr M.K. Seely Gobabel Research and Training Centre, Walvis Bay, Namibia Dr P. Shaw University of The West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago Dr F. Tiver University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, South Australia, Australia Professor W.G. Whitford New Mexico State University, La Cruces, New Mexico, USA Dr B. Wu Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), Beijing, China Dr X.P. Yang Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China Mendeley Institutional Edition Mendeley Institutional Edition is the enterprise edition of Elsevier’s leading workflow tool with which 6+ million registered users engage to manage their research references, measure performance of their publications, showcase their work, stay up to date on research trends and discoveries, store datasets and find opportunities with the insights and management capabilities that Institutions need to help researchers progress their research achieve their and the institution’s goals. Trusted and used buy 600+ institutions worldwide www.elsevier.com/ solutions/mendeley Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Editorial Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihoods T Arid regions are most often characterized as geographical areas which lack environmental resources for a secure livelihood. As a result, many communities living in the arid areas of the world suffer from conditions of poverty and economic crises. Women from poor and less developed countries are those who usually pay the price of unequal access to natural and economic resources. Their inferiority is not only manifested in economic marginality but also intersects with other aspects of inequality such as ethnicity, status, age, patriarchal order and state policies which consequently lead to multiple inequality and marginality in accessing resources for a sufficient livelihood (Figs. 1 and 2). The aim of this special issue is to highlight the livelihoods of women in arid regions focusing on both the social, political, economic and ecological barriers that women encounter and the strategies they use to overcome them. The eight papers presented in this Special Issue of Journal of Arid Environments, offer a variety of case studies from around the globe. Each article relates to different challenges/barriers that women face in providing for their families and offers a descriptive analysis of the strategies women use to adapt to and/or overcome these challenges in a changing society. A major theme which appears throughout all of the papers in this volume has been the variety of ways in which women who live in harsh arid environments rely on their cultural and ecological knowledge in an attempt to sustain both themselves and their families. Many of the barriers that they face are not only due to ecological factors but to social and political interventions such as development projects and state policies. In an attempt to improve the quality of life for women through promoting gender equality these programs and policies often misrepresent these same women and undermine cultural and ecological knowledge essential for maintaining a sustainable lifestyle. These women are frequently perceived in western literature, as culturally oppressed and as victims of patriarchy. As a result their traditional roles within their family and community are often perceived as oppressive rather than empowering. This western prism tends to place these women who practice very different lifestyles as farmers, pastoralists, and past nomads as one homogeneous group. The issue begins with Yadav and Lal’s paper which uses support from a wide range of literature to outline the severe impact of climate change on women in developing countries. Emphasis is placed not only on the hardships women face as a result of climate change but also on the ways in which many of these women are using their traditional knowledge, experience and expertise, to adjust to these ecological changes. Yadav and Lal suggest that NGOs, governments and other development organizations can and do encourage women to create “climate-smart households”, advance “ecoefficiency” through the development of traditional knowledge, reinforce social networking, and manage sustainable systems. Although social and political interventions by NGOs and development projects aim to benefit women by improving their economic, social and political conditions, the papers in this volume by Hove and Gweme (on the Zaka of Zimbabwe), Köhler-Rollefson (on the Raika of Rajasthan) and Jocelyn et al. (the Walpiri of Australia), illustrate how these same interventions can often clash with cultural beliefs and practices and thus serve as barriers for improving living conditions for women. Hove and Gweme describe how NGO initiatives to introduce conservation agriculture (CA) to the Zaka of Zimbabwe were faced with cultural resistance and as a result failed to reach more women due, in part, to the need for increased labor intensive work for women already burdened with a multitude of domestic obligations as well as the fear of jeopardizing their major staple maize crops due to a new need for crop rotation. Both Köhler-Rollefson and Jocelyn et al. add to this dialogue by discussing the gaps in the perception of women’s roles and gender balance which exist between development programs through NGOs and the women whom which they are attempting to advance. When discussing women and sheep pastoralism amongst the Raika of Rajasthan, Köhler-Rollefson gives examples of the ways in which NGO’s overlook the powerful roles Raika women play as the financial managers of the household business and how reliance on western notions of gender equality cause NGOs to often misinterpret gender divisions in public spaces. In doing so, Köhler-Rollefson highlights the central contribution that Raika women make to their families subsistence. Jocelyn et al.’s paper points out the ways in which gender and cultural blindness of non-indigenous government agencies marginalize Warlpiri women by overlooking cultural norms which advocate separate but equal gender domains. Non-indigenous government agencies failed to realize that these gender domains are highly significant in providing the means by which men and women act as partners in managing and conserving the land. Another theme emphasized in this Special Issue is the important productive role women occupy in the attempt to sustain their families particularly among indigenous women in arid regions. As opposed to western feminist viewpoints which often look at domestic/familial roles as oppressive and thus disempowering, the papers presented in this volume suggests a different look at women's domestic roles perceiving them as an essential part of the family’s subsistence way of life. In other words, women’s identity and traditional subsistence roles are not detached from their families or communities, but are inspired from and embedded in family and kin relations. This volume challenges western rigid binary oppositions which divide public and domestic domains in terms of work and instead suggests https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.11.009 0140-1963/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Editorial Fig. 1. Raika shepherd women on migration (photograph courtesy of Ilse Köhler-Rollefson). domesticity as an integral part of sustainable life, which is vital to the cooperative, joint and complementary roles men and women share. In this regard, this volume's vital contribution is to suggest replacing the term 'gender equality', 'empowerment' and 'power' with more culturally suited terms that reflect women's understanding of their own contributions to their family’s economic well-being. The separation between gender roles or gender spaces discussed in these papers, are not understood as hierarchical divisions where one role/space is inferior to the other, but as complementary to each other. Empowerment and power are not seen merely as an individual's goal, but are embedded in family and kin relations, and in some cases also in patriarchal agents. Cooperation, jointness and the complementary roles that men and women share is further examined in Farnworth et al.’s paper which analyzes how household methodologies (HHM) which promote joint decision-making and management of both wives and husbands, emphasizing partnership between the two genders, is seen as a way to foster equal gender relations with the aim of reaching higher agricultural yields when managing their plots of land. Economic endeavors which are embedded in family and kin relations becomes the central theme in Biernacka et al.’s paper which examines urbanized Bedouin women entrepreneurs in Israel and the “patriarchal connective strategies” which they perceive as key factors in their business success which is framed within scarce conditions for economic development. In this context, fathers and sons as patriarchs become protectors and agents for women entrepreneurs. The paper challenges the homogeneous definition of patriarchal society by highlighting the important roles 'patriarchs' have in promoting agency and being at the same time resources for agency. Another topic highlighted in this Special Issue is the negative influence of state policies on the choices (or lack of choices) women have for improving living conditions for themselves and their families. In Hart’s article on rural life in Western Turkey she describes how village women who turn to their nomadic heritage as an economic resource to sustain rural life, found it difficult to maintain businesses such as weaving cooperatives and cheese making workshops due to the failure of the government to provide services to rural regions such as running water, roads and other infrastructure. This along with lack of appropriate ecological conditions have over the years driven many women to abandon their cultural economy and migrate to the cities where they preferred to become housewives leaving their husbands to become the breadwinners. The negative impact of state policies on the social and economic welfare of women in minority/indigenous groups is also discussed in Abu RabiaQueder et al.‘s paper which focuses on the economic plight of women in unrecognized Bedouin villages in southern Israel. Whereas women and their families in rural western Turkey have been driven by lack of infrastructure to abandon their nomadic heritage and turn ‘outward’ towards urbanized regions in the hopes of finding better economic opportunities for themselves and their children; in unrecognized Bedouin communities, state policies not only fail to provide people with an adequate infrastructure, but also deny them other basic political and economic rights such that women have been left with no choice but to rely on their traditional subsistence roles and look ‘inward’ towards their families and community turning them into a source of informal economy. The authors are careful to point out that although this informal economy, which is inspired from and embedded in family and kin relations, does provides economic, social and cultural benefits for poor families, it only enables a short term sustainable livelihood. Longer term solutions for economic development within unrecognized Bedouin villages are necessary and can only be achieved through changes in state policies towards these communities. In this volume we attempt to “unpack” the homogeneous category given to women in arid regions. We focus on their unique situations in terms of their geographic location, ecological conditions, role within the family unit, political status, subsistence patterns and economic status, educational background and cultural-ecological knowledge and practices in determining intervention among state policies and NGO's agencies. The choice of the Journal of Arid Environments for this Special Issue is also of importance since the topics raised here are generally not dealt with in such publications, whose major focus is the natural environment and ecology. It is hoped that this publication will serve to stimulate interest and 2 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Editorial Fig. 2. Bedouin woman weaving at the Sidreh-Lakiya association. The Lakiya Negev Weaving Initiative was established in 1991 and is a locally based enterprise managed by Bedouin women. It empowers Bedouin women of the Negev on a personal and economic level by applying their specialized weaving skills to produce products for both the local and international markets. (photograph courtesy of the Sidreh-Lakiya association). scientific investigation by a broader spectrum of researchers, on the status and role of women in arid lands. The guest editors thank Dr. Damian Ravetta - editor in chief, Dr. Liora Kolska Horwitz -associate editor and Mr. Shahid Hussain of the JAE office, for their assistance in seeing the papers through to publication. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder Ben-Gurion University Avigail Morris Science Center for the Dead Sea and Arava & The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies 3 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Vulnerability of women to climate change in arid and semi-arid regions: The case of India and South Asia S.S. Yadav a, b, Rattan Lal b, * a b Department of Botany, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, 124001, Haryana, India Carbon Management and Sequestration Centre, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 9 June 2016 Received in revised form 28 July 2017 Accepted 1 August 2017 Available online 10 August 2017 This article is a collation and synthesis of the literature review with the focus on the vulnerability of rural women in developing countries to climate change on the one hand and being pro-active in adapting to climate change on the other. The geographic coverage of the literature is global but with specific examples from India. The information presented in this paper is derived from diverse sources including journal articles and thematic books, and indicates severe adverse impacts not only on women's livelihood opportunities but also on exacerbating the workload and fatigue while decreasing their self esteem and forcing them to undertake some high risks and hazardous activities. The literature indicates that poverty, gender inequality, insecure land rights, heavy reliance on agriculture, less access to education and information are among the principal reasons for their vulnerability to climate change. The vulnerability is also confounded by the meager asset base, social marginalization, lack of mobility and exclusion from the decision-making processes in response to a disaster. However, the literature also shows that women are not only the passive victims of climate change but are also pro-active and agents of hope for adaptation to and mitigation of abrupt climate change. They utilize their experience and expertise to reduce the adverse impacts by adopting prudent strategies. They are also concerned about environmental issues, and are highly supportive of policies regarding environmental restoration. Large knowledge gaps exist regarding the vulnerability of women to changing and uncertain climate especially in arid regions. Authors of this article suggest some action plans and strategies to minimize vulnerability to climate change such as empowering women economically and educationally, organizing training and outreach programmes, and involving them in formal climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and programmes. Authors also outline research needed in order to identify and implement strategies regarding climate change. Collective and continuous efforts are critical to finding the sustainable solutions for this global phenomenon which is adversely impacting the most vulnerable but critically important members of the society. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Climate change Arid environment Women Vulnerability Adaptation and mitigation 1. Introduction Climate change is defined as 'a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods' (UNFCCC , 2011). It refers to the long-term changes in the components of climate such as temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration along with intensity and frequency of extreme events such as * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ssyadavindia@rediffmail.com (S.S. Yadav), lal.1@osu.edu (R. Lal). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.08.001 0140-1963/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. drought and floods. Being a significant anthropogenic environmental challenge, it is a common topic of discussion, study and research. Though climate change has occurred throughout Earth's history, the recent rate of warming far exceeds that of any previous episode in the past 10,000 years and perhaps far longer (Blois et al., 2013). The years 2014e2016 were the warmest since the records were first documented in 1890. The recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2, CH4 and N2O are the highest in magnitude since approximately 800,000 B.C. (IPCC, 2014). Increased energy consumption driven by an affluent life style is believed by many to be primarily responsible for global climate change. Other contributing activities include cement manufacture, deforestation, expansion and intensification of S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 agriculture and numerous human developmental activities. Global climate change has observable effects on the environment and its components. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, glaciers have shrunk, and the sea level has risen (IPCC, 2014). Deserts are becoming hotter and drier, extreme and violent weather events are becoming more frequent and agricultural land is becoming less productive (Elsner et al., 2008; Christiano, 2014; Gentle et al., 2014). Since the 1950s, many of the observed climatic changes are unprecedented and have severe negative impacts on all ecosystems, economies and enterprises (Dankelman et al., 2008; IPCC, 2014). Some of the most vulnerable sectors include agriculture, forestry and energy (European Commission, 2009). Climate change also distorts natural habitats and is likely to become the dominant driver for the loss of biodiversity and other natural resources by the end of this century (WRI , 2005). Agricultural production, fuelwood supply and water security is threatened by adverse impacts of climate change (Piao et al., 2010; Wheeler and von Braun, 2013). Climate change is also regarded as ‘the biggest global health threat of the 21st century’ (Costello et al., 2009). According to the literature, the adverse effects of climate change cannot be compartmentalized within the boundaries of a region, religion, caste, creed and gender. However, different stakeholders in different regions perceive the impacts of climate change differently. Furthermore, the extent of vulnerability depends on different rights, roles and responsibilities. Indeed, climate change is not a gender-neutral phenomenon. Women of the underprivileged and labour class living in arid regions, such as in India and elsewhere in South Asia, tend to be more affected by the adverse impacts of climate change than men because of more poverty, less education and training, less access to institutional support and information, and less participation in decision making bodies (Goh, 2012). Further, diverse behavioral, customary, attitudinal, economic and many other socio-cultural prohibitions make their lives more miserable during and after the climate change induced disasters (Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012). Literature shows that women are not only first observers but also among the first victims of adverse impacts of the climate change by virtue of their roles in looking after the family and responsibilities of collecting fodder, fuel wood and water (Nellemann et al., 2011; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). They are the first to observe the decreased productivity of farmland as crop yields decline, soils degrade, and water reservoirs deplete, contaminate or pollute. When the rural area is unsustainable, it is the women whose lives are the most disrupted because of the scarcity of fuel wood, water and fodder. None-the-less, women are also the effective agents of change as they often cope and adapt to climate change differently than men by using their particular knowledge and livelihood strategies (Israel and Sachs, 2013). Alas, the tough life of women in arid and semi-arid countries is getting tougher and more torturous with every increment of anthropogenic climate change, with gender being a critical factor in women's vulnerability. Thus, it is necessary to have a gendered focus to the global understanding of climate change. The objective of this article is to deliberate the differential impacts of climate change on women living in arid regions, explain various causes of their vulnerability, and outline possible ways to reduce their vulnerability. The literature is specifically focused on girls (10e15 year) and young mothers in the rural communities of South Asia and other developing countries in general but of India in particular. The rational for focus on India is because it represents a region with a large population density and a complex social structure where women are underprivileged and resource-poor. India, with 17.6% of the world population (1.34 out of 7.6 billion, U.N, 2017) has 2.4% of world's land area and 4% of the fresh water 5 resources. The water crisis will be exacerbated by the climate change and women of the rural India will be worst hit (Lal, 2016). India also provides an example where several initiatives have been undertaken to adapt to climate change. Thus, this article is also aimed at learning from past initiatives, identifying knowledge gaps, and describing the issues of climate change in the context of women's vulnerability under harsh conditions of India and South Asia. It also deliberates the contribution of women towards climate change adaptation and mitigation. 2. Methodology This article is based on literature review of peer-reviewed and generic literature. The information was taken from different sources such as a worldwide accepted scientific database (Scopus (http://www.scopus.com), Pubmed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed), Science Direct (http://www.sciencedirect.com), Springerlink (http://www.springer.co.in), Google Scholar (http://www. scholar.google.co.in) and Wiley (http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley. com)), theses, acknowledged books, abstracts, conference proceedings and non-impact and non-indexed journals. The advance search option was adopted for the literature survey from web sources with keywords viz. ‘climate change’, ‘women vulnerability’ and ‘arid environments’. Specific emphasis was placed on studies conducted in developing countries in drylands in the 21st century. The retrieved information is presented in form figures viz. confounding effects of climate change on women (Fig. 1), women's role in climate change adaptation and mitigation (Fig. 5). Social, economic and cultural factors making women more vulnerable to climate change and some probable solutions to reduce women's vulnerability and enhance adaptation are also presented. 3. Factors affecting women's vulnerability in arid and semi arid region It is recognized that women in general and those living in arid parts of India and South Asia in particular are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate change and the ecological crisis because numerous interacting factors. Their heightened vulnerability is rarely due to any single reason, rather, it is the product of diverse and interacting social processes that result in inequalities in socioeconomic status on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, age, and (dis)ability (IPCC, 2014). Socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise marginalized women; are especially more vulnerable to climate change. The confounding effects of climate change on women are depicted in Fig. 1 and described below. Workload and long working hours hinder education: Literature shows that women in rural India and South Asia have low education and high poverty. This is especially true for the teenage girls and young mothers of underprivileged classes. The female literacy rate in rural India (%) was 4.9 in 1951,10.1 in 1961,15.5 in 1971,21.7 in 1981,30.2 in I991, 46.7 in 2001 and 58.8 in 2011 (Census of India, 2011). In 1991, less than 40% of the 330 million women aged 7 and over were literate. It means that there were more than 200 million illiterate women in India, and most of these were in rural areas. In six out of the 24 states in 1998, only 25% or less of the women in rural areas were literate (Velkoff, 1998). In the desert state of Rajasthan, only 12% of the rural women were literate. As many as 45% of the girls dropout of the school between grades 1 and 5. Thus, only 13% of all Indian women have more than primary education and only1% have college education. A study conducted by Kookana et al. (2016) showed that in Gujrat, 41% of the mothers of interviewed students did not receive any school education, 38% had received primary education, 18% had received secondary level 6 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 Fig. 1. Confounding effects of climate change on increase in drudgery, health risks and breakdown of social fabric. Fig. 2. Women carrying water from long distances in arid parts of northern India in 2014. education and only 3% received tertiary level education. In Rajasthan, 58% of the mothers did not go to school, 26% had received primary education, 14% had received secondary level education and none had received tertiary education. Therefore, it is the illiterate rural women in India who are responsible for household work (i.e., cooking, cleaning, washing, collecting fuel wood, fetching water). Rural women in India are also involved in harvesting and carrying fodder for cattle. This workload is in addition to farming and related activities such as seeding (i.e., transplanting of rice), weeding, harvesting and threshing. Increase in frequency of extreme events (i.e., drought and heat wave) are likely to exacerbate women's workload, specifically in water fetching, and fuel wood collection. Carrying of heavy loads on their heads or on their backs (Fig. 2, Fig. 3a and 3b) can cause severe backaches and spinal injuries. Water collection: Arid regions in India and South Asia are prone to chronic water shortages and climate change is decreasing the availability of clean water for drinking and other household uses. Worldwide, women in almost two third of the households, are responsible for collecting water for drinking, cooking, sanitation and other productive tasks (FAO, 2003). Most countries in the Near East and North Africa suffer from acute water scarcity, as do countries such as Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and large parts of China and India (UN-Water, 2007). But the majority of traditional water reservoirs in arid and semi-arid regions of the world either have disappeared or are degraded beyond repair, and many of the existing ones are heavily polluted and unfit for use. For example at the beginning of 1960s, Bangalore (India) had 262 lakes but now only 10 lakes hold water. Another example is Delhi. In the year 2010-11, it was found that 21 out of 44 lakes in Delhi were gone dry due to rapid urbanization and falling water tables (Singh and Bhatnagar, 2012). In the 19th century, the Madras area had at least 43,000 functioning water tanks. It was also estimated that just two decades ago, there were at least 650 water bodies. But, today only a fraction (less than 30) of them remain. Like these, there are endless examples in India which show the sorry state of water bodies (Times of India, 2013). Under the climate change scenario, nearly half of the world's population will be living in areas of the highest water stress by 2030 (UNCCD). All Arab countries are considered water-scarce. The region has less than 500 m3 of renewable water resources available per person annually. About 66% of Africa is arid or semiarid, and more than 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than 1,000 m3 of water resources each (WWAP, 2012). India is also one of the most water-challenged countries in the world. 54% of India's total area is facing high to extremely high stressd putting almost 600 million people at higher risk of surface-water supply disruptions. Women in rural areas often rely on common water resources such as small water bodies, ponds and streams to meet their water needs. However, in many regions these sources have been eroded or have disappeared due to changes in land use, or have been appropriated by the state or industry for development needs or to supply water to urban areas. Literature shows that the groundwater in the Indo -Gangetic Plains is falling at the rate of > 1 m per year (Kerr, 2009; Pathak et al., 2014; Biswas and Tortajada, 2017) and will have severe impacts on women and small landholder. Sometimes, women lift S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 7 Fig. 3. (a) Women carrying fodder in district Jhajjar of Haryana state in India in 2016. (b) Women carrying fuelwood in district Rewari of Haryana state in India in 2016. Fig. 4. Women labourers working at a brick kiln in outskirts of Delhi, India in 2015. water from wells, where the water table is low and rapidly falling, making the task even more tedious (Sharma et al., 2012). In general, girls under 15 are in-charge of water collection (Fig. 2). In search of sufficient and clean water, young girls and women have to walk longer distances and spend more time purifying water (Mitchell et al., 2007). World Bank (2004) reported that rural women spend about 1 h per day fetching water. For example, in villages of Northern India, women and children walk 4e8 km to fetch drinking water from the government-managed tanks. In rural areas of Guinea, women spend more than twice as much time fetching wood and water per week than men, while in Malawi they spend over eight times more than men on the same tasks. Girls in rural Malawi also spend over three times more time than boys fetching wood and water (UNIFEM, 2009). In arid regions of South Asia and Africa, girls and children walk about 6 km per day to fetch water, and it is estimated that as many as 40 billion working hours are used every year to collect water in Sub Saharan Africa and 150 million work days every year in India to fetch and carry water (U.N., 8 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 Fig. 5. A conceptual outline of women's role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. The authors of this article propose the strategies for NGOs, governments and other development organizations to create climate-smart house-holds, improve eco-efficiency, strengthen social networking, and manage critical operations. These proposed strategies will lead to improved resilience, enhanced use-efficiency of inputs, strengthened selfehelp capacity, and increased adoption of innovative options. Examples of technological options to implement these strategies are outlined within the circles and quadrants in the schematic. Arrows indicate strong interactions among variables. 2013). In rural Rajasthan and Gujrat, water access can influence schooling opportunities for girls. Kookana et al. (2016) reported that in Rajasthan, the frequency of female students missing schools for 5 or more days per month was on average 2 to 10 times greater than that for males. The ground water scarcity in the study area and the consequent demand on their time for fetching drinking water are the contributing factors for their absence from school. Indian women are worst hit by the water crisis (Lal, 2016). Fodder and Fuel-wood collection: Fodder and fuel wood scarcity has vitally affected the lives of millions of women economically, socially and physically especially in arid and semi-arid regions of developing nations (Waris and Antahal, 2014) (Figs. 3a,b). Fuelwood accounts for between 50 and 90 percent of the household fuel used in developing countries (FAO, 2010). About 70% of the households use traditional energy (fuel wood, dung, crop residues) for cooking and heating. On average, women in India spend 374 h collecting fire wood or animal dung and 1460 h cooking every year when using a traditional stove (Alliance News, 2015). Thus, 80% of rural women in India are exposed to smoke from traditional stove (U.N, 2010). Similarly, World Bank (2004) reported that women in India spend 40 min per day collecting fuel wood (Fig. 3b). A survey conducted by the Global Alliance for Clean Cook stoves in South Asia indicates that women spend >20 h per week in collecting traditionally used fuels (wood and dung) and 4 h per day in cooking (Bloomfield, 2014). As much as 80% of rural women in Asia, 60% in Africa and 40% in Latin America are affected by a shortage of firewood (UNDP, 2009). They are forced to go to rough, remote and unsafe places to collect fuel-wood, and gather fodder at odd hours (Figs. 3a &b). When they carry heavy loads from long distances, they become more prone to spine injury, pregnancy complications S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 including miscarriage, and maternal mortality (Huyun, 2005), and face increased risks of sexual harassments including rape (UNDP, 2005). India has 17.7% of the world population (1.34 billion out of 7.55 billion; UN, 2017), of which 68.8% lives in rural areas. Yet, India has only 2.4% of the world's total land area and 4% of the world's fresh water resources (Pathak et al., 2014). Climate change will adversely affect the fresh water resources, both the surface and ground water (NIC, 2009; Biswas and Tortajada, 2017), and rural women in India will be the most adversely affected by the growing water crisis. 4. Health and mortality Climate change puts at risk the basic determinants of human health, and is regarded as the biggest challenge to global health (Costello et al., 2009). Extreme weather events (i.e. heat waves, droughts and windstorms) disproportionately affect women (Kovats and Hajat, 2008; Pascual et al., 2002). The declining natural resources have serious adverse impacts on women's health, and the climate change will worsen human health conditions, especially in the tropical regions. Heavy workload, early childbearing, high fertility, increase in climate-related disease outbreaks and absence of health and family planning facilities make them weak and highly vulnerable (WHO , 2010). Indirect effects of climate change on women's health may arise from the disruption of natural systems, causing infectious diseases, malnutrition, food and water-borne illnesses (Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). In India and Africa, global warming signifies an increase in mosquito populations, thus escalating the risk of malaria, dengue fever and other insect-borne infections (Kasotia, 2007). Increase in temperature and scarcity of clean water for drinking purpose is becoming a leading cause of kidney stone problems (Tasian et al., 2014). Climate related drought or famine disrupt the social structure, leaving women and children unaccompanied, separated or orphaned (Nellemann et al., 2011), leading to the loss of financial security. The loss of household dwellings, security, safety nets, and the aftermath of the disasters increase the economic pressure on women (IPCC, 2014). Climate change also breakdowns social fabric, increases unrest, and exacerbates women's vulnerability. In some cases, women's greater vulnerability to climate change may also relate to her basic physiology. For example, many women may be pregnant at any given time and less physically able to escape or survive during and after disasters (Mutunga and Hardee, 2010; WHO , 2010). Decreasing food production and high food prices lead to insufficient intake and less nutritious food (ADB, 2013). Though women prepare food for the whole family, they are often the last to eat whatever remains. Because they prioritize food for the family, they often have to forgo meals (Tirado et al., 2010). Such ‘food hierarchies’ exacerbate protein deficiencies in women, decrease immunity and increase susceptibility to diseases (Haigh and Vallely, 2010; Newcourse, 2010). Pregnant and nursing women face additional challenges. While their mobility is limited, they have an increased need for food and water (Nwoke and Ibe, 2014) and the access to food is limited by scarcity and hierarchy in priority. In most of the arid regions of the world, little water is available for cleanliness and hygiene. The problem is especially dire with pending water crisis with the projected climate change. Surface and ground water availability is around 1869 billion cubic meter (BCM), of which only 60% (1121 BCM) is available, and only 3% (33.6BCM) is used for domestic sector (Khurana and Sen, 2017). India has a rural population of 920 million spread over 15 diverse ecoregions, many of these in arid and semiarid climates. Even if 33.6BCM is distributed evenly among rural and urban population, which is unlikely, total available water resources for 920 million rural population is 9 23.1BCM or 25.1 cubic meter per year or about 70 L per day for bathing, drinking, washing and sanitation. Even the best-case scenario is not adequate by international standards. The water crisis will exacerbate the health and environmental sanitation (Kumar et al., 2011). Less than 60% of the rural households have individual household latrines (Mandal, 2009), and more than 500 children under the age of 5 die each day from diarrhea and other water borne diseases. Climate change, aggravating food shortage and water crisis, will exacerbate malnutrition and lack of sanitation and expose women and girls to severe health hazards. For example, 16 million (50%) Kenyans do not have adequate sanitation; more than 90% of the water and sanitation related disease outbreaks occur in the rural areas; 50% of rural households have no toilet facilities at all, and where they exist they are generally unhygienic (UNICEF). Of the 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have toilet facilities, 626 million people in India defecate into open space every day and are prone to several health hazards (Lu, 2017). In Odhisa, India, Sahoo et al. (2015) conducted a survey to assess the sanitationrelated psycho-social stress. They observed that sanitation practices encompassed more than defecation and urination and included carrying water, washing, bathing, menstrual management, and changing clothes. It is during these activities that rural women encounter three broad types of stresses; environmental, social and sexual. These stresses may be exacerbated by climateinduced increase in water scarcity. Severe water stress fosters a range of long-term public health challenges to rural women and girls facing water shortages (Kovats and Hajat, 2008; Alston, 2013). Globally, 15% of all maternal deaths are caused by infections in the six weeks after childbirth (Schechtman, 2013). Similarly, neonatal causes account for 44% of all deaths of children under five. The reduced availability of clean water results in urinary tract infections, diarrhea, skin problems and issues related to menstruation (Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). All these factors lead to increased mortality of women in disaster prone areas of the world. Women and girls are more likely to die than men during and after climate-related and other natural disasters (Enarson, 2009; Harris, 2010; Lambrou and Nelson, 2010; Neefjes and Valerie, 2010; Odigie-Emmanuel, 2010; Vincent et al., 2010;
n, 2013). The Tovar-Restrepo, 2010; Alston, 2011; Resurreccio gender gap in mortality is worse when the drought-flood syndrome and the heat-cold wave are more severe and people are poor (Neumayer and Plümper, 2007). For example, the death rate for women was almost five times as much in the 1991 cyclone in € hr, 2007; Newman and Stephenson, Bangladesh as that of men (Ro 2010). The literature indicates that women and girls are also vulnerable to gender-based domestic violence and sexual harassment during and in the aftermath of climate-related disasters (Nellemann et al., 2011; Uji, 2012). There are approximately 800,000 people trafficked across international borders annually and, of these, 80% are women or girls (Doyydaitis, 2010). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the greatest numbers of traffickers are from Asia. In the Asia-Pacific region, women are particularly at risk of sexual violence following a disaster (Alston, 2013). Increased levels of intimidation, sexual assaults and rapes occur in temporary shelter camps (Bartlett, 2008). During 1996, 1997, approximately 90% of the reported rapes in northeast Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps occurred while Somali women were gathering water, fuelwood and livestock grazing (UNHCR, 2001). A survey conducted in Bhopal, India, showed that 94% of women interviewed reported facing violence or harassment when going out to defecate, and more than one-third had been physically assaulted (Schechtman, 2013). Thus, under the Swachh Bharat Programme, India has made toilet construction as among its highest priorities (Lu, 2017). 10 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 5. Gender inequality and social wellbeing Girls are always the first casualty of the school dropout syndrome, and the drop-out rate for girls increases during and after disasters (Brody et al., 2008). Following a long periods of drought in Malawi, more girls dropped out of school to save money and to assist with household tasks than boys (Valentini, 2005). Increased workloads also forces girls out of schools to help in domestic and agricultural tasks (Brody et al., 2008; Baten and Khan, 2010). In Rajasthan, the desert region of India, 61% of the farm women are illiterate (Sandhya and Dashora, 2003). Indeed, the lack of education has aggravated and sustained gender inequality, perpetuated cycles of chronic poverty and increased environmental degradation (Newcourse, 2010). Extreme Climate change is leading to climate refugees (Haigh and Vallely, 2010). In extreme poverty, destruction of livelihoods and erosion of productive assets, men emigrate for employment opportunities and abandon their family (Nellemann et al., 2011), resulting in a feminization of responsibilities (Olsson et al., 2014; UNDP, 2012). This puts extra pressure on women to do more work and handle the responsibility of the household (IOM , 2009; Resurreccion, 2009; Laczko, and Aghazarm, 2009). Intensification of the workload of women accentuates difficulties in accessing resources, particularly food, feed, fuel and water (CIDA, 2002). Climate change is not only reducing the chances to achieve gender equality but also exacerbating the existing inequalities (Neumayer and Plümper, 2007). The intensity of adverse impacts is increased by other extraneous factors which further increase gender inequality. Important among these are land tenure and property rights, degraded soils and lack of access to essential inputs. Efforts and targets of achieving gender equality are also threatened by climate change (Skutsch, 2002; Hemmati and Rohr, 2009), because of the scarcity of natural resources and property right laws which favor men. In India, Giovarelli et al. (2013) reported that less than 10% of privately held land is in the name of a woman. While the formal laws may be beneficial to women, they are often irrelevant in practice because of social and cultural factors. Another key impact of climate change is increased human trafficking. Among those who are trafficked internationally, 70%e 80% are females, of which about 50% are girls (Curtol et al., 2004; Hodge and Lietz, 2007; US Department of State, 2004). Trafficking may increase by 20e30% during disasters (Nellemann et al., 2011). Disintegrated societies and disrupted protective patterns in families and communities make women more vulnerable to the exploitation of criminal human trafficking. Disasters leading to increased physical, social and economic insecurity aggravate human trafficking (Nellemann et al., 2011). Among trafficked women, about 70% are coerced into sex trade and other forms of sexual exploitation (Demir, 2003). Extreme climate change and loss of income may also push women into high-risk activities including sex trade or the so-called survival sex (Bishop-Sambrook, 2004). Girls of economically impoverished families are particularly more vulnerable to forced labour and the sex trade (ILO , 2011). Migration of men, abandoning of women and lack of income are responsible for an increase in modern day slavery, forced and bonded labour in homes or in industries like brick kilns (Fig. 4). Brick kiln industry in India probably employs the largest unpaid female workforce in the world. The wealthy state of Punjab (India) is home to more than 300,000 women workers in brick kilns. With no labour records, a woman labourer is neither recognized nor valued. If working with her husband, a woman is not paid separately because wages in brick factories are on piece-rate or task basis and for the most part the male head of her family is paid for the entire family's labour (Sekhar, 2015). Many of the women workers are sexually abused, and conditions for pregnant women are particularly bad, as they do not have access to medical facilities, and are forced to work well into their pregnancy (Chandran, 2016). Women lacking sufficient food have 80% higher probability of selling sex for money or resources, a 70% higher probability of engaging in unprotected sex and a 50% higher probability of intergenerational sex (Actionaid, 2008). Women and children from violence and famine-hit Somalia are being trafficked into Kenya and sold into prostitution (Kahare, 2011). Many underage girls are also trafficked for sex tourism in these regions. Poverty and lack of economic independence puts women in a weak social position, and makes them either unaware or unable to insist on safe sex practices, and are at higher risks of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS (Newcourse, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Dintwa, 2012). The unwanted pregnancies and the lack of access to birth control pills further exacerbate their vulnerability (Alston et al., 2014). Women living in arid regions are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate change and the ecological crisis due to factors discussed below. Poverty: Poverty is one of the major driving forces behind people's vulnerabilities to climate change. One reason why women living in arid regions constitute the largest percentage of the world's poorest people is because they have far less access to resources that are essential to disaster preparedness, mitigation and rehabilitation. 70% of the world's poor are women and own only 1% of the world's titled land. Insecure land tenure and other resource rights further exacerbate their vulnerability (Lambrou and Piana, 2006; Aguilar, 2009; Dankelman, 2010; Solar, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012; Farming First, 2013; Tuana, 2013; Leichenkoand Silva, 2014). Informal workforce: Almost 70% of employed women in South Asia and more than 60% of employed women in Sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture. Women make up the larger share of the informal workforce and are responsible for multiple tasks during and after the climate event disasters (Loughran and Pritchett, 1997; Gender and Water Alliance, 2003; Aguilar, 2009; Lane and McNaught, 2009; UNDP, 2009; Solar, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012; Ghosh, 2015). Of the 207 million agricultural labour force in India, 92 million (30%) are women. Of these, 50% are casual labourers (FAO, 2011) with little financial security. In Orissa, India, women of family contribute 62% of the labour in harvesting and post-harvesting operations of rice (Thakur, 2013). In the book “Staying Alive: Women Ecology and Survival in India,” Shiva (1988) emphasizes the role of women as conservationists, lifeenhancing and equity seeking. Her focus is on rural and tribal women in India who are specifically identified with nature and the human community. Heavy reliance on meager natural resources: Women in rural India, especially those of underprivileged classes and landless laborers, are heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihood and subsistence income. In South Africa and Mozambique, 60%e70% of women rely on natural resources for their survival. In Sub-Saharan countries of Africa, women derive 30e50% of nonfarm income from natural resources (Adger et al., 2003; Mutangadura, 2004; Aguilar, 2006; Blackden, 2006; Lambrou and Piana, 2006; Dankelman and Jansen, 2010; Newcourse, 2010; Waris, and Antahal, 2014). Loss of vegetation, degradation of soil and pollution of water put extra pressure on women. When natural resources degrade, limited economic opportunities for women are jeopardized and poverty intensifies. Less access to education and training: Women constitute the majority of illiterates in rural India, and especially in the dry regions. They make up over two-thirds of the world's 796 million people who are illiterate, and many of them live in rural areas. For example, in Cambodia 48 percent of rural women are illiterate S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 while in Burkina Faso 78 percent of rural women cannot read and write (FAO, 2010, IFAD, ILO, 2010). Women have less access to education and training opportunities concerning climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Moreover, they are discouraged from learning lifesaving skills. The lack of female educators, outreach experts and agricultural extension agents hampers women's access to information; resources and technology which further increases their vulnerability (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2010; FAO, 2011; Newcourse, 2010; UN Women, 2013). A survey conducted by Haugen et al. (2011) in 28 African countries showed that while female teachers make difference in girl's education, many countries have a relatively few females in the teaching force. Furthermore, men generally dominate the control of resources and women have less ownership than men of required resources for a basic livelihood. In developing regions, women own substantially less land, get lower wages and have less access to financial institutions than men (Deere and Doss, 2006; Haigh and Vallely, 2010; Newcourse, 2010; Solar, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012; Alston, 2013; Tuana, 2013; Carr and Thompson, 2014). Underrepresentation of women in national parliaments and climate change negotiations: A disproportionately small percentage of women are represented in regional and global climate meets and their percentage of participation in UNFCCC is 15e25%. Furthermore, their position in the social hierarchy is low, which makes them unable to raise their voices even after participation (Denton, 2002; Resurreccion, 2009; Solar, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012; Tuana, 2013; UN, 2013; Kruse, 2014; Weiner, and MacRae, 2014). In addition, there are gender-biased development processes and programmes which place women at a disadvantageous position and may exacerbate general impacts and risks. In Odhisa, India, a survey by Routray et al. (2017) showed that decisions on the construction of household level facilities were made exclusively by the male head in 80% of households; and in 11% the decision was made by men who consulted or otherwise involved women. Reconstructive policies and programmes are often gender-insensitive, and place them at the ground zero of climate change vulnerability (Skinner, 2011; Weiner, and MacRae, 2014; Allwood, 2014). Furthermore, socio-cultural customs and traditions prevent women from engaging in activities outside of the household. Lack of independent decision making power, traditional norms of dressing, cultural restriction on movement and restriction of relocation without the consent of a male hinder their progress and make them more vulnerable during and after disasters (Ikeda, 1995; Neumayer and Plümper, 2007; Mehra and Hill Rojas, 2008; Aguilar, 2009; Newcourse, 2010; Nellemann et al., 2011; Yavinsky, 2012; CARE International, 2013). 6. Contribution of women to climate change adaptation and mitigation Despite numerous challenges and constraints, women are at the center stage of climate change adaptation and mitigation programmes (Nellemann et al., 2011). Women's role in climate change adaptation and mitigation is outlined in Fig. 5, and discussed below. The schematics in Fig. 5 show that women play an important role in developing climate-smart households through sustainable options for managing the household gardens, ensuring food and nutritional security, increasing diversity of food sources and by adopting preventive measures such as boiling and filtering water and using mosquito netting, etc. They also enhance eco-efficiency by combining the traditional with the modern knowledge and recycling wastes as compost in the home garden. Social networking is an important tool used by women and it involves community 11 associations, credit opportunities (e.g., grameen bank), household supplies and providing education to girls. Managing operations through sustainable systems and planning ahead are among the innovative options. Specific examples of the concepts outlined in Fig. 5 are also discussed in the following sections.[provide references]. Food production: Women have been the primary growers of food and nutrition throughout human history. They play a key role in food production, and are the backbone of the rural economy (Farming First, 2013). Worldwide, women contribute to 43% of the workforce in agriculture but produce 50% of the total food (FAO, 2011). Women are reportedly responsible for 65% of the total household production in Asia and 75% in Sub Saharan Africa (UN Women Watch, 2013). Indigenous biodiverse varieties of edible plants grown by women provide far more nutritional food than the commodities produced by industrial agriculture (Shiva, 2015). Given below are specific examples where women are adopting climate-smart agricultural techniques (refer the section on page 9 in the section on Women-led Initiatives) and are growing climateresilient crop varieties (Brody et al., 2008). Women are already adapting to climate change by diversifying their agriculture, food habits and devising long-term food storage techniques. For example, women in the deserts of Rajasthan (India) have taken on many innovations such as growing improved crop varieties including that of pearl millet and other crops suited to the region; planting fruit trees to provide nutrition and income; constructing embankments to capture rainfall and prevent runoff and soil erosion; and planting grasses and fodder trees to provide fodder for cattle (ICRISAT, 2015). Biodiverse ecological agriculture (i.e., compound gardening based on multiple species including vegetables and medicinal herbs)practiced by women is a solution not only to the malnutrition crisis, but also to adaptation and mitigation of changing and uncertain climate (Shiva, 2015). Shiva (2000) described the social and ecological costs of indiscriminate agricultural intensification, especially those, as she calls it, hidden and unnoticed factors affecting the women workers. The work by Shiva is also supported by that of Bourne (2015) who has emphasized the pollution of water and air because of the excessive and indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals, and the victims are the rural women and children. With the help of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (Self Learning Experiment), a Pune (India) based non-profit organization, lives of nearly 72,000 women farmers have been transformed by adopting sustainable and climate-resilient agro-ecological farming. This initiative has also created 5500 self-help groups that supported women to engage as farmers, entrepreneurs and leaders. Under the one-acre model, multiple crops are grown to boost nutritional security, soil fertility, agro-biodiversity and income viability. Women in this region practice sustainable methods such as use of bio-pesticides, organic fertilizers and water conservation techniques like drip irrigation, sprinklers, farm ponds, recharging of bore wells and tree plantation to augment precious and scarce groundwater and to improve soil fertility. Traditional Knowledge Custodian: Women are regarded as custodians and carriers of traditional knowledge (Agarwal, 2009). By performing essential activities (e.g. fetching water, growing food, gathering fuel wood, tending domestic animals, rearing children and caring for elders) women have gained special knowledge about the local environment and other natural resources (Dankelman, 2001; Jara, 2012). Women are knowledgeable and willing to use traditional knowledge related to natural resources, climate change, species composition, medicinal uses of herbs etc. (Kanwar and Sharma, 2011). It is also the women, for the most part, who transmit to the next generation these values as part of their stewardship role. With the knowledge of natural resources, women can also influence development and implement policies 12 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 and programmes relating to climate change not only at the local
n, level but also at the national and international levels (Resurreccio 2013). The Grandmothers' University and Diverse Women for Diversity initiatives by Navdanya (An Indian based International NGO) is aimed at both celebrating and validating the wisdom of grandmothers and also for transmitting this knowledge to future generations to arrest the rapid erosion of skills, knowledge and values which women have evolved over millennia to live sustainably. Diverse Women for Diversity echoes women's voices from the local and grassroots level to global fora and international negotiations. Through these initiatives, Navdanya has connected over 5 million women from 22 states of India as one force for sustainability and women's empowerment (Shiva, 2015). 7. Environmental management and activism Women are well suited to find solutions to prevent further degradation of soil and water resources and to adapt to the changing climate. Their behaviour, on average, contributes less to pollution (Polk, 2009) than that of men. They express more concern for the environment and support policies that are more beneficial to the environment (Norgaard and York, 2005). They are more likely than men to recycle waste, buy organic food and eco-labeled products; place a higher value on energy-efficient transport and tend to vote for leaders who care about the environment (OCED, 2008; McCright, 2010). Having little access to modern devices and thus relying on traditional tools (i.e., hoe, manual sprayers, traditional threshing), women use less fossil fuel than the motorized equipment used by men which run on fossil fuel; and are more likely to ratify international environmental treaties (Polk, 2009; Aguilar, 2013; European Commission, 2014). A survey of 30 villages in Maharashtra, India, indicated women farm labourers specifically performed in-hand weeding operations, sowing seeds, and threshing and winnowing operations (Rani, 2011). There is a strong need to adapt and refine women-friendly tools and equipment for drudgery reduction in farm operations such as pedal operated thresher, hanging type grain cleaner, tubular maize sheller and groundnut decorticator (Sundram, 2013; Bhatt, 2013; Singh, 2013). Women also look after grain storage and other post-harvest operations. Yet, women are not trained in post-harvest know-how, and thus, high post-harvest losses aggravate food insecurity (Sidhu, 2007). Globally, traditional practices used by rural women are by nature eco-friendly systems (Nellemann et al., 2011). Thus, projects designed and run with full participation of women are more effective than those without them (Agarwal, 2010). For example, in Northwestern India, tree cover increased by 75% when women were included in the process of protecting forests (Agarwal, 2009). Women's participation is also strongly associated with the effectiveness of water and sanitation projects (UN Water, 2006). Women are also moving into the forefront of environmental activism and are leading protests against deforestation, industrial pollution and the construction of ecosystem-altering dams. Countries in which women and their organizations are active tend to have less deforestation than those in which such activism is rare or absent (Shandra, 2008; Engelman, 2010). Given below are several examples of women's involvement in continuation of a centuries old tradition of protecting the environment. The tradition goes back to 1730, when women in India protested against the king's men who were attempting to cut green trees. Amrita Devi, leader of the group, sacrificed her life along with 363 other women (including her three daughters) to save the Khejri (Prosopis cineraria) green trees from being felled by the King of Marwar, Rajasthan. During the early 1970s, women organized advocacy groups to protect the trees from being cut, and they hugged (chipko) the trees. Thus, the protest was called the “Chipko” movement, and the indigenous women from India protected the trees from the massive threat of logging (Jain, 1984). In 1980s, Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt movement to mobilize women to reforest degraded land in Kenya (Maathai, 2004). In Guatemala, women farmers are planting trees to sequester carbon and improve farming techniques. In Ghana, propelled by women's leadership, the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative is tackling climate change and creating an income stream for women by training them to build and sell high-quality bamboo bicycles. In Australia, 1 million women have taken the initiative to become the country's largest women's environmental organization – with a goal for these women to take small steps in their daily lives that shrink their carbon footprint (Figueres, 2004; Brown, 2015). Similarly, low-income women along the US Gulf Coast played a significant role in environmental restoration after the hurricane Katrina (David and Enarson, 2012). Women led initiatives for adapting to climate change: The literature shows that several initiatives have been undertaken throughout the world to tackle the menace of climate change, and a large proportion of these are led by women. Examples of some initiatives aimed not only to reduce women's vulnerability but also to help them in mitigating the impact of climate change and adapting them include the followings: Grandmothers' University and Diverse Women for Diversity Initiative of Navdanya in India; Low Smoke Stoves Project in Darfur, Sudan; Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative; Women Advancing Climate and Climate Change Sciences (Women-ACS); Caribbean Farmers Network (CaFAN); Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers; Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP); Climate-Smart Agriculture in Kenya; Crop Diversification in Nicaragua; Applying Local Knowledge to Crop Production in Bolivia; Solar Sisters in Nigeria Uganda, and Tanzania; Blue Ventures in Madagascar; and Sustaining Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprise and Agribusiness Development (SPREAD) project in Rwanda etc. (Brown, 2015; Shiva, 2015; Wedeman and Petruney, 2016). Approaches to reducing women’s vulnerability to climate change: Despite the knowledge regarding the role of rural women in climate-resilient systems (as discussed in the previous sections on the basis of literature surveyed), women living in arid and semiarid regions, constituting the majority of the world’s poor, are still among the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. While, worldwide efforts to reduce their vulnerability to climate change and to increase their adaptive capacity are in progress, the available knowledge has not been translated into effective action. Therefore, the way forward is to develop policies to promote adoption of some of the approaches and options required for enhancing adaptive capacity and reducing women’s vulnerability to climate change. Specific strategies to surmount the barriers to adoption of the climate-resilient systems by women are as follows: Poverty eradication and economic empowerment: The first step towards tackling the challenges of climate change is empowering women to safeguard the environment. Poverty eradication is an essential prerequisite for reducing women's vulnerability. Economic empowerment is important in guaranteeing their overall well-being. When economically empowered women raise healthier and better educated families, it increases their adaptive capacity. Innovative approaches and partnerships are needed to design and develop women-friendly and climate-resilient economic policies. Providing employment opportunities, credit facilities, savings and insurance schemes with gendered contexts are important options €thge, 2011; (Grown et al., 2006; Prowse et al., 2009; Solar, 2010; Ba Hill, 2011; OECD, 2011; Farming First, 2013; CARE International, 2013; Leichenko and Silva, 2014). Infrastructure and assets development: Infrastructure S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 development reduces women's work burdens, improves their health and increases their efficiency. Improving women's access to alternative and affordable sources of energy, reliable public transport and traditional risk sharing mechanisms, can reduce women's vulnerability to climate change. As women's assets largely determine their capacities and response to the impacts of climate change, so more actions are required to strengthen the asset base as a fundamental principle in climate adaptation strategies (Hill, 2011; Grown et al., 2006; Aguilar, 2009; Solar, 2010; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). Secure resource and property rights: Secure tenure to resources and gender-equal land rights enhance productive efficiency, increase adaptive capacity to climate change and improve overall wellbeing. Formal ownership and control over farmland improves women's productivity and increases their coping capacity to the climate change. Securing women's rights to land and other resources also has ancillary benefits which reduce their vulnerability when economic shocks occur, and make it easier to obtain loans (Grown et al., 2006; Rodgers and Menon (2013); Nwoke and Ibe, 2014; WOCAN, 2014). Promoting gender equality: Gender equality is also increasingly recognized as a critical crosscutting issue in major environmental agreements and climate change negotiations. Until gender inequality is addressed, women will continue to suffer climate injustice. Concerted efforts are required to reduce gender inequalities and to provide equal rights, resources and opportunities in all spheres (Grown et al., 2006; Haigh and Vallely, 2010; Sasvari et al., 2010; Solar, 2010; WOCAN, 2014; Weiner and MacRae, 2014; Allwood, 2014). Education and information dissemination: Education for women is not only the most powerful most instrument of changing their position in society but is also a key in reducing their disaster fatalities and enhancing adaptive capacity. Capacity building is an essential preparatory step in adaptive strategy in climate change. Empowering the next generation of women through universal education should be an essential element in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. A variety of approaches in women's education, literacy, vocational and life skill training are needed to reduce their vulnerability to the climate change (World Bank, 2004; Hill, 2011; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014; Lutz et al., 2014). Training programmes on alternative cultivation methods, efficient domestic and agricultural use of available water resources, alternative sources of domestic energy are required especially for rural women. Women should be provided with skill training and access to credit facilities to start their own enterprises at the village level. Local women should be involved in outreach activities and programmes related to climate change and environmental awareness €thge, 2011; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014; Lutz et al., (Aguilar, 2009; Ba 2014). The importance of climate change awareness, early warnings and prior information are critical to minimize fatalities during disasters. Relevant information given well in advance helps women in better disaster preparedness and significantly reduces fatalities. There is a need to utilize new and existing educational, outreach, training, and capacity building programmes to disseminate information and resources related to climate change (UNFCCC , 2011; B€ athge, 2011; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). Diversification of livelihoods: Among the majority of poor women who practice subsistence agriculture, diversification of agriculture and livelihood are of critical significance. Thus, women farmers should be motivated to adopt climate-smart agriculture. Adaptation efforts often emphasize changes in livelihood strategies, so diversification of livelihoods to include activities outside agriculture is an important strategy for managing climate risks (Solar, 2010; Ajani et al., 2013; Nwoke and Ibe, 2014). Women's lives 13 are intertwined in a reciprocal relationship with natural resources. They are heavily dependent on natural resources for fuel wood, fodder, medicines, subsistence food and income. So, there is a need to maintain sustainability of ecosystems and conserve natural resources. Sustainable use of resources should be promoted in the society (Lambrou and Piana, 2006; Newcourse, 2010; Sasvari et al., 2010; Hill, 2011). Shift in existing policy framework and interagency coordination: Women are not merely vulnerable to climate change but are also effective agents of change in relation to both mitigation and adaptation. They have considerable knowledge, experience and expertise regarding climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies. To be agents of change, it is critical to engage them in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and programmes (Grown et al., 2006; Nellemann et al., 2011; Weiner and MacRae, 2014; Allwood, 2014). There is an urgent need to revise existing policy frameworks and investment strategies related to land rights, forests, water, energy and agriculture to integrate women's concerns. Climate change adaptation and mitigation planning strategies need to be incorporated into existing state and local developmental policies and programmes (Prowse et al., 2009; UNFCCC , 2011; Weiner and MacRae, 2014; Allwood, 2014). Inter-agency coordination and synergies is required in poverty reduction, women empowerment and climate change policies. Poverty reduction and adaptation measures should be fully integrated to maximize climate mitigation and women's adaptation co-benefits. There is a need to build cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder platforms to drive innovative gender-responsive approaches and collaboration between climate change adaptation practices and implementing agencies (Lambrou and Nelson, 2010; CDKN, 2011; Hill, 2011; CARE International, 2013; WOCAN, 2014). The literature show that for climate change adaptation policies and programmes to reach the most vulnerable women, they must have a voice in the decision making processes. Their full participation in negotiations and decision-making is not only helpful to them but also essential to enhance food security, boost biodiversity, protect fragile natural resources, improve water management, and reduce GHGs emissions. Their greater participation is also likely to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of climate change projects and policies. Enabling women's leadership in climate change mitigation and adaptation policies and programmes may be potentially the most positive step to achieve the desired targets (Lambrou and Laub, 2004; Norgaard and York, 2005; Aguilar, 2006; Grown et al., 2006; Neumayer and Plümper, 2007; UNDP, 2007; UNDP, 2009; Nellemann et al., 2011; Parikh et al., 2012; MlamboNgcuka, 2014; Kruse, 2014). Additional research is required to better understand women's concerns and to design effective gender responsive initiatives. Processes and contents of climate change frameworks on the one hand, and women's vulnerability on the other, must be understood to unearth clues about critical linkages (WOCAN, 2014; Uji, 2012; Solar, 2010; Prowse et al., 2009). Acknowledgement The senior author received the financial assistance in the form of Raman Post Doctoral Fellowship from University Grants Commission, New Delhi and study leave from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak (Haryana) India. Authors are also thankful to the Editors of this special issue (Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder and Dr. Avigail Morris) for their critical comments and suggesting improvements in this article. Authors are thankful to Sh. Sunit Mukharjee, Director Public Relations, MDU Rohtak for reading and editing the article. The project was also sponsored by the Carbon 14 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 Management and Sequestration Centre, SENR/CFAES, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. References Actionaid, 2008. Securing Women's Right to Land and Livelihoods a Key to Ending Hunger and Fighting AIDS. http://www.landcoalition.org/sites/default/files/ Hunger.pdf?q¼pdf/08_ legacy/legacypdf/08_Women_s_right_to_land_HIV. Women_s_right_to_land_HIV_and_Hunger.pdf. ADB, 2013. Gender Equality and Food Security-women's Empowerment as a Tool against Hunger. Adger, W.N., Huq, S., Brown, L., Conway, D., Hulmea, M., 2003. Adaptation to climate change in the developing world. Prog. Dev. Stud. Agarwal, B., 2009. Gender and forest conservation: the impact of women's participation in community. Ecol. Econ. 68, 2785e2799. Agarwal, B., 2010. Gender and Green Governance: the Political Economy of Women's Presence within and beyond Community Forestry. Aguilar, L., 2006. Gender and Climate Change. IUCN, San Jose, Costa Rica. Aguilar, L., 2009. Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacities. http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/SOW09_CC_women.pdf. (Accessed 25 November 2014). Aguilar, L., 2013. A path to implementation: gender-responsive climate change strategies. In: Alston, M., Whittenbury, K. (Eds.), Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change. © Springer Science Business Media, Dordrecht, p. 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-0075518-5 5. Ajani, E.N., Onwubuya, E.A., Mgbenka, R.N., 2013. Approaches to economic empowerment of rural women for climate change mitigation and adaptation: implications for policy. Int. J. Adv. Agric. Res. 1, 37e42. Alliance News, 2015. Women spend 374 hours each year collecting firewood in India, study finds. Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. http://cleancookstoves. org/about/news/05-05-2015-women-spend-374-hours-each-year-collectingfirewood-in-india-study-finds.html. (Accessed 5 May 2015). Allwood, G., 2014. Gender mainstreaming and EU climate change policy. In: Weiner, Elaine, MacRae, Heather (Eds.), ‘The Persistent Invisibility of Gender in EU Policy’ European Integration Online Papers (EIoP), Special Issue 1, vol. 18, pp. 1e26. Article 6. http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2014-006a.htm. Alston, M., 2011. Gender and climate change in Australia. J. Sociol. 47 (1), 53e70. Alston, M., 2013. Women and adaptation. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Clim. Change 4 (5), 351e358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wcc.232. Alston, M., Whittenbury, K., Haynes, A., Godden, N., 2014. Are climate challenges reinforcing child and forced marriage and dowry as adaptation strategies in the context of Bangladesh? Women's Stud. Int. Forum 47 (Part A), 137e144. World Bank, 2004. The Impact of Energy on Women's Lives in Rural India. The World Bank, Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), Washington D.C. Bartlett, S., 2008. Climate change and urban children: implications for adaptation in low and middle-income countries. Environ. Urbanization 20 (2), 501e520. Baten, M.A., Khan, N.A., 2010. Gender Issue in Climate Change Discourse: Theory versus Reality. UnnayanOnneshan - The Innovators. http://www.bdresearch.org. bd/home/attachments/article/206/genissue.pdf. (Accessed 6 January 2015). €thge, S., 2011. Climate Change and Gender: Economic Empowerment of Women Ba through Climate Mitigation and Adaptation? GesellschaftfürTechnischeZusammenarbeit (GTZ). Working paper on Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Rights [Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dac/gender-development/ 46975138.pdf. Bhatt, B.P., 2013. Gender Perspective in Agriculture: Strategies for Gender Mainstreaming. Model Training Course on Gender Perspective in Integrated Farming System w.e.f 17e24. ICAR, Patna, Bihar. Bishop-Sambrook, C., 2004. Addressing HIV/AIDS through Agriculture and Natural Resource Sectors: a Guide for Extension Workers. FAO, Rome. SEAGA Programme. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/a0883e/a0883e00.pdf. (Accessed 6 January 2015). Biswas, A.K., Tortajada, C., 2017. India's groundwater crisis invisibledand getting worse. TodayOnline, 22 March 2017. http://www.todayonline.com/ commentary/indias-groundwater-crisis-invisible-and-getting-worse. Blackden, C., 2006. Gender, Time Use and Poverty in Sub Saharan Africa. D.C.World Bank, Washington. Blois, J.L., Zarnetske, Phoebe L., Fitzpatrick, Matthew C., Finnegan, Seth, 2013. Climate change and the past, present, and future of biotic interactions. Science 341, 499e504. Bloomfield, E., 2014. Gender and Livelihood Impacts of Clean Cook Stoves in South Asia. Executive Summary. Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves, p. 6. Info@ cleancookstoves.org. Bourne Jr., J.K., 2015. The End of Plenty: the Race to Feed a Crowded World. W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd, London, p. 408. Brody, A., Demetriades, J., Esplen, E., 2008. Gender and Climate Change: Mapping the Linkages - a Scoping Study on Knowledge and Gaps. BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/DFID_Gender_Climate_Change.pdf. (Accessed 6 January 2015). Brown, D., 2015. Women farmers strive to combat climate change in the caribbean. http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/12/women-farmers-strive-toAvailable at. combat-climate-change-in-the-caribbean/. (Accessed 6 June 2017). CARE International, 2013. Climate change vulnerability and adaptive capacity in Garissa county, Kenya. In: Adaptation Learning Programme (ALP). http://www. careclimatechange.org/files/CVCA_Kenya_Report__Final.pdf. Carr, E.R., Thompson, M.C., 2014. 2014. Gender and climate change adaptation in Agrarian settings: current thinking, new directions, and research frontiers. Geogr. Compass 8/3, 182e197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12121. CDKN (Climate and Development Knowledge Network), 2011. Climate change and poverty reduction. Policy Brief. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ CDKNpoverty-reductionFINAL.pdf. Census of India, 2011. State of Literacy. Provisional Population Totals. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, New Delhi, India, pp. 97e136. Chandran, R., 2016. 'Invisible' Women Brick-kiln Workers in Punjab Demand Their Rights. Available at: http://in.reuters.com/article/india-women-punjab-labourrights-idINKCN0XM1MA?il¼0. (Accessed 14 May 2016). Christiano, T., 2014. Introduction to symposium on climate change. Polit. Philosophy Econ. 13 (4), 317e319, 2014. CIDA, 2002. Gender Equality and Climate Change: Why Consider Gender Equality when Taking Action on Climate Change? Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Hull. http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/INET/IMAGES.NSF/vLUImages/ Climate%20change3/$file/Gender-2.pdf. Costello, A., Mustafa, Abbas, Adriana, Allen, Sarah, Ball, Sarah, Bell, Richard, Bellamy, Sharon, Friel, Nora, Groce, Anne, Johnson, Maria, Kett, Maria, Lee, Caren, Levy, Mark, Maslin, David, McCoy, Bill, McGuire, Hugh, Montgomery, David, Napier, Christina, Pagel, Jinesh, Patel, Jose Antonio, Puppim de Oliveira, Nanneke, Redclift, Hannah, Rees, Daniel, Rogger, Joanne, Scott, Judith, Stephenson, John, Twigg, Jonathan, Wolff, Craig, Patterson, 2009. Managing the health effects of climate change. Lancet 373, 1693e1733. Curtol, F., Decarli, S., Di Nicola, A., Savona, E.U., 2004. Victims of human trafficking in Italy: a judicial perspective. Int. Rev. Vict. 11 (1), 111e141. Dankelman, I., 2001. Gender and Environment: Lessons to Learn. UNESCO, 2001. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. EOLLS Publishers Co.Ltd, Oxford. http:// www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/env_manage/documents/OP2-2001Oct. pdf. (Accessed 12 December 2014). Dankelman, I., 2010. Introduction: exploring gender, environment and climate change. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 1e20. Dankelman, I., Jansen, W., 2010. Gender, environment and climate change: understanding the linkages. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change. Earthscan, London/Sterling, pp. 21e54. Dankelman, I., Alam, K., Ahmed, W.B., Gueye, Y.D., Fatema, N., Mensah-Kutin, R., 2008. Gender, Climate Change and Human Security: Lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Senegal. WEDO with ABANTU for Development in Ghana, ActionAid Bangladesh and ENDA Senegal. http://www.wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/ hsn-study-final-may-20-2008.pdf. David, E., Enarson, E., 2012. The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race and Class Matter in an American Disaster. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. Deere, C.D., Doss, C., 2006. The Gender Asset Gap: what do we know and why does it matters? Fem. Econ. 12 (1/2), 1e50. Demir, J.S., 2003. Trafficking of Women for Sexual Exploitation: a Gender-based Well-founded Fear? an Examination of Refugee Status Determination for Trafficked Prostituted Women from CEE/CIS Countries to Western Europe. http:// sites.tufts.edu/jha/files/2011/04/a115.pdf. Denton, F., 2002. Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: why does gender matter? Gen. Dev. 10 (2), 9e20. Dintwa, K., 2012. Economic status, education, and risky sexual behaviour for urban Botswana women. J. Int. Woman's Stud. 13 (3), 153e170. Doyydaitis, T., 2010. Human trafficking: the role of the health care provider. J. Midwifery Wom. Health 55 (5), 462e467. Elsner, J.B., Kossin, J.P., Jagger, T.H., 2008. The increasing intensity of the strongest tropical cyclones. Nature 455, 92e95. Enarson, E., 2009. Women Gender and Disaster. Sage Publications, New York. Engelman, R., 2010. Population, Climate Change, and Women's Lives. http://www. worldwatch.org/system/files/183%20Population%20and%20climate.pdf. (Accessed 8 December 2014). European Commission, 2009. Consequences of Climate Change. http://ec.europa.eu/ clima/policies/brief/consequences/indexen.htm. (Accessed 4 December 2014). European Commission, 2014. When She Movies: Women's Issues in Transportation. http://wiit-paris2014.sciencesconf.org/conference/wiit-paris2014/pages/ shemoveswiitweb3.pdf. FAO, 2003. Women and Water Resources. Women in Development Service. Sustainable Development Department, Rome. FAO, 2011. The Role of Women in Agriculture. The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development. http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/am307e/am307e00.pdf. (Accessed 8 December 2014). FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), 2010. Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Woodfuels. http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1321e/i1321e00.pdf. (Accessed 27 October 2015). Figueres, C., 2004. Why Women Are the Secret Weapon to Tackling Climate Change. Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/06/world/why-women-are-thesecret/. (Accessed 7 June 2017). Farming First, 2013. The Female Face of Farming: Infographic. http://www. farmingfirst.org/2012/03/farming-first-and-fao-launch-interactive-infographicthe-female-face-of-farming/. S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 Gender and Water Alliance, 2003. Tapping into Sustainability: Issues and Trends in Gender Mainstreaming in Water and Sanitation. A Background Document for the Gender and Water Session, 3rd World Water Forum. Kyoto. Gentle, P., Thwaites, R., Race, D., Alexander, K., 2014. Differential impacts of climate change on communities in the middle hills region of Nepal. Nat. Hazards 74 (2), 815e836. Ghosh, J., 2015. Unseen Workers. Frontline: India's National Magazine from the Publishers of THE HINDU. http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/unseenworkers/article7048079.ece. (Accessed 27 October 2015). Giovarelli, R., Wamalwa, B., Hannay, L., 2013. Land Tenure,property Rights and Gender. USAID, Washington, DC. www.land-links.org/issue-brief/land-tenureproperty-rights-and-gender/. Goh, A.H.X., 2012. A Literature Review of the Gender-differentiated Impacts of Climate Change on Women's and Men's Assets and Well-being in Developing Countries. CAPRi Working Paper No. 106. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.. http://dx.doi.org/10.2499/CAPRiWP106 Grown, C., Gupta, G.R., Kes, A., 2006. Taking action to empower women: UN millennium project report on education and gender equality. Glob. Urban Dev. 2 (1), 1e19. Haigh, C., Vallely, B., 2010. Gender and the Climate Change Agenda: the Impacts of Climate Change on Women and Public Policy. Women's Environmental Network © 2010 20 Club Row, London. Harris, R., 2010. Gender aspects of climate change in the US gulf coast region. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 152e157. Haugen, C.S., Klees, S.J., Stromquist, N.P., Lin, J., Choti, T., Corneilse, C., 2011. Increasing Female Primary School Teachers in African Countries: Barriers and Policies. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Hemmati, M., Rohr, U., 2009. Engendering the climate change negotiations: experiences, challenges and steps forward. Gend. Dev. 17 (1), 19e32. Hill, C., 2011. Enabling rural Women's economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities, and participation. In: Background Paper for Expert Group Meeting, Accra, 20e23 September. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/ egm/Hill-BP-1-EGM-RW-Sep-2011_CH.pdf. Hodge, D.R., Lietz, C.A., 2007. The international sexual trafficking of women and children: a review of the literature. Affilia 22 (2), 163e174. Huyun, M.M., 2005. The health impacts of globalization: a conceptual framework. Glob. Health 1e4. ICRISAT, 2015. Indian Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change. Available http://www.icrisat.org/cop21-indian-women-leading-the-fight-againstat: climate-change/. (Accessed 10 February 2016). Ikeda, K., 1995. Gender difference in human loss and vulnerability in natural disasters. A case study from Bangladesh. Indian J. Gend. Stud. 2 (2), 171e193. ILO (International Labour Organization), 2011. Trafficking in Persons Overseas for Labor Purposes: the Case of Ethiopian Domestic Workers. ILO, Addis Ababa. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2010. A Practical Guide to Gender-sensitive Approaches for Disaster Management. Geneva. http://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/96532/A%20Guide%20for%20Gender-sensitive% 20approach%20to%20DM.pdf. IOM (International Organization of Migration), 2009. Migration, climate change and the environment. Policy Brief. http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/ shared/mainsite/policy_and_research/policy_documents/policy_brief.pdf. IPCC, 2014. Summary for policymakers. In: Field, C.B., Barros, V.R., Dokken, D.J., Mach, K.J., Mastrandrea, M.D., Bilir, T.E., Chatterjee, M., Ebi, K.L., Estrada, Y.O., Genova, R.C., Girma, B., Kissel, E.S., Levy, A.N., MacCracken, S., Mastrandrea, P.R., White, L.L. (Eds.), Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part a: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1e32. Israel, A.L., Sachs, C., 2013. A climate for feminist intervention: feminist science studies and climate change. In: Alston, M., Whittenbury, K. (Eds.), Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change, pp. 33e52. Jain, S., 1984. Standing up for trees: women's role in the Chipko movement. Unasylva 36 (146), 12e20. Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/r0465e/ r0465e03.htm. (Accessed 7 June 2017). Jara, M., 2012. Rural Women in Peru Key to Adaptation of Seeds to Climate Change. http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/05/rural-women-in-peru-key-to-adaptation-ofseeds-to-climate-change/. Kahare, P., 2011. Human Trafficking on the Rise amid Horn of Africa's Drought and Famine. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/ nov/02/trafficking-on-rise-horn-africa. (Accessed 28 February 2016). Kanwar, P., Sharma, N., 2011. Traditional pre- and post-natal dietary practices prevalent in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. Indian J. Traditional Knowl. 10, 339e343. Kasotia, P., 2007. The health effects of global warming: developing countries are the most vulnerable. UN Chronicle. http://unchronicle.un.org/article/health-effectsglobal-warming-developing-countries-are-most-vulnerable/. (Accessed 27 October 2015). Kerr, R.A., 2009. India's groundwater disappearing at alarming rate. Science. http:// www.sciencemag.org/news/2009/08/indias-groundwater-disappearingalarming-rate. . (Accessed 10 August 2009). Khurana, I., Sen, R., 2017. Drinking water quality in rural India: issues and approaches. Water Aid. www.WaterAid.org. 15 Kookana, R., Maheshwari, B., Dillon, P., Dave, S., Soni, P., Bohra, H., et al., 2016. Groundwater scarcity impact on inclusiveness and women empowerment: insights from school absenteeism of female students in two watersheds in India. Int. J. Incl. Educ. 20 (11), 1155e1171. Kovats, R.S., Hajat, S., 2008. Heat stress and public health: a critical review. Annu. Rev. Public Health 29, 41e55. Kruse, J., 2014. Women's representation in the UN climate change negotiations: a quantitative analysis of state delegations, 1995e2011. Int. Environ. Agreements 14, 349e370. Kumar, G.S., Kar, S.S., Jain, A., 2011. Health and environmental sanitation in India. Indian J. Occup. Env. Med. 15 (3), 93e96. Laczko, F., Aghazarm, C., 2009. Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Assessing the Evidence. International Organization of Migration (IOM), Geneva, 2009. Lal, N., 2016. Indian Women Worst Hit by Water Crisis. Inter Press Service. http:// www.ipsnews.net/2016/05/indian-women-worst-hit-by-water-crisis/. (Accessed 3 May 2016). Lambrou, Y., Laub, R., 2004. Gender Perspectives on the Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change and Desertification Gender and Climate Network. http:// www.gencc.interconnection.org/. Lambrou, Y., Nelson, S., 2010. Farmers in a Changing Climate: Food Security in Andhra Pradesh, India. Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Rome. Lambrou, Y., Piana, G., 2006. Gender: the Missing Component of the Response to Climate Change. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC21057.pdf. Rome. (Accessed 2 January 2015). Lane, R., McNaught, R., 2009. Building gendered approaches to adaptation in the Pacific. Gend. Dev. 17 (1), 67e80. Leichenko, Rand, Silva, J.A., 2014. Climate change and poverty: vulnerability, impacts, and alleviation strategies. WIREs Clim. Change 2014 (5), 539e556. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1002/wcc.287. Loughran, D., Pritchett, L., 1997. Environmental Scarcity, Resource Collection, and the Demand for Children in Nepal. World Bank, Washington D.C. Lu, J., 2017. India honors rural women in the front lines of its toilet campaign. Glob. Health, Humanosphere. www.humanosphere.org/global-health/2017/030Indiahonors-women-front-lines-toilet-campaign/. Lutz, W., Muttarak, R., Striessnig, E., 2014. Universal education is key to enhanced http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/ climate adaptation. Science 346 (6213). science.1257975. Maathai, W., 2004. The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience. Lantern Books. Mandal, K., 2009. Rural Sanitation: a Step towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goal No 7, Target 10. India S&T Report. National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies, CSIR, New Delhi, India. McCright, A.M., 2010. The effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public. Popul. Environ. 32, 66e87, 2010. Mehra, R., Hill Rojas, M., 2008. A Significant Shift.Women, Food Security and Agriculture in a Global Market Place. ICRW, Washington, DC. Mitchell, T., Tanner, T., Lussier, K., 2007. We know what we need: South Asian women speak out on climate change adaptation. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. Mlambo-Ngcuka, P., 2014. Women must be partners and drivers of climate change decision-making. Available at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/ (Accessed 12 2014/12/ed-climate-change-blog#sthash.n4Hp3IkR.dpuf. December 2014). Mutangadura, G., 2004. Women and Land Tenure Rights in Southern Africa: a Human Rights - Based Approach. Land in Africa: Market asset, or secure livelihood. International Institute for Environment and Development, Westminster. Available at: www.iied.org/pubs/pdfs/G00173.pdf. Mutunga, C., Hardee, K., 2010. Population and reproductive health in national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs) for climate change in Africa. Afr. J. Reprod. Health 14 (4), 127e139, 2010. National Intelligence Council (NIC), 2009. India: Impact of limate Change to 2030. A Commissioned Research Report. NIC 2003-03D, April 2009, Washington, D.C. Neefjes, K., Nelson, V., 2010. Responding to climate change in Vietnam: opportunities for improving gender equality. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 107e114. Nellemann, C., Verma, R., Hislop, L., 2011. Women at the frontline of climate change: Gender risks and hopes. A Rapid Response Assessment. United Nations Environment Programme. GRID-Arendal. http://www.unep.org/pdf/rra_gender_ screen.pdf. (Accessed 8 December 2014). Neumayer, E., Plümper, T., 2007. The gendered nature of natural disasters: the impact of catastrophic events on the gender gap in life expectancy, 1981e2002. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 97 (1), 551e566, 2007. Newcourse, 2010. Women, Natural Resource Management, and Poverty: a Review of Issues and Opportunities. http://anewcourse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ women-natural-resource-management-and-poverty-PEW.pdf. Newman, K., Stephenson, J., 2010. Response to: the empowerment of women and the populationdynamics of climate change. J. Publ. Health 32 (4), 2010), p. 591e591. Norgaard, K., York, R., 2005. Gender equality and state environmentalism. Gend. Soc. 19 (4), 506e522. Nwoke, E.A., Ibe, S.N.O., 2014. Climate change impact on the health of African women and adaptation strategies. Int. J. Glob. Warming Clim. Change 1 (1), 16 S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 015e023. OCED, 2008. Gender and Sustainable Development, Maximizing the Economic, Social and Environmental Role of Women. Odigie-Emmanuel, O., 2010. The gendered impact of climate change in Nigeria. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 123e129. OECD, 2011. Women's economic empowerment - issue paper. http://www.oecd.org/ social/gender-development/47561694.pdf. Olsson, L., Opondo, M., Tschakert, P., 2014. In: Field, C.B., et al. (Eds.), Livelihoods and Poverty. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, vol. 2014. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, pp. 793e832. Available at: http://ar5-syr.ipcc.ch/resources/htmlpdf/WGIIAR5-Chap13_FINAL/. (Accessed 12 February 2016). Parikh, J., Upadhyay, K.D., Singh, T., 2012. Gender perspective on climate change and human security in India an analysis of national missions on climate change. CADMUS 1 (4), 180e186. Pascual, M., Menno, J., Bouma, Andrew, P., Dobson, 2002. Cholera and climate: revisiting the quantitative evidence. Microb Infect 4 (2002), 237e245. Pathak, S., Pramanik, P., Khanna, M., Kumar, A., 2014. Climate change and water availability in Indian agriculture: impacts and adaptation. Indian J. Agric. Sci. 84 (6), 671e679. Piao, S., Ciais, P., Huang, Y., Shen, Z., Peng, S., Li, J., Zhou, L., Liu, H., Ma, Y., Ding, Y., Friedlingstein, P., Liu, C., Tan, K., Yu, Y., Zhang, T., Fang, J., 2010. The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China. Nature 467, 43e51. Polk, M., 2009. Gendering climate change through the transport sector. Women, Gend. Res. 18 (3e4), 73e82. Prowse, M., Grist, Natasha, Sourang, Cheikh, 2009. Closing the Gap Between Climate Adaptation and Poverty Reduction Frameworks. Overseas Development Institute Project Briefing No. 21. http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odiassets/publications-opinion-files/4297.pdf. Rani, A., 2011. Farmer Surveys on Post-harvest Losses in India. Study Conducted for Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd. http://postharvestinstitute.illinois. edu/pdfs/Farmer Surveys on Postharvest Loss-Final.PDF. Resurreccion, 2009. Gender, Migration and Social Reproduction in the Mekong Region. Asian Pac. Migrat. J. 18 (1), 101e122.
n, B.P., 2013. Persistent women and environment linkages in climate Resurreccio change and sustainable development agendas Women's Studies International Forum, 40, pp. 33e43. Rodgers, Y., Menon, N., 2013. A Meta-Analysis of Land Rights and Women's Economic Well-Being The Roadmap for Action- a Tool for Funders, Practitioners and Policymakers to Promote Women’s Economic Empowerment. http://www. womeneconroadmap.org/sites/default/files/Rodgers%20and%20Menon_Survey %20of%20Land%20Rights%20and%20Women.pdf. € hr, U., 2007. Gender, climate change and adaptation. Introduction to the gender Ro dimensions. In: http://www.unep.org/roa/Amcen/Projects_Programme/ climate_change/PreCop15/Proceedings/Gender-and-climate-change/Roehr_ Gender_climate.pdf. Routray, P., Torondrel, B., Classen, T., Schmidt, W.-P., 2017. Women’s role in sanitation decision making in rural coastal Odisha. PLOS One. http://doi.org/10. 1371/journal.pone.0178042. Sahoo, K.C., Hulland, K.R.S., Caruso, B.A., Swain, R., Freeman, M.C., Panigarhiand, P., Dreiibelbis, R., 2015. Sanitation-related psychosocial stress: a grounded theory study of women across the life-course in Odisha, India. Soc. Sci. Med. 173, 80e89. www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300010_. Sandhya, M., Dashora, P.K., 2003. Communication strategies for tcchnological empowerment of farm women in post-harvest management. In: International Conference on Communication for Development in the Information Age. Extending the Benefits of Technology for All.7-9 January, 2003. Banaras Hindu Uinversity, Varanasi, India. Sasvari, A., Aguilar, L., Khan, M., Schmitt, F., 2010. Guidelines for Mainstreaming Gender into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland viii þ 97pp. Schechtman, L., 2013. Lack of Water and Sanitation Hurts the Women and Girls the Most. Thompson Reuters Foundation News,4th October, 2013:12:05 GMT. Sekhar, G., 2015. Road to Empower Women Workers in Brick Kilns. Available at: http://www.antislavery.org/english/press_and_news/news_and_press_ releases_2009/road_to_empower_women_workers_in_brick_kilns.aspx. (Accessed 14 May 2016). Shandra, J.C., 2008. Women, non-governmental organizations. Popul. Environ. 48e72. Sharma, M.S., Lal, B., Joshi, R., Roy, S.S., Kulkarni, W., 2012. Sustaining Livelihoods of Desert Communities: an Innovative Farming-system Based Livelihood Model. Leisa India, pp. 13e15. Shiva, V., 1988. Staying Alive: women Ecology and Survival in India. Kali for Women. Nee Delhi, p. 215. Shiva, V., 2000. The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology and Politics. Fourth Printing. Juta Print, Penang, Malaysia. Shiva, V., 2015. Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs. Available at: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/05/20/ women-and-biodiversity-feed-world-not-corporations-and-gmos/. (Accessed 6 June 2017). Sidhu, K., 2007. Participation pattern of farm women in post harvesting.Stud. Home Comm.Sci 1 (1), 45e49. Singh, R., Bhatnagar, M., 2012. Urban lakes and wetlands: opportunities and challenges in Indian cities-case study of Delhi. In: 12th edition of the Worldwide Workshop for Young Environmental Scientists- Urban Waters: Resource or Risk?. Singh, K.M., 2013. Gender issues in agriculture. Strategies for gender mainstreaming. Model Training Course on Gender Perspective in Integrated Farming System w.e.f 17e24.ICAR, Patna, Bihar. Skinner, E., 2011. Gender and Climate Change - Overview Report. Institute of Development Studies, London. Skutsch, M., 2002. Protocols, treaties, and action: the “climate change process” viewed through gender spectacles. Gend. Dev. 10 (2), 30e39. Solar, W.R., 2010. Rural Women, Gender, and Climate Change. A Literature Review and Invited Perspectives on Climate Change Impacts and Processes of Adaptation in Cambodia. http://www.climateadapt.asia/upload/publications/files/ 4E4E347325B40LITERATURE_REVIEW_-_Rural_Women_Gender_and_Climate_ Change.pdf. (Accessed 25 November 2014). Sundram, P.K., 2013. Women Friendly Agricultural Engineering Technologies for Reducing Drudgery. Model Training Course on Gender Perspective in Integrated Farming System w.e.f 17-24. ICAR, Patna,Bihar. Tasian, G.E., Pulido, J.E., Gasparrini, Antonio, Saigal, C.S., Horton, B.P., Landis, J.R., Madison, Rodger, Keren, Ron, 2014. Daily mean temperature and clinical kidney stone presentation in five U.S. Metropolitan areas: a time-series analysis. Environ. Health Perspect. 122 (10), 1081e1087. Thakur, A.K., 2013. Post-harvest Technology and Value Addition:Profitable Venture for Women. Model Training Course on Gender Perspective in Integrated Farming System. ICAR, Patna, Bihar. Tirado, M.C., Clarke, R., Jaykus, L.A., McQuatters-Gollop, A., Frank, J.M., 2010. Climate change and food safety: a review. Food Res. Int. 43, 1745e1765. Tovar-Restrepo, M., 2010. Climate change and indigenous women in Colombia. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 145e151. Tuana, N., 2013. In: Alston, Margaret, Whittenbury, Kerri (Eds.), “Gendering Climate Knowledge for Justice: Catalyzing a New Research Agenda.” Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 17e31. Uji, K., 2012. The Health Impacts of Climate Change in Asia-Pacific. Asia-Pacific Human Development. Report Background Papers Series 2012/16. UNDP. U.N, 2010. The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York, NY. UN, 2013. Water for Women. www.unwater.org/worldwaterday. U.N, 2017. World Population Prospects. The 2017 Revision. United Nations, United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York, NY. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/248. UN-Water, 2007. http://timeforchange.org/water-scarcity-and-global-warming. (Accessed 27 October 2015). UNDP, 2005. Sustainable Energy Services: the Gender Dimension. http://www. undp.org/content/dam/aplaws/publication/en/publications/environmentenergy/www-ee-library/sustainable-energy/fact-sheet-sustainable-energyservicese-the-gender-dimension/Energy%20and%20GenderDimension_2005. pdf. (Accessed 11 December 2014). UNDP, 2007. Human Development Report 2007/2008 e Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World, New York, 2007. UNDP, 2009. Resource Guide on Gender and Climate Change. http://www.undp.org/ content/dam/aplaws/publication/en/publications/womens-empowerment/ resource-guide-on-gender-and-climate-change/Resource.pdf. UNDP, 2012. Overview of Linkages between Gender and Climate Change. http:// www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/gender/Gender%20and% 20Environment/TM1_Africa_GenderClimateChange_Overview.pdf. UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), 2011. Reducing Vulnerability to Climate Change, Climate Variability and Extremes, Land Degradation and Loss of Biodiversity: Environmental and Developmental Challenges and Opportunities. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/publications/ldc_ reducingvulnerability.pdf. UNHCR, 2001. Evaluation of the Dadaab Firewood Project, Kenya. http://www. unhcr.org/3b33105d4.pdf. UNIFEM (UN Development Fund for Women), 2009. Engaging with Climate Change. http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ab37acb2.html. US Department of State, 2004. Trafficking in Persons Report. http://www.state.gov/ documents/organization/34158.pdf. Valentini, A., 2005. Malawis' Rural Adolescent Girls Education. UN FAO/Sustainable Development Department, Rome. ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ai437e/ ai437e.pdf. Velkoff, V.A., 1998. Women's Education in India. U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, Washington D.C. Vincent, K., Cull, T., Archer, E.R.M., 2010. Gendered vulnerability to climate change in Limpopo province, South Africa. In: Dankelman, I. (Ed.), Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction. Earthscan, London, pp. 130e137. Waris, V.S., Antahal, P.C., 2014. Fuelwood scarcity, poverty and women: some perspectives. IOSR J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 19 (8 Ver. II), 21e33. UN Water, 2006. Gender, Water and Sanitation: a Policy Brief. http://www.un.org/ esa/sustdev/inter_agency/gender_water/policybrief.pdf. Wedeman, N., Petruney, T., 2016. Invest in Women to Tackle Climate Change and Conserve the Environment. Available at: http://womendeliver.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/09/Good_Campaign_Brief_10_092016.pdf. (Accessed 7 June S.S. Yadav, R. Lal / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 4e17 2017). Weiner, E., MacRae, H., 2014. The persistent invisibility of gender in EU policy: introduction. In: Weiner, Elaine, MacRae, Heather (Eds.), ‘The Persistent Invisibility of Gender in EU Policy’ European Integration Online Papers (EIoP), Special Issue 1, vol. 18. Article 3. Available at: SSRN. http://ssrn.com/ abstract¼2523398. Wheeler, T., von Braun, J., 2013. Climate change impacts on global food security. Science 341 (6145), 508e513. WHO (World Health Organization), 2010. Gender, Climate Change and Health. http://www.who.int/globalchange/GenderClimateChangeHealthfinal.pdf. (Accessed 4 February 2015). WOCAN, 2014. Women's Empowerment at the Frontline of Adaptation Emerging Issues, Adaptive Practices, and Priorities in Nepal. http://www.wocan.org/ system/tdf/Women_Empowerment_Adaptation_ICIMOD_CICERO_WOCAN% 202014.pdf?file¼1&type¼node&id¼1166. 17 WWAP (World Water Assessment Programme), 2012. The United Nations World Water Development Report 4: Managing Water under Uncertainty and Risk. UNESCO, Paris. UN Women, 2013. A Review of National MDG Reports from a Gender Perspective. Background Paper by Megan Dersnah. http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/ headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/58/bp1-megan-dersnah%20pdf.pdf. UN Women Watch, 2013. Fact Sheet Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/climate_change/downloads/Women_ and_Climate_Change_Factsheet.pdf. WRI (World Resources Institute), 2005. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. Washington, D.C. 2005. Yavinsky, R.W., 2012. Women More Vulnerable than Men to Climate Change. http:// www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2012/women-vulnerable-climate-change. aspx. (Accessed 25 November 2014). Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Women's food security and conservation farming in Zaka District-Zimbabwe ∗ T Mediel Hove , Thomas Gweme A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Women Food security Zaka District Conservation farming Zimbabwe Changes in rainfall patterns because of climate alteration amongst other factors contributed towards a decline in food security in Zimbabwe's Zaka District-Ward 31. In response, women in Ward 31 adopted conservation agriculture since the 2005/6 agricultural season to address food insecurity and other problems experienced in the crop production system. The research was designed to evaluate the extent to which conservation agriculture led to increased food security in the semi-arid area. The researchers used the mixed method approach and collected data through key informant interviews, Focus Group Discussions and observations. It was evident from the research that the farmers who practised conservation agriculture whilst correctly following most of the prescribed components and engaging the relevant strategies were able to increase their food security in the dry part of the district. It concludes that female farmers constrained by: fencing, long dry spells and labour were incapacitated to effectively implement conservation agriculture hence failed to attain food security. 1. Introduction Conservation agriculture (CA) was introduced in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a key measure targeting the improvement of food security (Hobbs, 2007). In Zimbabwe, CA locally known as conservation farming emerged as a promising panacea when the country increasingly struggled to feed itself as a result of several factors including but not limited to agrarian land reform and climate change (Mutema et al., 2013: 6). Food security declined dramatically and this is evident in the varying degrees of food imports including during the 2011/12 season when the country imported in excess of 50% of its maize needs (Manyeruke et al., 2013: 271). More so, in the 2014/15 season, maize production declined by 51% (Anand, 2016). Clearly, the decline in food security in the country has varied from year to year. Linked to this, in April 2012 Masvingo Province had 378 300 food insecure households and 39% of these were from Zaka District (Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC, 2012). Most of these households usually harvest “winter-pushers”1 forcing the women village farmers to mostly rely on market purchases (ZIMVAC, 2012). In light of this decline in food security, innovative interventions to promote food security have been adopted including CA on the ∗ 1 premise that simultaneously it protects the soil and improves resilience in climatic unpredictable areas (Farnworth et al., 2015: 2). This study focuses on the case of Ward 31 in Zaka District where CA was implemented by some women with the help of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in order to enhance household food security. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the extent to which CA led to increased food security in the semi-arid area of Zaka District focusing on ward 31. The objectives of the study were to: a) Establish the food insecurity situation before the implementation of CA in Ward 31 of Zaka East Constituency; b) Describe how CA was implemented in Ward 31 of Zaka East Constituency; c) Find out whether CA managed to improve the women's food security situation in Ward 31 of Zaka East Constituency; d) Establish the challenges militating against the successful implementation of CA in Ward 31 of Zaka East and; e) Suggest ways of enhancing the successful implementation of CA in the area of the study and other arid or semi-arid parts of the country. This study argues that those women farmers who practised CA whilst correctly following most of the prescribed components and engaging the relevant strategies were able to increase their food security in Zaka District's Ward 31. It is significant because it helps in understanding how gender relations in smallholder agriculture systems Corresponding author. History Department-War, Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe. E-mail address: medielhove@yahoo.co.uk (M. Hove). This refers to cereal harvests which only sustain households between May and October. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.10.010 Received 22 April 2016; Received in revised form 11 May 2016; Accepted 23 October 2017 Available online 28 October 2017 0140-1963/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme one and two of the post-2015 sustainable development goals respectively. More so, there is a general agreement in the literature in SSA that women and men normally assume distinct roles and duties in agricultural production arrangements, all determined by sex (De Schutter, 2013; FAO, 2011). This makes this study fundamental and necessary because it provides useful and rare data on women's interactions with CA. The important role women play in CA was realised in Zambia. The involvement of women as major key players in CA in Zambia is a typical example of a success story (UNDP, 2013). There are many benefits of CA for Zambian women. These include but are not limited to: early planting of crops which make women less dependent on the ox-drawn plough or mechanical tillage which is mainly done by men, improve crop productivity and different crop production thereby promoting food security. Moreover, CA lessens and spreads women's workload over time and helps in planning and improving the welfare of their families (NORAD Report, 2011). In Zimbabwe, the CA project has long since been promoted and supported in other areas such as Chirumhanzu, Zvishavane, Mberengwa, Silobela, and Nkayi and the project was viewed as generally successful (Woodring and Braul, 2011). This encouraged the researchers to find out how CA has influenced women's food security in the semi-arid area of Zaka District. functioned regarding decision-making over technology acceptance, roles, and duties for particular farm responsibilities and how gender relations may influence the adoption of CA. Furthermore, it exposes the expenses and benefits of CA adoption to women focusing on: income, labour arrangement, roles in food and nutrition security, comparative decision-making power at household and community level, which had hitherto remained mostly unknown. Again, the study reveals the less known aspects about CA thus offers an opportunity for women to change existing gender relations and the conditions under which this is possible. The article consists of five sections. The first section provides the study's conceptual framework and literature review while the material and methods are covered in the second section. The results and discussion are offered in the third and fourth sections respectively. The last section provides the study's conclusion. 2. Conservation agriculture, food security and gender: existing literature This study discusses two main concepts: food security and CA. Food security is achieved when people from all walks of life have physical, social and economic access to adequate, secure and nourishing food that meets all nutritional needs and food favourites for an energetic and healthy life at all times (FAO, 2004). Although various factors cause food insecurity, literature on CA largely claim that it can contribute to food security. A number of studies have emphasized the role of CA in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions (Dendooven et al., 2012; Verhulst et al., 2012) and growing soil carbon sequestration (UNEP, 2013). However, other features of CA, for example the role of minimum tillage to soil carbon sequestration, have been exaggerated (Govaerts et al., 2009; Powlson et al., 2014). CA contributes to the enhancement of soil function and value under certain conditions, which can stimulate greater yields and better resilience to climatic changeability (Thierfelder et al., 2014; Thierfelder and Wall, 2010), although not in all circumstances (Pittelkow et al., 2014). Be that as it may, CA is singled out by many as possessing the potential to increase both global and national food security and better resilience and adaptation to climate change. CA entails resource-saving crop production in a drive to obtain adequate profits together with optimum and sustained levels of production while simultaneously and sustainably conserving the environment. It consists of three principles namely: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations (Farnworth et al., 2015: 2; Mutema et al., 2013: 5; Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 68). Notwithstanding the above potential benefits of CA, its appropriateness to different African smallholder farming systems is disputed (Andersson and Giller, 2012; Baudron et al., 2012; Giller et al., 2009). Contestations have essentially focused on the credit of yield benefits, the intensities of financial investment needed, the labour savings that can be realised, and the amounts of crop residues obtainable for use as surface mulch (Andersson and D'Souza, 2014). Although capital and labour necessities are dominant in the debate of CA appropriateness for African smallholder farmers, remarkably little focus has been given to the ability of women farmers, in maleheaded family units and as household heads themselves, to meet such necessities, a gap this study attempts to fill. Very little empirical work has been carried out in regards to gender and CA in SSA (Farnworth et al., 2015). Some consultancy and donor reports exist (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010; UNDP, 2013), but only Nyanga et al. (2012); Nyanga, (2012) has conducted longitudinal indepth studies in Zambia. This is so although Bremner (2012) asserted that food security in Africa can be comprehensively promoted if women and girls are voluntarily involved in family planning to compliment agriculture and food policy solutions. This is because the growing population in Africa and the world at large could result in the world failing to halt poverty and hunger which have become number 3. Material and methods 3.1. Study area By 2012, about 300 000 rural farmers in Zimbabwe were implementing components of CA covering an area of over 100 000 ha (Marongwe et al., 2012: xii). This study was confined to Ward 31 of Zaka East Constituency in Masvingo Province's Zaka District, approximately 350 km south of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city (Makwara and Gamira, 2012: 459). The case study area has a population density of 70 persons/km2 (Central Statistical Office (CSO), 2004). It lies in Natural Ecological Region 4 which is semi-arid and receives between 450 and 650 mm of rainfall per year and has poor soils (Musiyiwa et al., 2014: 395). Its temperatures range from 10 (minimum) to 26 (maximum) degrees Celsius experienced in July and October, respectively (Makwara and Gamira, 2012: 459–460). The economy is primarily based on subsistence farming and the major crops grown are made up of maize, groundnuts, sorghum, and finger millet (Makwara and Gamira, 2012: 459). While cattle ownership is important, it widely differs across households as is the ownership of goats and chickens. Manure from cattle is largely used to improve crop productivity. In one study, only 23% of the surveyed households in ward 31 had access to basal fertilizers and about 26% of the households had access to top dressing fertilizers in 2009 (ZIMVAC, 2009). Six villages out of the 17 villages in the Ward were chosen using random sampling from the two Village Development Committees (VIDCOs).2 The villages chosen are Gumbi, Dondo and Mahara in VIDCO 3 and Nheya, Mafunye and Mushavirwa in VIDCO 4. Map showing the study area and Zimbabwean agro ecological regions. 2 A VIDCO is the lowest structure in the local government system just below the ward level. It is meant to facilitate decentralized planning or bottom-up participatory democracy through grassroots planning, receiving and disseminating information from either the above (ward level to central government) or below (the villagers). Whilst they were established in the 1980s, they are still relevant today although some of their roles are now overridden by village heads. For more details, see Matysak (2010). 19 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme Source: Makwara, 2013: 110. Prior to the advent of Christian Care in 2010 in Ward 31, Care International and Sustainable Agriculture Trust (SAT) implemented CA in the case study area. Christian Care trained smallholder farmers in the adoption of the basin planting concept, providing them with maize and sorghum seeds (staple food crops for the area), fertilizers as well as carrying out monitoring and evaluation of the progress of CA in the area. These NGOs used the participatory method to carry out the project. The three NGOs also acted as both facilitators and trainers. The extension agent system was used especially by Christian Care when it trained the local Agriculture extension officers and a few selected lead farmers who became crucial implementing partners. During the training the lead farmers (one male and four female) were given manuals of reference and supportive materials such as 75 m measuring wires, wooden pegs, 10 kgs maize seed, a rain gauge per cluster and seasonal calendars (which were also extended to every participating household). Besides subjecting the chosen lead farmers to rigorous training, they were given $30 per month in a drive to keep them motivated. Only those who practised the basin planting concept in the previous cropping seasons were included in the selection of lead farmers. Given that it was a supported intervention with incentives, a possibility of bias in the response of participating farmers cannot be ruled out. Consequently, this has both negative and positive implications for this study's findings and the CA project's sustainability. timed weeding in summer and winter, manure and mineral basal and top dress fertilizer application, crop rotation and mulching with organic remains (Mazvimavi et al., 2008: iv). 3.3. Sampling design Using an explanatory case study approach, the research used a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. A more participatory qualitative approach was used to a greater extent and it was concerned with the subjective assessment of attitudes, opinions, behaviours, insights and impressions determined by the researchers' experiences (Degu and Yigzaw, 2006). The research used secondary and primary sources for gathering data. Secondary data used were obtained from various NGOs’ reports and guidelines as well as other institutions like the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) assessment reports and published and unpublished works from various libraries and the internet. Secondary data enabled the researchers to gain a broader understanding of research questions that informed the designing of the subsequent primary research (Novak, 1996). It also provided the food security situation before, during and after the implementation of CA allowing the researchers to measure the impact of CA towards the attainment of food security by women in the case study area. 3.4. Respondent overview 3.2. CA methods Primary data was collected using interviews (35 interviews with 11 men and 24 women were conducted), observations and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) (five focus group meetings were carried out). Primary data was collected between October 2012 and April 2013. Purposive, simple random and snow ball sampling techniques were employed. A desired sample size of 35 key informants was used for this The central CA method introduced in the study area is what is popularly known as the “dhiga udye” (dig and eat; a common epithet for CA) cropping system in the Zaka East area entailing the planting basin. Seed is planted in these small holes/pits which are dug in an unploughed field. The maintenance of the planting basin entails well20 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme levels feed into each other. In fact, poor health and education also restrict agricultural productivity and access to other options of livelihood (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 471) thus it appears both as an indicator and as an effect of food insecurity. The researchers ascertained that the incapacity of the households in Zaka to cope with agricultural shocks had negative effects on women given their role as the providers and distributors of food. In fact, women unlike men find it difficult to leave the family in search of employment elsewhere. In a number of cases women remain behind struggling to feed and take care of the children and other family members (Habtezion, 2012: 10). However, this should not be misconstrued to imply that women did not migrate in search of employment. Women migrated as a desperate option taken in a drive to earn a living and/or look after the family. As shown below, this was a common practice among female headed households. Furthermore, the amount of harvests and losses after harvests were also used as measurements of food insecurity in the study area. Both lead farmers and women farmers agreed that several challenges contributed to massive harvest losses. These ranged from the pests in granaries, loss of produce through leaving some in the fields, losses during transportation, losses during thrashing and shelling and other challenges. As a result, there is no doubt that women in Ward 31 in Zaka District faced food insecurity due to post-harvest losses. study. It included five lead farmers composed of one male (40 years) and four females (24, 38, 47 and 51 years) selected using purposive sampling. In addition, nine participants composed of three men (24, 30 and 36 years) and six women followers of CA (26, 31, 39, 44, 47 and 50 years) were selected using purposive sampling. The researchers had obtained a list of those households who were practising CA in the study area without NGO inputs support which became easy to target for data. Five women non-adopters (27, 33, 36, 46 and 52 years) of CA were selected using snow ball sampling. Additionally, eight participants composed of three men (34, 46 and 58 years) and five women beneficiaries of CA (24, 32, 39, 44 and 49 years) inputs and training were selected using purposive sampling. Eight ex-CA adopters made up of four men (28, 37, 43 and 57 years and four women (25, 34, 38 and 41 years) were selected using snow ball sampling. The names of people engaged in the study were made anonymous in order to protect their identity. We do not use location at all except where it is relevant as a variable within Zaka District. Consequently, the case study approach in this study immensely benefited from the use of more than a single source of evidence. It ensured that the findings of the study were based on the convergence of data from various sources thereby enhancing the credibility and validity of its findings as enunciated by Yin (1994: 93). Regardless of the differences in age, all the women interviewed participated in all farming duties (sowing seeds, hoeing, weeding, fertilizer application, crop harvesting and thrashing, post-harvest food processing, storage, transportation, staple food crop, legume and vegetable production) and domestic chores (preparing food, laundry and other hygienic activities). Only four women occupied leadership positions during the implementation of the CA project. The 24 women engaged in the study consisted of married, widowed and single women between the ages of 24 and 60 partially or not owning any piece of land but working on some pieces of land parcelled out to them through negotiations with their husbands or village heads. On the other hand, the men who participated in this study took part in most of the tasks assisting their female counterparts in planting, hoeing, weeding, fertilizer application, crop harvesting and thrashing, transportation and post-harvest food processing and storage. These people were from VIDCOs 3 and 4 of Zaka East Constituency's ward 31 which comprise seven VIDCOs and about 400 households. The reason for involving the women conventional farmers was to allow a comparative approach after considering their experiences and harvest. 4.2. Women's coping strategies to ensure food security in ward 31, Zaka East before the implementation of conservation farming 4.2.1. Migration Given the above persistence of food insecurity in Ward 31, Zaka District, some women especially from female headed households and those who completed their secondary school, college and/or university education but could not secure employment migrated to South Africa and Botswana in search of employment. The goal was to have economic capital to buy food stuffs and other livelihood necessities for their families and counterparts back home (Hove et al., 2012). Those women with husbands in most of the cases found it effective to remain at home whilst their husbands migrated. The husbands remitted proceeds to the women who remained behind looking after the children and the homesteads. The women returnees brought assets such as groceries, bicycles, radios and blankets that were exchanged (barter trade) for grain or sold for cash. Although the food remittances succeeded in alleviating the acute food shortages they are not sustainable (Muzvidziwa, 2000). Nevertheless, what is unique from the women who migrated is that, in light of their profile, their movement was a last resort measure chosen in order to earn a better living and/or support the family which had no other alternative to earn a decent living. 4. Results This section presents the study's findings. It focuses on the indicators of food insecurity, women's coping strategies to ensure food security, CA implementation and its impact in Ward 31 of Zaka District. 4.1. Indicators of food insecurity in ward 31 of Zaka District 4.2.2. Sale of livestock Furthermore, both male and four women headed households sold some of their livestock in order to buy grain. The most dominant practice was the sale of goats and cattle to the mobile livestock buyers from within and outside Zaka District. The women who sold livestock were a combination of those who had surplus to sell and those without but had no other option at hand to continue providing food for their families. The selling of livestock enabled the women to at least improve both their household food and nutrition security through buying maize among other cereals including rice. Apart from cereals, the women even managed to buy cooking oil, flour and sugar which enabled them to provide their families with more than two diversified meals. Here the concept of endowment set was applicable to those villagers including women farmers who had livestock to trade during difficult times of serious food shortages (Sen, 1999). However, it is imperative to realise that the hardest hit were four women headed households which had nothing to sell in an effort to ease the shortage of food. Some households were forced to sell their cattle which they needed for draught power and this delayed planting Nutrition and weight featured as indicators of food insecurity. Zaka District was among the districts with 5–9% of children aged between 6 months and 4 years 9 months who were below −2 SD Weight (Zimbabwe National Nutrition Survey, 2010: 21). This demonstrates the intensity of food insecurity in the period leading to the implementation of CA in Ward 31 located in Zaka East constituency. The incapacity of the women households to cope with agricultural shocks emerged as one cause of food insecurity. This cause largely derives from the underlying norms which hamper women from obtaining sufficient assets for agricultural production. Many households in the district identified water scarcity and low amount of rainfall as some of the major challenges which contributed to food insecurity for Ward 31, Zaka East. Lack of agricultural inputs and financial resources also intensified women's food insecurity in Ward 31 (ZIMVAC, 2009). Accordingly, it was established that 7% of children from food insecure households were not attending school in the district (ZIMVAC, 2012). Unmistakably, this demonstrates that food insecurity and illiteracy 21 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme limited term solution. This was so because many households benefited in the short term, especially female headed households. As shown below, the same can be said of the CA project. Echoing these sentiments, a woman farmer, Melody said: operations for the next season. As a result, this affected the households' sustainable food production levels, albeit with serious consequences on women. Linked to this, it was established that the draught power ownership in Masvingo Province (where Zaka District is located) was 68% against national draught power ownership of 66% (ZIMVAC, 2012). Beyond doubt, this had a negative bearing on women's efforts to ensure food security because cattle are a source of: manure, draught power and money needed to purchase grain among other food requirements. However, those who had not sold their cattle (four women) lost them during drought (five) and ended with no livestock as those who had sold theirs (four). As a result, they took CA seriously in an effort to produce enough food for their consumption. While the food aid efforts by both government and NGOs should be commended, they were short of long term solutions to our food insecurity situation. Except for those efforts that saw us [women] getting seeds and fertilisers, giving people food only save the present situation leaving one to starve in the future. Moreover, the quantities given were inadequate because about two or more families had to share a 50 kgs bag of maize for consumption for a couple of months before they could get the next share. This trend was more pronounced between 2004 and 2008. In light of these inadequate efforts to cope with food insecurity, some women in Zaka embraced CA in order to boost their food security. 4.2.3. Growing of drought resistant crops The research revealed that six women farmers who were heads of households and without cattle for draught power among other needs grew drought resistant crops such as millet and sorghum in Ward 31 of Zaka East Constituency. This was caused by the fact that some of the fields are low-lying-vleis which do not release water quickly and would be waterlogged for the greater part of the rainy season. Vleis are basically defined as part of wetlands or lands that normally hold too much water and are susceptible to water logging. They are referred to as mapani or matoro in Shona, Zimbabwe's most spoken local language besides Ndebele (Ellis-Jones, 2003: 5). Therefore, the problem of food insecurity was intense especially to those women farmers who are settled on vleis which do not support the growth of drought resistant crops. 4.3. Conservation agriculture implementation in ward 31of Zaka East Constituency 4.3.1. Digging basins Most of the CA participants in the study area dig their basins between August and October which is the dry season. Firstly, land preparation took place involving the clearing of grass and stumps from the previously cropped plots of about 0.25 ha. Pegs are inserted on the far ends, tied with a wire/string stretching for about 70 m. The adopters of CA worked as a team during the initial stages of land preparation whereby farmers dug basins using hoes up-hill of 15 cm × 15 cm ×15 cm on the dry land. Soil dug from the basin was put on the downslope side for use in covering up the basin, to prevent the soil from being washed back into the basin and also act as bulwark of the water overflowing from the dug basin (Oldrieve et al., 2009). The intra-row spacing was 60 cm. The inter-row spacing of 75 cm was wide enough to allow for intercropping (Twomlow et al., 2008). The basins collected water from the first rains of the wet season. Average plots of 0.56 ha produce about 12 444 basins in total (80 m length x 70 m width plots). A significant number of women were involved in basins preparation and both lead farmers and women farmers agreed that it was a strenuous task. They had to resort to team-work which was beneficial to the women CA followers. This was revealed by Sarah, a woman farmer who said: 4.2.4. Assistance by NGOs and government Food aid had both a positive and negative impact on food security in the study area. Various NGOs and food agencies such as Care International and World Vision distributed food and managed to save eight women headed households in Ward 31 from starving. However, some of the humanitarian agencies were barred from assisting after being accused of political interference. Food aid in Zimbabwe since the year 2000 was highly politicized. This worsened at the height of the Zimbabwean political and economic crisis in 2008. Real and perceived opposition members were denied food aid among other forms of aid. In this regard, Martha, a woman farmer noted that Belonging to any party other than ZANU-PF [Zimbabwe African National Patriotic Front] nearly cost our lives because since 2002 it became the [then] ruling party's strategy to starve rural people as a form of punishment for participating in and voting for the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change]. The reasoning was that not giving rural people food aid will lure them to support ZANU-PF for fear of starvation as it was the only party with the resources that can make people; especially [we] rural women make food available for our families. After realising that digging pits alone was a gruelling task we decided to work as a group. Initially, many women did not grasp the significance. But through encouragement and sharing knowledge we agreed. We now share tools, and even have some kind of a group constitution that we use to fine each other for late coming. We meet three times a week and begin work at 5:45 a.m. We realised that for it to work, we need to provide equal support and be punctual. The foregoing illustrates that the politicization of aid negatively affected women's efforts towards food security apart from the inherent weakness of food aid evident in its lack of sustainability. In a report by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (2012), Masvingo province's districts of Zaka, Bikita and Chivi witnessed discrimination, political intolerance, assault and intimidation on the basis of political affiliation. Individuals affiliated to the MDC faced all these forms of human rights violations at the hands of ZANU-PF supporters who hijacked the aid distribution process. The situation persisted in 2012 with people being denied agricultural inputs that included seeds and fertilisers from the “Presidential input scheme” and those who did not support ZANU-PF did not benefit from the scheme (Zimbabwe Peace Project, 2012: 11). Although the grain loan scheme from the government through the Grain Marketing Board was also politicized (Amnesty International, 2004), it was somehow an effort to contribute to food security by providing seeds and fertilizers to farmers. Apart from lack of sustainability, food aid compared to the government input assistance was a Further, the strenuous nature of the digging of basins led about 50% of the women farmers in Zaka to first plough their land using the oxdrawn plough before basin preparation contrary to the CA tenets. This made it difficult for the CA women farmers to enjoy all the benefits of CA because they violated some of its tenets. Both lead farmers and women CA farmers were in agreement that labor constraints, especially associated with the laborious basins preparation process deterred farmers from dramatically increasing their plot sizes. In the same vein, one woman CA follower (47 years) indicated that she did not have the energy to establish basins on dry soils, which is why she ploughed first before establishing basins. This reveals the extent to which women farmers were unable to religiously follow the CA tenets due to their inability to withstand its labour intensive requirement during the first year of its implementation. In addition, the women farmers who formerly practiced CA disclosed that labor constraints were the major reason behind their quitting of the CA technology especially during the basin preparation stage. Indeed, many 22 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme failure to supply the women farmers with the runner grass which they had promised to make silages for cattle to avoid the problems brought by the cutting of grass and competing uses of crop residues. Both the lead and women CA farmers agreed that they were not able to buy the grass due to financial constraints. Consequently, all these factors militated against the full implementation of CA in Zaka with negative effects on its goal to improve agricultural productivity. Again, in the dry season some of the grasslands are accidentally or deliberately burnt thus jeopardizing the mulch procurement. A former CA adopter revealed that mulching procurement was also labor intensive. Moreover, it was supposed to be carried out during the beginning of the dry season which coincides with other nutritional gardening activities hence making it difficult for the women farmers to strike a balance in terms of time investment between the two. The practical reality was that nutritional gardens were accorded more attention compared to CA. What comes to the fore from the foregoing is that the CA program offered to the Zaka District's ward 31 women influenced the NGOs partially putting into consideration the needs and constrains of indigenous women. A comprehensive consideration could have persuaded the implementation of a CA program in such a way that it could assist women within their own culture and means, respecting their traditional roles, positions and status in society. This could have contributed towards the successful implementation and increased acceptance of the CA as compared to what it achieved. The planting process is carried out after the first effective rains between November and December. The lead farmers noted that they informed the participants on the need to plant after 30 mm of rainfall is received for sandy soils and about 50 mm for clay soils. Three evenly spaced maize seeds are planted in the basins and covered with 2–3 cm of the remaining soil whilst ensuring that the basins are free of clods and stones to ensure high plant population and germination which is helpful in reducing the need for replanting (Oldrieve et al., 2009). The choice of plants depends on the farmer but both men and women farmers agreed that they annually preferred maize because it is a staple crop and this is done at the expense of legumes. Additionally, the Zaka CA women farmers' notion of food security was also evident in the NGOs’ intervention through the distribution of maize and sorghum seeds and fertilizers only at the expense of other crops. Consequently, crop rotation was not followed by many of the women adopters of CA with the complicit of the NGOs. The reason for not following crop rotation was given by Tari, a woman farmer who noted that: women complained about having backaches during the basin preparation process as well as weeding. The labour challenges faced in weeding were more serious because both men and women lead farmers and CA adopters were in agreement that their shared labor activities during the digging of basins did not extend to the weeding period. The key reason for not extending the shared labour activities to the time of weeding was the different demanding tasks that the CA farmers saw requiring attention during this period. As Mary, a CA women adopter puts it, The shared labor activities stopped during the weeding period because we had to tend our livestock, especially cattle during the rainy season. This left us with children still in school not having enough time to do weeding and let alone go for shared labor activities. Additionally, petty jealousies perverted the need for shared labor during weeding. This is because some felt that other families had fewer members than others hence those with many able bodied family members felt like they were assisting those with few ones. This was not the case during the basin digging period because it largely occurred when time can be equally shared between shared labour and other activities such as nutrition gardens which were not done throughout the day. 4.3.2. Application of (in) organic manure Most women respondents applied organic manure from cattle kraals between September and October before the rainy season. The one to two handfuls of manure were mixed with 1 cm–2 cm of soil. Basal dressing is only applied immediately before planting where one cup is applied per basin and covered by 1–2 cm of soil to protect the seed from hydroscopic ‘burning’ by fertilizer. The amount of manure/fertilizer would also be determined by the type of soil. Sandy soils require more and clay soils require less fertilizing. Covering of the basal dressing manure with soil is done such that it leaves space to allow the collection of water during the first rains (Oldrieve et al., 2009). All the women farmers in Zaka East Constituency pointed out that they participated in manure or compost application. Those whose husbands and children were present were assisted in transporting manure to the fields. Additionally, women had other demanding domestic chores during the dry season which left them with very little time if any to pay attention to the requirements of CA, particularly the application of organic manure. However, it is important to emphasize that the participation of women in Zaka in CA demonstrates that they understand the importance of food security. This was exposed by Monica, a woman farmer who said: Crop rotation while a key tenet of conservation farming, I saw it as negating the main goal of food security. This is because to me not having enough maize for maize meal for sadza means food insecurity. All other food crops while said to be good for our health are not much sought after as is the case with maize in times of drought hence the need to have the best of the land under this crop other than any other. Thus many of us do not subscribe to crop rotation because much of our land has to be under the maize crop- the guarantor of food security. Having experienced food insecurity for a long time with intermittent supplies from food donors and the government, the introduction of CA proved a viable long term solution to food security. In my case, I saw it as the only way out of poverty and the dependence syndrome which donors were cultivating on us [rural women.] I do not want my family to starve that is why I am a CA follower despite its demands. This is despite the fact that they violated the many tenets of CA largely due to the lack of time investment during the land preparation periods and other stages of its implementation. In fact, crop rotation was replaced by inter-cropping through the planting of either cow-peas or nuts which protects the soil from soil erosion and out-competes weeds for nutrients and sunlight (Steiner, 2011). This somehow posits a trade-off for women's efforts towards food security because while intercropping increased their ability to have capacity and access to prepare and provide a balanced diet for their families, it also minimises the maize crop output (Thierfielder et al., 2012). This is because availability of a staple crop (maize and sorghum) is misconstrued as having enough food which is not always the case in terms of food security which includes nutritional concerns. Furthermore, Mary noted that increasing the plot size under CA and following most of its principles meant total abandonment of conventional farming and that is why many women farmers limited their plot sizes. Non-adopters of CA highlighted that they could not venture into CA because it did not encourage the growing of nuts and tubers which 4.3.3. Mulching and planting Mulch from cut grass was reportedly used to beef up the crop residues from the previous season. Both the male and women CA farmers partially implemented it. It could have been useful in providing a blanket which then breaks kinetic energy of rain drops, cushioning the soil surface and encouraging water infiltration (ZCATF, 2009). Failure to mulch was caused by the fact that mulch grass and previous season crop residues have many uses such as thatching and stock feed respectively. Women farmers who adopted CA said that mulch is supposed to be gathered from tall grass and this competes with the high demand for tall grass for thatching. This was worsened by the NGOs’ 23 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme since they were viewed with great esteem in society. This was because the women farmers demonstrated their ability in agriculture thereby challenging the traditional notion which viewed women as just passive and submissive even in development projects. Improvement in grain and other cereal harvests from the CA plots was witnessed. This significantly addressed the women CA farmers' food security concerns. There were notable improvements in grain harvests from the women's CA plots. Similarly, improved yields from plots under CA were made in semi-arid areas of Gokwe North and South and Nyanga where CA was practised (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 79). During the years when poor rains were received CA plots became the major food security plots for the families since nothing was harvested from conventional plots which only augmented during years with good rains. An average family of five to seven members requires not less than 1. 3 metric tons (MT) of maize for sustenance till the next harvest season. For those who adequately added manure and top dressing fertilizers their harvests were boosted and supplemented with the paltry harvests from conventional plots. This led to an increase in the levels of food consumption from one meal per day to three meals and better nutritional and diversified diet levels. Those who practised CA almost perfectly (following all the required components) and augmented with the meagre harvests from conventional plots, were no longer skipping meals and were hopeful that there would be less dependent on buying grain to supplement what they harvested given the fact that it was enough for their sustenance until the next harvest. Improved harvests from the small plots were enhanced by the correct and consistent application of both organic and inorganic fertilisers and early planting encouraged by CA basins. Women farmers began to realise that extensification encouraged by conventional farming contributed to poor production due to inadequate labour, fertilisers and poor management of the large areas of land under cultivation. The women CA adopters ploughed their other plots conventionally and the harvests from these augmented the yields from the CA plots. It is therefore clear that the harvests from the two plots enabled the CA adopters to sustain an average family of six members until the next harvest. Nevertheless, women CA adopters agreed that CA was helpful especially to women households who did not have cattle for draught power but managed to prepare basins during the dry season and planted early with the first rains. In addition, whilst households with cattle used manure for their basins, those without applied the skills they were taught and used organic matter, chicken and goat manure to boost soil fertility. Thus, the women farmers in Zaka East were able to give regular attention to the CA plots because the plots were situated near homesteads unlike conventional plots that were far away. Table 1 below shows the maize harvests from both men and women CA adopters who were supported by NGOs between 2009 and 2013. For the 2009 to 2010 agricultural season, the researchers calculated total harvests from the sampled 8 beneficiaries of CA who got inputs from Christian Care. The total harvests for 2009 to 2010 was 4250 kgs which was divided by 8 farmers to get 0.53 MT, the average maize harvests for that year. For the 2010 to 2011, the total was 5000 kgs divided by 8 and this culminated in 0.63 MT. Added to this, for the 2011 to 2012 season the combined harvests were 5850 kgs which gave an average of 0.73 MT and for the 2012 to 2013 agricultural season, the combined harvest was 7750 kgs with an average harvest of 0.97 MT. All this harvest was obtained from CA plots which were less than a hectare in size. The same method used above was used to establish the average maize harvest from the sampled conventional farmers/nonadopters of CA which was commuted to an average of 0.7 MT for the same four seasons. The findings show that increases in total average harvest by both men and women CA adopters (NGOs supported) ranged from 0.53 MT in 2009/2010 season to 0.97 MT in the 2012/2013 season whose average was 0.72 MT. The researchers compared the average harvests from conventional farming plots which ranged from 0.7 MT to 0.8 MT from plot sizes of about 2.5 ha whereas the harvests from CA adopters ranged from 0.72 MT to 0.97 MT from plots which required a well tilled land for them to thrive well. Conventional farming plots are valued for growing nuts essential for peanut butter and other nutritional values. Here it is clear that women's contribution to food and nutritional security cannot be underestimated. In addition, a constant amount of inputs was distributed to all the CA adopters who benefited from the Christian Care program. Referring to this, a Christian Care official noted that they did not want farmers to adopt CA as only an input seeking adventure but to acquire the knowledge aimed at sustainably boosting their harvests. While his view was correct as far as avoiding dependency syndrome is concerned, it was wrong given the fact that many of the women CA adopters and followers also cited inputs constraints among the key setbacks which prevented them from putting more land under CA. Apart from inputs, long dry spells and fencing were also cited as among the key challenges by both men and women CA adopters. For example, during the whole of December 2012 there was not even a single drop of rainfall yet this is a critical period when the crops need moisture. Those women farmers who had not established deep and wide (15cm × 15cm × 15 cm) as prescribed suffered heavy losses of their maize and sorghum plants. In addition, most of the women CA farmers' plots were not fenced leading to limited benefits as compared to those that would accrue in fenced areas. The majority of women CA plots were not fenced because very few households could afford to buy the barbed wire needed for enclosing their plots. On the other hand, the NGOs did not provide fencing resources making their CA intervention likely to fail because it had inadequate inputs from the outset. All this disturbed the women CA adopters’ efforts to ensure food security. 4.4. Impact of CA on women in ward 31, Zaka East The numbers of CA plots were not large and at most they averaged about 0.2–0.3 ha and were situated closer to homesteads for easy monitoring because many are not fenced. As a result, the CA technology was more accurate and standardized. The adoption rate of CA in the ward shows that quite a significant number of women had faith in CA as a strategy to ensure food security. Essentially, women largely worked on the family plots singlehanded as the decision makers with the help of their children. Indeed, that women adopters of CA became involved in decision making at the household level is hardly controversial. This was the case especially in women headed households. They made decisions which include the type of crops to plant, where and when to plant them, when to: weed, apply fertilizers and harvest. After harvest they calculated whether they had the required subsistence food for the whole year. If they did not have, then they made plans to augment their harvest before their stocks got finished. Women introduced and implemented some food saving mechanisms which include avoiding surplus food during meal preparations. In other cases, women practised CA with their husbands who were present and shared the major decision making role. Linked to this, Mona, a CA woman adopter reported: For years, I carried out menial tasks in return for grain in this ward. I couldn't do other things like selling at the Growth Point market center because it was seen as neither secure nor suitable for women. I was modestly involved in decisions both at the household and village level concerning agricultural or economic affairs which I thought was the domain of my husband. But with the knowledge of conservation farming, the lack of confidence as a woman dissipated. Now I can do things such as championing agricultural activities and the markets on my own. My husband and the community's consciousness have altered since the coming in of the training programmes. Women's concerns and voices both at the household level and the village or ward are being heard thereby contributing to major decisions on development and agriculture. Evidently, women's social standing in the community was enhanced 24 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme Table 1 CA adopters’ harvests: NGOs beneficiaries only. Source: Primary data (2013) CA Adopters: NGOs Beneficiaries Farmer 1 Farmer 2 Farmer 3 Farmer 4 Farmer 5 Farmer 6 Farmer 7 Farmer 8 Total Combined Harvests Average Harvests/Year Sex Female Female Male Female Female Female Male Male Harvests Per Year 2009–2010 2010–2011 2011–2012 2012–2013 11 × 50 kgs 11 × 50 kgs 8 × 50 kgs 10 × 50 kgs 9 × 50 kgs 12 × 50 kgs 11 × 50 kgs 14 × 50 kgs 4 250 kgs 0.53MT 10 × 50 kgs 12 × 50 kgs 13 × 50 kgs 14 × 50 kgs 14 × 50 kgs 12 × 50 kgs 12 × 50 kgs 13 × 50 kgs 5 000 kgs 0.63MT 13 × 50 kgs 14 × 50 kgs 13 × 50 kgs 12 × 50 kgs 14 × 50 kgs 16 × 50 kgs 17 × 50 kgs 18 × 50 kgs 5 850 kgs 0.73MT 14 × 50 kgs 18 × 50 kgs 20 × 50 kgs 21 × 50 kgs 23 × 50 kgs 20 × 50 kgs 20 × 50 kgs 19 × 50 kgs 7 750 kgs 0.97MT plots in the morning and nutritional gardens in the late afternoon. Therefore, if CA women farmers in a traditional society are encouraged to distribute their time between CA plots and nutritional gardens the programme would be effective. This should not be misconstrued to imply that women's traditional and sustainable roles in their homes are to blame. In lieu, it appears the NGOs' introduction of the CA program in Zaka ignored to check whether these programs were suitable to women farmers and were not in a position to give them help without interfering in their traditional daily and nutritional roles. Consequently, this study adds the contribution of agriculture to household food security with women playing a bigger role than previously thought. This is so although the contribution of subsistence agriculture to food security is yet to be established because people (including women) in rural areas engage in or augment proceeds from agriculture with extra sources of income (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 473). In addition, the claims that CA has the potential to improve food security have also been vindicated in ward 31, Zaka East evident in the somewhat better yields drawn from the small CA plots compared with those that were harvested from the conventional plots. Yields have room to improve if the women CA adopters are offered the opportunity and encouraged to adhere to the CA tenets. This is because the NGOs are largely to blame for the partial implementation of the CA tenets in Zaka. For instance, they did not provide fencing materials and diversified seeds among others yet these affected the degree to which CA tenets were implemented. It was the lack of adequate inputs on the part of the NGOs that resulted in women CA adopters in Zaka failing to enjoy its benefits through religious implementation of its tenets such as crop rotation and reduced labour demands, especially during basin preparation and weeding after the first year. Consequently, where CA fails to improve yields some positive remedies which include encouraging women to adhere to the principles of CA need to be implemented provided that adequate inputs are made available and the women farmers’ different responsibilities in traditional societies are respected. Again, the study reveals the less known aspects about CA that it really offers an opportunity for women to change existing gender relations in their favour. It is clear that the conditions under which this is possible relate to those households where men allowed their women freedom to join CA projects and the women headed households where the women are the sole decision makers. The roles women assumed, and duties for particular farm responsibilities, and access to productive assets and inputs and outputs were greatly influenced by the women's and even with their husbands' acquaisance in the adoption of CA technology. This is because when women received inputs from NGOs, it was as a result of their initiative to join the CA project and the inputs came in their own names. As a result, the women emerged with enhanced influential gender and decision making roles compared to their previous ones all due to their adoption of CA. Clearly, the unequal power relations between men and women in Zaka East Constituency were positively shaken up by the women's adoption of CA. were less than a hectare in size. All the average harvests given in their respective agricultural seasons for each category of farmers point to the great potential of CA. Besides, the harvests demonstrate that with adequate support women can perform better or equally compared to men in agricultural production. 5. Discussion It is evident that CA in Ward 31, Zaka East Constituency faced more challenges than successes in a drive to ensure food security. However, CA managed to empower the smallholder women farmers with knowledge and skills since its commencement by various NGOs. In other words, the significance of the intensification of sustainable agriculture and its resource-conserving technologies and farm centred participatory approaches (Pretty et al., n.d: 2) were nearly realised by the women CA adopters in Zaka. This could be partly encouraged by the undeniable conclusion that economic recession and higher prices of food disproportionately affect women who are the major household food producers, providers and distributors (FAO, 2009: 5; De Schutter, 2013: vii). Indeed, improved input packages for areas and regions that receive erratic rainfall are critical in ensuring that subsistence farming effectively contributes to food security (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 462). Food security is important because low domestic staple food production results in a drop in the citizens' standard of living (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 462). Certainly, the adoption of CA by women in Zaka illustrates their faith in it as a strategy to ensure food security. This confirms Sidibe's (2005: 218) remark that individual perception on the characteristics of a given technology has influence in its adoption or rejection. Unfortunately, the efforts by women in Zaka to adopt CA in a drive to enhance food security were beset by many constraints. This study has a number of lessons that can be gleaned in understanding how gender relations in smallholder agriculture unfold, pronounced in decision-making over technology acceptance, roles, and duties for particular farm responsibilities, and access to productive assets influenced by the adoption of CA. Indeed, the case of Zaka demonstrates the barriers and opportunities to CA adoption by women. To this end, Zaka women were unable to comprehensively participate in CA because they preserved their traditional and key responsibility for household tasks and caring roles which are time consuming in nature. This undoubtedly means that women's working day tasks increased with a negative impact on both CA adoption and productivity. Validating that nutritional gardens are indispensable among women in SSA because they improve nutrition and livelihoods (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 475; FAO, 2009: 14), this study has shown that women found it difficult to quit their nutritional gardening activities for CA technical processes such as mulch procurement. It was difficult for some women CA farmers to strike a balance in terms of time investment. However, four women had good time distribution between CA and nutritional gardens and their yields improved. They worked in the CA 25 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme cultural biases and lack of political will continuing to hamper the even adoption and implementation of internationally agreed policies on women's empowerment and gender equality (FAO, 2011: 12). However, given that the Zaka women, as elsewhere in Zimbabwe, adopted CA during its promotion stages by the NGOs, chances are high that they may abandon it (as some had) in the face of numerous challenges cited as well as the withdrawal of incentives in the form of inputs (Pedzisa et al., 2015). In fact, the promotion of CA in Zimbabwe as humanitarian relief effort by NGOs, providing maize seed and fertilisers for rural people in the face of a serious economic crisis (Andersson and D'Souza, 2014: 121) expose its short-term leanings. Murray et al. (2016: 120) observed that climate change problems and the decline in agricultural productivity caused by failure to adapt may compel smallholder farmers including women to abandon farming. This demonstrates the importance of multi-stakeholder assistance including the donor community if CA adoption and its potential to increase sustainable agricultural productivity are to be realised. Despite the above, in SSA, factors that impede women's cultivation or agriculture production include but are not limited to: high start-up costs, lack of fencing, drought and inadequate land for production. These constraints stifle both nutritional garden farming and communal farming (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 475). Essentially, one needs not ignore the fact that women in Zaka District like many in the country and SSA at large do not have enough access to land including its ownership, financial services, training among other skills critical for promoting agricultural productivity and encouraging improved family income, nutrition and health (FAO, 2009: 5). However, the challenges which beset the women CA adopters in Zaka District such as lack of material and financial resources in their effort to ensure food security are not unique to them because they beset the success of CA in Chivi District (Gukurume et al., 2010). The plot sizes under CA were relatively smaller than conventional farming plots meaning that the rest of the land would turn into makura (meaning large tracks of formerly tilled land that lie idle and unused). CA women farmers had to pay attention to the conventional farming as well as CA plots and this affected production in CA plots. Linked to this, Wagstaff and Harty (2010: 71) noted that changing the mindset of farmers and forsaking the plough is difficult. Consequently, the expected long-term panacea to the food insecurity in Africa that can be achieved by encouraging farmers to intensify production is difficult to achieve (Gukurume et al., 2010: 41). In the same vein, intensification requirements of the dramatic increase in the use of improved inputs, such as seed, fertilisers, organic inputs and conservation investments (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 471) were far from being realised and appreciated by many of the Zaka women farmers. In fact, the women CA adopters in Zaka compounded their problems through their continued interest in extensification instead of intensification. This culminated in thin resources such as labour and production inputs being spread into unfertile soils jeopardizing the potential to meet even basic household food needs (Marongwe et al., 2012: 153). Given that development programs should take into consideration indigenous women's roles, duties and status, it is imperative to consider how the CA programs maintained or hampered indigenous land rights systems. It appears the case of Zaka women CA adopters demonstrates the potential of CA but was threatened by the fact that culturally and customarily, the village head can allocate the idle land to the other households in need. As a result, the Zaka case support the long held view that indigenous land rights systems hamper productivity in SSA (Migot-Adholla et al., 1991). The indigenous land rights systems contributed to both the low adoption of the CA by women in the study area and their ability to put sizeable tracts of land under CA technology. Therefore, for CA programs to be effective they should be implemented in such a way that they work to change the negative position of indigenous land rights systems for the acceptable improvement of indigenous women's roles, duties and status. To this end, inasmuch as CA among other improved technologies are promoted for food security and other development goals there is need to be conscious and guard against the gender and social equity tradeoffs it is associated with (Beuchelt, 2016). Not doing so will witness 5.1. Input and labour constraints Inputs constraints negatively affected the adoption and implementation of CA by women farmers in Zaka. Inputs constraints contributed immensely in discouraging the smallholder women farmers in adopting the CA concept. This is not surprising because in most parts of SSA smallholder farmers largely access their inputs through informal channels such as on-farm seed saving, farmer-to-farmer exchange and unregulated sales (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 466). It is doubtless that the goal of introducing CA in the Zimbabwean rural communities including Zaka could not be accomplished as a result of unreliable and inflated cost of inputs and unsteady market conditions that were prevailing (Marongwe et al., 2012). This is more critical in light of the fact that few women compared to men command economic capital and in most of the cases men lead in the decisions on what input to buy or forego (Farnworth et al., 2015: 5–6). Moreover, labor constraints prevented many women farmers from increasing their plot sizes and following all the concepts of CA. Women farmers were used to conventional farming which required less labor because they use ox-drawn ploughs to cultivate their fields. Besides, CA was misconstrued by many women farmers to be technology of the poor due to its inclination towards manual labour. In other places in the country such as Chivi, the CA concept has been euphemistically labelled “dhiga ufe” (meaning dig and die) by the local villagers instead of the “Dhiga udye” (dig and eat/survive) label of the program's advocates. This was in line with the inequality in the outputs the farmers get compared to the labour and time among other investments they put in it (Gukurume et al., 2010: 46). Moreover, it is clear that those women CA farmers whose husbands and children were present were assisted in most of the farming tasks including transporting manure to the fields. Linked to this, different household factors impacted negatively on the Zaka women CA adopters. These entail that the initial labor intensity of the CA concept was highly felt by the four HIV/AIDS affected households, three elderly headed households, seven families with less than three members and three households with chronically ill members. Most of these labor constraints were also recorded as hampering the successful implementation of CA in Zimbabwe (Fanelli and Dumba, 2006). Those with less energetic family members found it difficult to consistently implement the CA tenets with a negative impact on productivity. This also accounted for the small pieces of land put under CA by women which ultimately affected impact of CA on food security. As a result, while the uptake of CA by these women farmers was desirable as they understood it to be a food insecurity combating strategy, they faced different challenges. This makes the aspect of targeting important for the success of CA because its lack of success could be wrongly interpreted as unsuitability yet it might be merely poor targeting of beneficiaries (Baudron et al., 2015). There are shared labour activities prevalent in most parts of the country (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 71) but these were not practised by women CA adopters in Zaka during weeding. A combination of demanding activities, especially tending livestock and petty jealousies prevented the extension of shared labour activities during weeding. It was the shortage of labour which compelled women CA adopters in Zaka to resort to ploughing and basin preparation just before the rainy season thus further dampening the effectiveness of the CA concept. This is not in the interest of CA because preparing land on the onset of the rainy season reduce potential maize harvest by 1.5% (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 68). Besides, the physical deterioration and reduction in soil fertility caused by conventional agriculture through the use of the plough or draught power is not stopped. This is because among other things beneficial microbes are killed due to the soil's large exposure to wind, ultraviolet radiation and water erosion (Wagstaff and Harty, 26 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme respectively (McGuire and Sperling, 2013). This is because only empowered women and men are improved and become more effective farmers who are likely to produce the most of their prospects (Farnworth and Colverson, 2015: 20). 2010: 68). More so, ploughing first before basin preparation also disturbs the functioning of micro fauna encouraged by CA thereby limiting its success due to inadequate soil nutrients which result from little if not none decomposition of organic matter (Mutema et al., 2013: 12–13). Undoubtedly, the initial high labour demands of CA meant that many women CA adopters and followers were unable to implement the full CA package thus could not reap the full benefits as is expected by the strategy. Added to this, the absence of fencing not only allowed animals to feed on the much needed crop residues which are supposed to be used for mulching. It also worsened the labour constraints in the sense that there was need to reconstruct the basins and plant before the first rains on a yearly basis because the basins were destroyed by livestock. Consequently, CA's identified labour intensiveness during the first year only and reduced labour requirements in the subsequent years due to the use of the same planting pits and ripper furrows (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 69) become useless in the absence of fencing. To this end, the envisaged benefits that accrue due to mulching were not attained where the plots were not fenced because CA women farmers did not afford the fence and the NGOs did not provide them any resources towards that. The NGOs by implementing the CA program in Zaka without providing adequate necessary resources to the women largely did not try to benefit indigenous women through their own culture. Hence, fencing constraints meant that the women CA adopters failed to achieve the expected harvest because some CA components were repeatedly violated in many cases with the responsibility of the NGOs. In addition, the year-long opportunity accorded by CA to prepare land well ahead of the rainy season reducing the high labour demand which is experienced at the onset of the rainy season (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 69) was not experienced by many of the Zaka women CA adopters as they violated many of the CA tenets. The women adopters of CA in Zaka failed to realise significant benefits due to labor constraints which curtailed the realization of food security. Whereas in other parts of the country the increase in productivity by CA farmers encouraged the expansion of land put under CA (Mazvimavi et al., 2008), it was the opposite in Zaka District. The women CA adopters were overwhelmed by a number of constraints which left them with slim prospects of reaping high yields and consequently very little to show to others. 5.3. Long dry spells Long dry spells and erratic rainfall also posed a challenge for the women CA adopters. The long dry spells experienced during the agricultural seasons in the study area threatened the success of women CA adopters in ensuring food security. In this case basins became a disadvantage to those women farmers who had applied too much manure or fresh manure which contributed to the wilting of the crops in the basins. The challenge was also worsened by the failure to choose the most appropriate soil types for the CA plots because areas that were too sandy, hilly and rocky dried up quickly and left crops vulnerable to the scotching heat. This dovetails with the conventional understanding in SSA that the region lacks the requisite assets for agricultural production. These include unsustainable small and declining farm sizes, poor quality land, and negligible investment in irrigation (Baiphethi and Jacobs, 2009: 471). Thus, Zaka women by adopting CA demonstrated that women need not be ignored in sustainable development matters in which climate change is at the heart of the development and food security debate (Denton, 2002). In fact, the women's CA practices in Zaka illuminate how women smallholder farmers may approach new technology aimed at improving their livelihoods through food security (Murray et al., 2016). 6. Conclusion CA was inadequate in facilitating the attainment of food security by women in Ward 31, Zaka East. Women CA farmers who were supported by the NGOs managed to improve their harvests although most of the yields were insufficient for an average family of six. In fact, the CA women farmers had to augment their family food needs from the grain obtained from their conventional farming plots in order to get to the next harvesting season. Not all the women farmers employed the prescribed components of CA such as complete soil cover by mulch, crop rotations, minimum tillage, manure application and fencing of CA plots. Numerous challenges bedevilled the successful implementation of CA for the attainment of food security in the study area such as mulch procurement and residue retaining, lack of fencing, the long dry spells and the associated labor constraints. However, the CA program should be part of the gender and development approach that takes into consideration indigenous women's needs and constrains (Tasli, 2007: 23–27) which the NGOs in this study failed to do. The NGOs by implementing the CA program in Zaka without providing adequate necessary resources such as inputs and fencing materials to the women largely did not contribute to the improvement of the welfare of indigenous women without interfering with the beneficiaries' own culture. The many cases of the violation of the CA tenets in Zaka were due to the constraints the farmers faced in the absence of adequate appreciation of their needs and constraints by the NGOs. For instance, the NGOs did not provide fencing materials and diversified seeds among other needs yet these affected the degree to which CA tenets were implemented. It was the lack of adequate inputs on the part of the NGOs that culminated in women CA adopters in Zaka failing to expand their CA plots and enjoying its benefits by religiously implementing its tenets such as crop rotation and reduced labour demands, especially during basin preparation and weeding after the first year. More so, given that it was difficult for some women CA farmers to strike a balance in terms of time investment between CA processes and nutritional gardens, the NGOs' introduction of the CA program in Zaka ignored to check whether these programs were suitable to women farmers and were in a position to provide them help without interfering in their traditional daily and nutritional roles. Consequently, the CA program 5.2. Mulching constraints The women CA adopters in the study area were constrained by the challenge of mulch. In fact, mulch procurement and application is one of the largest challenges in CA in Zaka East Constituency. Mulch procurement competed with the high demand of grass by cattle owners in the communal area. In fact, CA faces the challenge of maintenance of ground cover in many parts of the country that receive low rainfall because the crop residues are used to feed livestock (Marongwe et al., 2012). There is competition of maintaining adequate mulch cover between the need to preserve grass for livestock and women's CA needs for mulch. Resultantly, this led the slow and half-hearted uptake of the mulch CA tenet by women in Zaka District leading to a decline in the benefits the women farmers were expected to derive from CA. Accordingly, all the benefits of mulching that include: prevention of weed growth, releasing soil nutrients, building up soil organic matter, protecting the soil from wind and water erosion, preventing “capping” due to the raindrop impact, reducing evaporation and keeping the soil cool at even temperature (Wagstaff and Harty, 2010: 69) were not fully realised in Zaka District by most women CA farmers. This in a way explains why the women farmers were overwhelmed by the problem of weeds and the susceptibility of their crops to dry spells. Clearly, competing uses for crop remains among other factors continues to be a limiting factor to the adoption of CA and its contribution to productivity. This therefore, prompts the need for capacity building for the women CA adopters to bring about the absorption of stresses and adaptation to loss of soil fertility and climate changes 27 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme dmdocuments/Census/Census.pdf [accessed 17 August 2013]. De Schutter, O., 2013. Gender Equality and Food Security: Women's Empowerment as a Tool against Hunger. Asian Development Bank, Mandaluyong City. Degu, G., Yigzaw, T., 2006. Research Methodology, Lecture Notes for Health Students. http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/ethiopia_health/lecture/plain/health_ science_students/ln_research_method_final.pdf [accessed 20 August 2014]. Dendooven, L., Patino-Zúñiga, L., Verhulst, N., Luna-Guido, M., Marsch, R., Govaerts, B., 2012. Global warming potential of agricultural systems with contrasting tillage and residue management in the central highlands of Mexico. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 152, 50–58. Denton, F., 2002. Climate change, vulnerability, impacts and adaptation: why does gender matter? Gend. Dev. 10 (2), 10–20. Ellis-Jones, J. (Ed.), 2003. Best Practice Guidelines for the Sustainable Cultivation of Vleis: Crop Management Options for Vleis, . http://ir.uz.ac.zw/jspui/bitstream/ 10646/344/1/Crop%20managment%20options%20for%20vleis%2036p.pdf [accessed 24 September 2015]. Fanelli, C.W., Dumba, L., 2006. Conservation farming in rural Zimbabwe. LEISA Mag. 22 (4), 18–19. FAO, 2004. Voluntary Guidelines to Support Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security. http://www.fao.org/3/ay7937e.pdf [accessed 18 August 2013]. FAO, 2009. Bridging the Gap the Gap: FAO's Programme for Gender Equality in Agriculture and Rural Development. http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/i1243e/ i1243e00.htm [accessed 24 September 2015]. FAO, 2011. The State of Food and Agriculture 2010–2011: Women in Agriculture – Closing the Gender Gap for Development. FAO, Rome. Farnworth, C.R., Colverson, K.E., 2015. Building a gender-transformative extension and advisory facilitation system in sub-saharan Africa. J. Gend. Agric. Food Secur. 1 (1), 20–39. Farnworth, C.R., Baudron, F., Andersson, J.A., Misiko, M., Badstue, L., Stirling, C.M., 2015. Gender and conservation agriculture in East and southern Africa: towards a research agenda. Int. J. Agric. Sustain. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903. 2015.1065602. Giller, K.E., Witter, E., Corbeels, M., Tittoneel, P., 2009. Conservation agriculture and smallholder farming in Africa: the heretics view. J. Field Crops Res. 114 (1), 23–34. Govaerts, B., Verhulst, N., Castellanos-Navarrete, A., Sayre, K.D., Dixon, J., Dendooven, L., 2009. Conservation agriculture and soil carbon sequestration: between myth and farmer reality. Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 28, 97–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 07352680902776358. Gukurume, S., Nhodo, L., Dube, C., 2010. Conservation farming and food security-insecurity matrix in Zimbabwe: a case of ward 21 Chivi rural. J. Sustain. Dev. Afr. 12 (7), 40–52. Habtezion, S., 2012. Gender Agriculture and Food Security. United Nations Development Programme, New York. Hobbs, P.R., 2007. What is conservation agriculture and why is it important for future sustainable food Production? Paper presented at international workshop on increasing wheat yield potential, CIMMYT, obregon, Mexico, 20–24 March 2006. J. Agric. Sci. 145, 127–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021859607006892. Hove, M., Mutanda, D., Matendera, E., 2012. Zimbabwe's multi-currency economy and people's livelihoods: an examination of the impact of the strategy of remittances with reference to Zaka District 2009-2012. Int. J. Multidiscip. Manag. Stud. 2 (12), 1–14. Makwara, E.C., 2013. Indigenous knowledge systems and modern weather forecasting: exploring the linkages. J. Agric. Sustain. 2 (1), 98–141. Makwara, E.C., Gamira, D., 2012. About to lose all the soil in Zaka's Ward 5, Zimbabwe: rewards of Unsustainable Land use. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. 1 (3), 457–476. Manyeruke, C., Hamauswa, S., Mhandara, L., 2013. The effects of climate change and variability on food security in Zimbabwe: a socio-economic and political analysis. Int. J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 3 (6), 270–286. Marongwe, L.S., Nyagumbo, I., Kwazira, K., Kassam, A., Friedrich, T., 2012. Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Crop Intensification: a Zimbabwean Case Study. Integrated Crop Management 17, Rome, FAO. Matysak, D., 2010. Formal Structures of Power in Rural Zimbabwe. Research and Advocacy Unit, Harare. Mazvimavi, K., Twomlow, S., Belder, P., Hove, L., 2008. An Assessment of the Sustainable Uptake of Conservation Farming in Zimbabwe. Global Theme on Agroecosystems Report No. 39. Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. McGuire, S., Sperling, L., 2013. Making seed systems more resilient to stress. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 644–653. Migot-Adholla, S., Hazell, P., Blarel, B., Place, F., 1991. Indigenous land rights in subsaharan Africa: a constraint on productivity? World Bank Econ. Rev. 5 (1), 155–175. Murray, U., Gebremedhin, Z., Brychkova, G., Spillane, C., 2016. Smallholder farmers and climate smart agriculture: technology and labour productivity constraints amongst women smallholder farmers in Malawi. Gend. Technol. Dev. 20 (2), 117–148. Musiyiwa, K., Leal Filho, W., Harris, D., Nyamangara, J., 2014. Implications of climate variability and change smallholder crop production in different areas of Zimbabwe. Res. J. Environ. Earth Sci. 6 (8), 394–401. Mutema, M., Mafongoya, P.L., Nyagumbo, I., Chikukura, L., 2013. Effects of crop residues and reduced tillage on macrofauna abundance. J. Org. Syst. 8 (1), 5–16. Muzvidziwa, V.N., 2000. Rural Urban Linkages, Masvingo's Double Rooted Female Heads of Households. Unpublished Dissertation. Department of Sociology, University of Zimbabwe, Harare. Novak, T.P., 1996. Secondary Data Analysis Lecture Notes. ‘Marketing Research’. Vanderbilt University accessed 25 March 2013. www.2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/ marketingreserch.spring.1996.html [accessed 25 March 2013]. Nyanga, P.H., 2012. Food security, conservation agriculture and pulses: evidence from should be rolled out in a way that encourages women to adhere to its principles backed by adequate inputs and respect for the women farmers’ different responsibilities in traditional societies. A number of strategies may be engaged to enhance the implementation of CA enabling it to contribute more effectively towards the attainment of food security. Firstly, there is need to carry out more research that seek to modify the way in which CA is practiced especially to shift from the use of the hoes in basin preparation which is reportedly hard and labor intensive. This involves how best labor constraints can be addressed in a cost effective manner. This will definitely go a long way in making CA women friendly by reducing the demand for labour. The multi-sectoral response should be strengthened amongst the CA implementing partners (NGOs), relevant government departments such as agriculture extension services and mechanization, local meteorological stations and private seed manufacturers to maximize the production of hybrid seeds and open-pollinated varieties. This will enable rural women farmers to have timely access to all vital ingredients of sustainable CA. In fact, McGuire and Sperling (2013) note that access to resilient seed systems enhances food security paving way for resilient livelihoods. Here the intervention involves the direct delivery of quality seed to beneficiaries thereby enabling both recovery and sustainable development from the time of food crisis. Moreover, awareness campaigns need to be carried out to promote CA practice in order to reduce farmers’ cultural resistance in adopting new conservation technologies. Farmers should be assisted to adapt to the manifestations of climate change such as long dry seasons during the agricultural seasons. These will benefit arid and semi-arid regions in Zimbabwe and other countries in their efforts to attain food security. Acknowledgements The researchers wish to express their deepest, everlasting and profound gratitude to all respondents for providing information about their experiences with CA in Ward 31, Zaka District and authors whose works were consulted during the writing of this study. More so, the researchers wish to express their unwavering thanks to organisations whose records were used to augment the findings of this study. The authors feel indebted to the boundary partners for facilitating the success of this research. Finally, the authors sincerely thank their families for their moral, financial and spiritual support during the course of this study. References Amnesty International, 2004. Zimbabwe: Power and Hunger—violations of the Right to Food. http://www.amnesty.org./ [accessed 22 March 2015]. Anand, R., 2016. Elnino and its Impact on Zim's Food Security. Zimbabwe Independent 18 May. Andersson, J.A., D'Souza, S., 2014. From adoption claims to understanding farmers and contexts: a literature review of conservation agriculture (CA) adoption among smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 187, 116–132. Andersson, J.A., Giller, K.E., 2012. On heretics and God's blanket salesmen: contested claims for conservation agriculture and the politics of its promotion in African smallholder farming. In: Sumberg, J., Thompson, J. (Eds.), Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World. Routledge, London, pp. 22–46. Baiphethi, M.N., Jacobs, P.T., 2009. The contribution of subsistence farming to food security in South Africa. Agrekon 48 (4), 459–482. Baudron, F., Andersson, J.A., Corbeels, M., Giller, K.E., 2012. Failing to yield? Ploughs, conservation agriculture and the problem of agricultural intensification: an example from the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe. J. Dev. Stud. 48, 393–412. Baudron, F., Thierfielder, C., Nyagumbo, I., Gerard, B., 2015. Where to target conservation agriculture for african Smallholders? How to overcome challenges associated with its Implementation? Experience from eastern and southern Africa. Environments 2, 338–357. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/environments2030338. Beuchelt, T.D., 2016. Gender, social equity and innovations in smallholder farming systems: pitfalls and pathways. In: Gatzweiler, F.W., von Braun, J. (Eds.), Technological and Institutional Innovations for Marginalised Smallholders in Agricultural Development. Springer, New York, pp. 181–198. https://link.springer.com/content/ pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-25718-1.pdf [accessed 18 September 2017]. Bremner, J., 2012. Population and Food Security: Africa's Challenge. http://www.prb. org/pdf12/population-food-security-africa.pdf [accessed 26 September 2015]. Central Statistics Office, 2004. 2002 ZIMSTAT. http://www.zimstat.co.zw/ 28 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 18–29 M. Hove, T. Gweme ourwork/womenempowerment/successstories/-/zambian-women-lead-the-way-inconservation-farming.html [accessed 25 September 2015]. UNEP, 2013. The Emissions Gap Report 2013: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi. . http://www.unep.org/emissionsgapreport2013/ [accessed 18 September 2017]. Verhulst, N., Govaerts, B., Sayre, K.D., Sonder, K., Perezgrovas, R., Mezzalama, M., Dendooven, L., 2012. Conservation agriculture as a means to mitigate and adapt to climate change. A case study from Mexico. In: Wollenberg, E., Nihart, A., TapioBiström, M.-L., Grieg, Gran, M. (Eds.), Climate Change Mitigation and Agriculture. Earthscan, Abington, UK, pp. 287–300. Wagstaff, P., Harty, M., 2010. The impact of conservation farming on food security in three low veldt districts of Zimbabwe. Trocaire Dev. Rev. 67–84. Woodring, C., Braul, A., 2011. Conservation Farming in Zimbabwe: an Evaluation Report: Christian Care Zimbabwe. . http://www.foodgrainsbank.ca/uploads/Canadian %20Foodgrains%20Bank%20(2011).%20%20Conservation%20Farming%20in %20Zimbabwe%20-%20Evaluation%20Report.pdf [accessed 13 July 2013]. Yin, R.K., 1994. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications, London. ZCATF, 2009. Farming for the Future: a Guide to Conservation Agriculture in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Conservation Agriculture Task Force, Harare. Zimbabwe National Nutrition Survey, 2010. Preliminary Findings. SIRDIC, Harare. Zimbabwe Peace Project, 2012. Zimbabwe Peace Project Monitor (January). http:// archive.kubatana.net/docs/hr/zpp_monthly_monitor_jan_12012_120313.pdf [accessed 25 September 2015]. Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC), 2009. Rural Households Livelihoods Survey: Report No 11. ZIMVAC, Harare. ZIMVAC, 2012. Rural Households Livelihoods Survey. ZIMVAC, Harare. smallholder farmers in Zambia. J. Food Res. 1 (2), 120–138. Nyanga, P.H., Johnsen, F.H., Kalinda, T.H., 2012. Gendered impacts of conservation agriculture and paradox of herbicide use among smallholder farmers. Int. J. Technol. Dev. Stud. 3 (1), 1–24. Oldrieve, B., Le Breton, J., Harford, N., 2009. Farming for the Future: a Guide for Conservation Agriculture in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Conservation Agriculture Task Force, Harare. Pedzisa, T., Rugube, L., Winter-Nelson, A., Baylis, K., Mazvimavi, K., 2015. Abandonment of conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. J. Sustain. Dev. 8 (1), 69–82. Pittelkow, C.M., et al., 2014. 2014. Productivity limits and potentials of the principles of conservation agriculture. Nature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13809. Powlson, D.S., Stirling, C.M., Jat, M.L., Gerard, B., Palm, C.A., Sanchez, P.A., Cassman, K.G., 2014. Limited potential of no-till agriculture for climate change mitigation. Nat. Clim. Change 4, 678–683. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2292. Pretty, J. N., Thompson, J., and Hinchcliffe, F., n.d., Sustainable Agriculture: Impacts on Food Production and Challenges for Food Security. Gatekeeper Series No. 60, International Institute for Environment and Development. Report, N.O.R.A.D., 2011. Report from a Fact Finding Mission: Women, Gender and Conservation Agriculture in Zambia. Oslo. Nowergian Agency for Development Cooperation. Sen, A.K., 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Sidibe, A., 2005. Farm-level adoption of soil and water conservation techniques in northern Burkina Faso. Agric. Water Manag. 71, 211–224. Steiner, K.G., 2011. Living with the Soil. Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), GmbH, Germany. Tasli, K., 2007. A conceptual framework for gender and development studies: from welfare to empowerment. OSE Forum 32. Thierfelder, C., Wall, P.C., 2010. Investigating conservation agriculture (CA) systems in Zambia and Zimbabwe to mitigate future effects of climate change. J. Crop Improv. 24 (2), 113–121. Thierfelder, C., Matemba-Mutasa, R., Rusinamhodzi, L., 2014. Yield response of maize (ZeaMays L.) to conservation agriculture cropping systems in Southern Africa. Soil Tillage Res. 146, 230–242. Thierfielder, C., Cheesman, S., Rusinamhodzi, L., 2012. A comparative analysis of conservation agriculture systems: benefits and challenges of rotations and intercropping in Zimbabwe. Field Crops Res. 137, 237–250. Twomlow, S., Urolov, J.C., Jenrich, M., Oldrieve, B., 2008. Lessons from the fieldZimbabwe agricultural conservation farming task force. J. SAT Agric. Res. 6. http:// www.foodgrainsbank.ca/uploads/Twomlow%202008%20lessons%20from%20field. pdf [accessed 9 December 2012]. United Nations Development Program, 2013. Zambian Women Lead the Way in Conservation Farming. http://www.zm.undp.org/content/zambia/en/home/ Mediel Hove, PhD, a research associate at the International Centre of Nonviolence and Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa and a senior lecturer in the History Department at the University of Zimbabwe, Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, HarareZimbabwe (medielhove@yahoo.co.uk). His research interests include: conflict, peace, human and state security and strategic studies. He has published widely in refereed journals. Some of his recent articles are published in: Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Journal of Asian and African Studies, International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, African Security Review, Democracy and Security, Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, Conflict Studies Quarterly, Insight on Africa, and Stability: Journal of International Security and Development among others. He has also published a number of book chapters and book reviews. Thomas Gweme is a graduate of the Midlands State University. He is interested in Development studies and Human security aspects (thomasgweme@yahoo.com). 29 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Purdah, purse and patriarchy: The position of women in the Raika shepherd community in Rajasthan (India) € hler-Rollefson Ilse Ko League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 4 June 2016 Received in revised form 7 August 2017 Accepted 13 September 2017 Available online 28 September 2017 Pastoralist women are perceived as doubly disadvantaged, due to gender inequality and their low status as pastoralists. Thus, development organizations are adopting gender-specific approaches to improve the specific position of female pastoralists. This paper examines this issue with respect to the Raika (Rabari), the largest nomadic pastoral community of Western India, using an ecofeminist theoretical framework. Because Raika women observe purdah, there is an outward impression that men play the dominant role in sheep production, but in reality nomadic shepherding is a family operation and dependent in equal parts on the contribution of women and men. A series of interviews and group discussions revealed that women often prefer being on migration to staying in the villages because of lower workloads, nevertheless, they are concerned about security issues and the dangers of nomadism. Raika women increasingly express their resistance to traditional customs by refusing to consummate marriages with husbands to whom they have been betrothed in childhood. Very often the reason for the refusal is that they do not want a husband following the traditional pastoralist livelihood, preferring an urban way of life. The gradual decline of Rajasthan's sheep population over the last fifteen years may be due in part to women's refusal to engage in shepherding. It is suggested that this issue needs to be addressed by instating pro-pastoralist policies that benefit pastoralist families at large rather than gender-specific measures. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sheep Pastoralism Nomadism Purdah Ecofeminism Rabari/Rebari 1. Introduction Pastoralist women are often described as being “doubly marginalized” or in a “double bind”, due to gender inequality and because they are pastoralists (e.g. Eneyew and Mengistu, 2013; Kipuri and Ridgewell, 2008). They are frequently depicted as especially vulnerable and as victims of male decisions. In addition, current climate change has imposed additional burdens upon them, forcing them to walk longer distances to obtain water and to spend more hours collecting firewood (Mushi, 2013; UNCCD, 2007). In order to address these issues, development interventions in the livestock sector often seek to adopt an explicit gender focus and promote approaches such as, “securing women's access to livestock assets”, “increasing access to livestock technologies and services”, “integrating gender and poverty indicators in monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment” (e.g. Gurung, 2010; ILRI n.d.; Rota and Sperandini, 2010a,b; Rota et al., 2010). However, are these approaches really what pastoralist women want and need? Will they E-mail address: ilse@pastoralpeoples.org. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.09.010 0140-1963/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. be able to improve and make a difference to the economic lot and social status of pastoralist women? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the assumptions that underlie project interventions of the major development organizations by looking at a particular pastoralist community in India, the Raika (also known as Rebari) shepherds of Rajasthan. It examines gender relations in the community, describes the gender allocation of tasks in both sedentary and nomadic sheep production, looks into the attitude of women towards continuing a pastoralist way of life, and finally analyzes the results from an ecofeminist perspective. 2. Ecofeminism as a theoretical framework The term “ecofeminism” was first used by Francoise D'Eaubonne in 1974 and grew out of the environmental movement in the 1970s in which women played an important role. Ecofeminism posits a connection between patriarchy, science and the subjugation of nature and women. The concept was elaborated by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva in their classic, recently republished work “Ecofeminism” (Mies and Shiva, 2014). Their key postulate is that €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko the liberation of women and the preservation of life on the planet cannot be separated nor achieved independently. Ecofeminism sees the global development paradigm as destroying diversity, both cultural and biological, and women as the main victims of this process by severing their bond with the land and destroying their subsistence economy. They are especially critical of conventional male research which they describe as reductionist, leading to the commodification of seeds, land and water and the dominance of corporates over people. One of the examples for reductionist science is the agricultural research that led to the Green Revolution resulting in high yields of grain, at the expense of erosion, water depletion, and poisoning of the soil. Instead the ecofeminists advocate a subsistence perspective which is based on the necessities of life, and seek to situate production and consumption within the context of regeneration. They promote rebuilding ecological cycles instead of applying technological fixes and believe that women are the ones that can, and should, nurture the planet back to health. Mies and Shiva (2014) reject the cultural relativism of postmodernism as it implies that violence and patriarchal institutions, such as the dowry and the caste system, are acceptable because they are cultural expressions. Mies (1983) is a strong proponent of a feminist research paradigm, rejecting the concept of value free research and replacing it with “conscious partiality” which is achieved through partial identification with the research objects. She also calls for replacing ‘the view from above’ with ‘a view from below’ and to replace ‘spectator knowledge’ with active participation in actions, movements and struggles. Ecofeminism has been much criticized for being ahistorical, ignoring hierarchies among women and for seeing the end of patriarchy and of ecological destruction as inseparable. Nevertheless, “ecofeminism” has been chosen as a theoretical framework for analyzing the situation of Raika women shepherds because the theoretical concepts were shaped to a significant extent by the peoples' movements in India and though often applied to the Green Revolution have never been applied to its equivalent in the livestock sector, the “Livestock Revolution”. In Asia, the latter model promotes high yielding breeds requiring equally high inputs in terms of concentrated feed, controlled environments and veterinary care with the goal of producing affordable animal protein for the rapidly increasing demand by the growing middle class in Asia. This is the paradigm that both central and state governments have adopted and the economic and political context in which Raika women are operating. 3. Existing literature on the role of women in animal husbandry In pastoralist societies, livestock production has traditionally been a family operation, with labour allocated according to gender (Flintan, 2008; Horowitz et al., 1992; Joekes and Pointing, 1991; Jowkar et al., 1991). Women's control and ownership of livestock and their products vary between and within regions. In many societies, women are responsible for small stock such as goats, sheep and poultry, as well as for young and sick animals kept at the homestead. They are rarely in charge of managing large stock, although there are exceptions; for instance in transhumant systems in the Andes of Latin America women take care of camelids. Women are frequently involved in milk production, although not all women control the sale of milk and its products (BravoBaumann, 2000). Many observations indicate that abandonment of the nomadic way of life and sedentarization impact women negatively due to loss of livestock or increased control of men over products such as milk and the income generated. Women then may have a reduced 31 workload but lose influence and control over family resources. For instance, among the Maasai in Tanzania, the commercialization of livestock production and extension activities involved only men, leading to new power constellations that increased male control over livestock and contributed to the subordination of women (Hodgson, 1999). Among the Galole Orma in Kenya, the transition from a subsistence dairy economy to an emphasis on commercial beef production also undermined the economic position of women (Ensminger, 1984). In other cases, when men leave the pastoral way of life to seek employment in the cities, women continue to herd livestock taking care of all the chores themselves (Azhar-Hewitt, 1999). This trend is referred to as “feminization of agriculture” (FAO, 2012), implying bigger workloads for women. Specifically, with respect to India, various studies about the role of smallholder and tribal women in livestock production conclude that women are in charge of taking care of young and newborn animals and mainly handle the feeding of animals while chores such as watering, milking and treating sick animals are taken care of by women and men on an equal basis (Ghotge and Ramdas, 2002; Rangnekar, 1994, 1998). For India's pastoralist societies no such studies are available, with the exception of some very general observations of pastoral communities in Northern Gujarat. In these cases, livestock management is shared more evenly between men and women than among adivasi (members of the aboriginal tribal peoples) and farming communities (Rangnekar, 1994). Neither are there any specific studies of gender relations among the various pastoralist groups in India. We know that in some communities, such as the Gaddi sheep nomads of Himachal Pradesh (Wagner, 2013) and the Rajput shepherds of Rajasthan, women do not participate in migration but stay behind in the villages (Kavoori, 1999). In contrast, among the Van Gujjar buffalo nomads of Uttranchal, the entire family joins in the seasonal migration to the alpine pastures (Benanav, 2015). The same applies to the pig nomads of Odisha (Sahu, 2012). This study aims at enhancing our understanding of the specific role of women in a major nomadic shepherding group, by providing details about their workloads, attitudes and significance in upholding this economically important livestock production system. 4. Context 4.1. Geographical Rajasthan, situated in the west of the country, is India's second largest state, extending over 342,000 square kilometers. The state is divided into three distinct geographical zones. In the west is the Thar Desert that extends along the border with Pakistan, in the east there is a more humid plain that merges with the Deccan Plateau. These two discrete regions are separated by the Aravalli hill range that dissects the state from northeast to southwest. Average annual rainfall in the Thar Desert ranges from 100 mm in the far west to 450 mm at the edge of the Aravallis. Due to this low rainfall and the frequent occurrence of droughts, livestock keeping has always been the backbone of the rural economy. More than 80% of Rajasthan's rural families keep livestock in their households. The contribution of the animal husbandry sector to the GDP of the State has been estimated to be around 9.16%. Rajasthan is India's state with the largest output of livestock and livestock products, producing 10% of the milk, 35% of the wool and 10% of the meat in the country. Nationwide, it ranks first in wool production, first in sale of live meat animals (an estimated 40,000 goat, sheep & buffalo are sold each day), first in producing approximately 12% of its milk from goats and ranks second in per capita availability of milk as well as in milk production (Government of Rajasthan, n.d.). About 35% of the income of small and marginal farmers comes from dairy and animal 32 €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko husbandry. In arid areas the contribution is as high as 50%. There are an estimated 400,000 families depending on pastoralism in € hler-Rollefson, 2016a). Rajasthan (Ko The data presented in this paper are derived from the “Godwar” area which is composed of Bali and Desuri tehsils (administrative units) of Pali district, as well as parts of Sirohi and Jalore districts of Rajasthan. Godwar is located at the ecotone between the forested Aravalli Hills and the flat scrub desert. Rainfall is between 400 and 700 mm annually, falling in the three months of the rainy season (July, August, September). While the forest is managed by the Rajasthan Forest Department as Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, the plain area is used agriculturally for the cultivation of nonirrigated and irrigated crops including bajra (pearl millet), jowar (millet), mustard, wheat, cotton, maize, sesame, chick pea, guar, groundnut and various pulses. Irrigation by means of tube-wells increased in the 1990s, but has receded due to falling groundwater levels. 4.2. Sociocultural: The Raika/Rebari The Raika represent the largest pastoral caste in western India (Agrawal, 1993) and are distributed predominantly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They have been the subject of in-depth research from various angles, including religious (Srivastava, 1997), decision making institutions (Agrawal, 1999), the camel €hler-Rollefson, 1992, 1995, 1996), pastoral system and economy (Ko €ter, 2002), sheep husbandry and ethnoveterinary ecology (Flo €hlermedicine (Geerlings, 2001, 2004), indigenous knowledge (Ko €hler-Rollefson et al., 1999; Ko € hler-Rollefson Rollefson, 1997; Ko and Rathore, 2004), political ecology (Robbins, 2004), sheep migration (Prevot, 2010), camel milk production (Albrecht, 2004), the role of networks in the transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Salpeteur et al., 2016) and overviews of their general situation (Merelli, 2009-2010; Sbriccoli, 2004-2005; Sharma, 2005). The Raika are Hindus and one of 36 distinct endogamous caste communities in the study area. Although assumed to represent the largest pastoral group of Western India, there are no accurate population estimates. According to statements by community leaders there were around 200,000 Raika families in 1991. Taking into account population growth and number of children per family, we can assume that there are presently well over one million Raika in Rajasthan. The Raika of Rajasthan are divided into two endogamous groups, the Maru Raika and the Godwar Raika. These differ in their dress, jewelry and in some of their social practices as well as marriage and death rituals. The Maru Raika traditionally had an identity as expert camel breeders, while the Godwar Raika were associated with sheep breeding. These attributes however do not, or no longer, hold up to scrutiny. The majority of Maru Raika now keep sheep, while some of the Godwar Raika raise camels (Srivastava, 1997). The Raika of Godwar are largely landless. Only 45% of them own small pieces of agricultural land, mostly used for the cultivation of wheat or maize (Geerlings, 2001). They depend entirely on various forms of common property resources to fulfill the nutritional requirements of their herds. These include village grazing grounds (gochar), land protected by temples (oran), fallow land, and forest. Since sheep pastoralism is integrated with crop cultivation, these different resources are used at different times of the year in a seasonal cycle. This community, which is regarded as extremely conservative, was long known for its low literacy levels, with hardly any girls attending schools, but this situation is changing. In a survey conducted in 2008, 64% of boys and 31% of girls attended school (Rollefson, 2009). The attitude of the Raika towards education is very ambiguous. Literacy is now regarded as essential, but even a limited amount of schooling alienates young Raika from the herding profession. On the other hand, income from herding is much better than from most employment. The reason why young people seek non-traditional employment is not in the hope of having a higher income, but rather to avoid the stigma of backwardness as well as the problems and dangers that are associated with going on migration and finding grazing for livestock. Currently, an estimated 80% of Raika have abandoned livestock keeping altogether, due to its reputation as being backward, the decreasing availability of grazing and the continuous conflicts with accessing pastures. They are pursuing urban livelihoods, usually as menial labourers. Only a tiny minority is in professional positions while the vast majority works in restaurants, tea-stalls, sweet-shops and other types of shops in big cities. There they work 16 h work days, have no place to sleep, and live under horrendous hygienic conditions that often lead to serious illnesses. However, when the young men come home for brief visits, they usually do not complain, but project a rosy picture of life in the city perpetuating the myth that life is better there (Rollefson, 2009). In the past, the relationship with their animals diffused every aspect of the lives of the Raika and was the foundation of their culture, which put a prime on ensuring the welfare of animals and the long-term sustainability of their system. Regarded as communal heritage, female animals e sheep and camels e were never sold to anybody outside the community, they were only passed on from one generation to the next, being divided equally between sons and a few gifted to daughters at the time of marriage. Milk was not sold, but given away for free. There was a societal rule against the construction of permanent houses as mobility was regarded essential for the health of the herds as well as the environment. The Raika had extensive ethnoveterinary knowledge, distinguishing between a large number of diseases and resorting to a wide range of plant based remedies and even surgical in€ hler-Rollefson, 1997; terventions to treat them (Geerlings, 2001; Ko € hler-Rollefson et al., 1999). Their knowledge about animal Ko breeding was equally impressive. They selected male breeding rams according to nine criteria and kept mental records of their animals' pedigrees. In addition to sheep, the community also bred other types of animals and is credited with creating several distinct livestock breeds, including Marwari and Boti sheep, Sirohi goat, € hler-Rollefson and Rathore, Nari cattle and several camel breeds (Ko 2004). They knew about the nutritional value of the “36” forage plants that their animals ate, and were able to tell from the taste of camel milk on which plants the animal had browsed. Their ability to track camels was legendary and they could identify individual camels on the basis of their foot prints. Traditionally, the Raika occupied a respectable position in the middle or upper middle stratum of the complex caste system and were highly respected by the Rajput rulers as reliable messengers or chaperones for their daughters (Srivastava, 1997). There was enough grazing land for them to never have to worry where to take their animals, but this situation has changed entirely. Today, making a living as a pastoralist has become a very complex proposition; not only is it difficult to access grazing areas, but livestock keeping has come to be regarded as a backward activity. Government officials and scientists have a deeply ingrained negative view of the traditional way or culture of livestock keeping, as its opportunistic approach of making use of variable vegetation does not correspond to the scientific notions of livestock production with fixed rations and in sedentary systems that culminate in the “Livestock Revolution”. Government activities in the livestock sector focus on promoting exotic breeds or cross-breeds by means of artificial €hler-Rollefson and Rathore, 2004). insemination (Ko In an effort to counter these negative perceptions and to provide €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko evidence for their role in the conservation of biological diversity and as guardians of a number of livestock breeds, with the assistance of two NGOs, the Raika, have compiled a Community Biocultural Protocol. This document records these ecological services and also refers to the national and international legal frameworks, notably the United Nation Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), that support the rights of the Raika over their (genetic) resources and their right to steward and share the benefits from them € hler-Rollefson et al., 2012). (Ko 4.3. Macro-economic context According to the last government livestock census which is conducted every five years, there were about 9 million sheep in Rajasthan in 2012, down from around 11 million in 2007 and more than 14 million in 1997. Thus, there is a clear decrease of the state's sheep population and this is likely due to traditional shepherding communities, including the Raika, giving up the profession as a result of the struggle for grazing resources. The majority of sheep in Rajasthan (estimated 80%) are still managed in long distance migratory systems in which groups of shepherd families collectively migrate for eight to nine months of the year to adjoining states, including Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat (Kavoori, 1999). When the rains begin, they return to their home villages in Rajasthan for three or four months. Historically, sheep pastoralism was mainly oriented at wool production, with some of the local sheep breeds producing high quality carpet wool. But due to a burgeoning demand for mutton and a declining world market for wool, the Raika and other Indian pastoralists have adapted to this new context and their production system is now geared towards supplying meat. About 20 years ago, at the beginning of this research, meat production was still a contentious issue that caused embarrassment to the community because it went against their traditions and beliefs, and was not willingly admitted. However, attitudes have changed. As Hindus, the Raika themselves are basically vegetarian and eat meat only on the rare occasion of sacrificial killings. They process sheep milk into ghee (clarified butter), but the yields are generally negligible. Dung is usually traded for grain with sedentary farmers. Besides being an enormously productive means of producing meat, sheep provide other important agro-ecological services by generating organic manure and depositing this directly on the fields. This saves the country huge amounts of foreign currency and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately this role of nomadic sheep husbandry, and of Indian pastoralism in general, has been practically ignored by scientists. For the Raika many aspects of sheep husbandry are influenced by religious beliefs; for instance shearing is a sacred communal function and animals born on certain days in the moon cycle are devoted to God, and neither they nor their offspring can ever be sold. 33 best, as practicing an outdated and unproductive way of livestock keeping. For this reason there is a total absence of administrative recognition and support, and the situation of most pastoralists is becoming increasingly precarious, despite their continuing major importance as providers of meat, milk, manure and draught power. 5. Methodology The data presented here were collected over a period of 25 years, starting in 1991 with a fellowship to study the socioeconomics of camel husbandry. In an act of “conscious partiality”, this eventually led to the setting up of the NGO Lokhit PashuPalakSansthan (LPPS) which seeks to support the Raika and other pastoralists in their struggle. A series of action research projects conducted by this NGO provided the opportunity to witness actions and behaviour of women during development projects that were supposed to empower them. In the course of time, close friendships with around 10 Raika families developed and much information was casually gained, without particular research intent. In addition, about a dozen foreign students were guided in conducting semistructured interviews about ethnoveterinary medicine, sheep breeding and the perspective of young people among sedentary Raika (e.g. Geerlings, 2001; Rollefson, 2009). Over the 25 years of casual research, major changes were observed in the educational status of women. In the early 1990s, literacy among women was virtually zero and only in exceptional cases did Raika girls go to school. Presently, more than 50% of girls attend school, at least for a few years. However, as soon, as they reach their mid-teens, they usually leave school and engage in local daily wage-labour. Women who are allowed by their families to take up regular employment are exceedingly rare (less than 1%), because it is not considered proper. A further source of information derives from a number of group discussions that were held in the second half of 2014 with migratory Raika, both while they were on migration, as well as during their stay in the villages. The aim was to understand the economic output of sheep nomadism and to collect quotes from practicing pastoralists for a three-country research project on drylands, supported by the International Institute of Environment and Development (Kr€ atli, 2015). 6. Raika women: no choice in marriage but power behind the scenes Because Raika women observe purdah, there is an outward impression that men play the dominant role in the society. This is true with respect to the outward representation of the community as well as in the internal judicial system. But with regards to the economic base of the community women have an equal role, as nomadic shepherding is a family operation and is dependent on the contribution of both women and men, with women handling family finances. 4.4. Livestock policy 6.1. Purdah, but control of the purse In India, pastoralism is generally overlooked by policy makers and there are no pastoralist specific policies in place. The National Livestock Policy (GoI, 2013) refers only to farmers and does not include the word pastoralism. There are no official statistics about the number of pastoralists, as they do not fit into the official concept of livestock production which is along the lines of the “Livestock Revolution”. Recently, a pan-Indian group of field researchers produced an estimate that more than 70% of India's meat and more than 50% of its milk are produced in extensive grazing €hler-Rollefson, 2016b). Furthermore, there is the colosystems (Ko nial legacy of looking at nomads as criminal tribes or, at the very The position of women in Raika society must be understood against the backdrop and within the context of the purdah system that prevails in Hindu society in general, and is especially deeply ingrained in Rajasthan. In the purdah system, women and men operate in entirely separate realms. Women are either not to be seen in public or, if they are, wear a veil that covers their face (gungat). They do not speak, nor sit on chairs in the presence of their men as this is considered disrespectful. This behaviour changes when they are visiting their native family and village (pir), or move outside the orbit of their in-laws: in such contexts they 34 €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko pull up their veils and speak freely. Rigid following of the purdah system is a mark of high status in Rajasthan, thus high caste Rajput women traditionally never ventured into public and were confined to a life indoors, in women quarters.1 In the presence of their husbands or in-laws, Raika women keep their faces veiled and do not speak or join any conversation with outsiders while their husbands or in-laws are present. They are not allowed to sit on the floor mat that is spread out during meetings or whenever several men get together. At the most, when their husband is of a quiet nature and not able to communicate his family's issues or problems well, women are allowed to speak to other Raika men from a distance, and in a low voice, with their face covered. Raika women are quite visible in the rural landscape as well as in market towns such as Sadri. Nevertheless, they can never be seen on their own, always moving around in small groups. Only in urgent situations, such as a visit to the doctor, can they be seen in the company of a man, usually their brother or son, rarely their husband. Married Raika women can easily be identified among Rajasthan's rural caste mosaic by their distinctive attire and jewelry. They wear wide swinging skirts, plastic bangles that cover both lower and upper arms, a red veil and adorn themselves with heavy silver jewelry around their ankles. The position of a Raika woman changes throughout her lifetime. As a young girl she is expected to work hard, performing household chores, such as sweeping, taking care of younger siblings and of animals, making tea, collecting firewood, cleaning the pens, and work in wage labour. After the start of her married life, she gradually spends greater amounts of time at her in-laws’ house. Here too she is expected to work hard and to serve and cater to all of her husband's relatives. She is not supposed to talk to anybody who is her elder and has to follow the orders of her mother-in-law. She cannot even talk to her husband or sit next to him, in the presence of elders. She eats after everybody else has eaten. With the birth of her first child her status improves; at this time she goes back to her parental house. Her position reaches its peak after her first son is married as now she can give orders to both her son and her daughter-in-law. Once she is widowed, the situation changes again and she now becomes dependent on her sons and daughters-inlaw. Still today, this situation remains unchanged. Since Raika women do not speak in the presence of their men, and are therefore difficult to engage with by an outsider, there is the outward impression that they are powerless and suppressed. However, the demure and silent behaviour in the presence of their husbands is deceiving. Raika women are generally acknowledged as the power behind the scenes. This is reflected in the proverb “Raika men are as straight as a cow, but Raika women are as cunning as a fox”. Whereas Raika men often cannot distinguish between different bills or add up amounts, women are often described as the “family finance ministers”, as they are the ones who manage and understand money. Raika women purchase all goods, including the clothes of their husbands and are acknowledged as good bargainers. Since the men are usually grazing the herds during the day, it is often the women who interact with the traders and middlemen who come to purchase animals. Another traditional woman's chore is to manage and sell manure to the farming communities. A Rajasthan based NGO working specifically with the Raika community spent many years trying to implement a genderbalanced approach, involving women in meetings, training programmes and exposure tours. After some time it was possible to talk to women extensively while their husbands were absent and 1 For the lower castes, the rules are not as strict as women cannot afford to stay at home but have to contribute to livelihoods (Patel, 1994; Sharma, 2005). busy with herding animals. However, it proved impossible to get women to attend meetings, even if exclusively for them. For one, most men did not allow them to attend, in addition there was also an attitude among women that “herding is a family business, it's enough if one of us e husband e goes and attends the meeting.” 2 Notably, (sedentary) Raika women also had no interest in joining self-help saving groups which are extremely popular with women of other castes, as such groups rid them of the need to take loans from money-lenders. This is possibly because Raika women have cash in their hands or can easily raise cash by selling some of their animals. 6.2. Marriage: no option for choice in a patriarchal system Although seemingly equal partners as relates to “professional” economic tasks, social repression of Raika women is clearly evident with regard to marriage customs. As is the case throughout traditional Hindu society all marriages in Raika society are arranged by parents and/or close relatives. Usually at a very young age. The ceremony that confirms the agreement between the families is called viva. There is a tradition of “mass-marriages” in which all unmarried girls of a village are betrothed at the same time, with girls ranging in age from a few months to eighteen years or so. However, the marriage is not consummated at that time and before the couple starts living together, there is another ceremony called ana or muklava. This takes place when the girl is around twenty years old. Contrary to the situation in higher castes, among the Raika it is the family of the bridegroom that is burdened with high expenditure and has to pay a brideprice. Alternatively, the groom has to work in the family of his wife for seven years without pay, an arrangement called ghar-jamai. In order to avoid such situations, it is common practice that families arrange to exchange daughters between them. This practice is called atta-satta. It puts families that have more sons than daughters at a disadvantage, since it means they have to often pay substantial amounts of money e in the range of 100,000 to 150,000 Indian Rupees. When families cannot afford this, it is difficult for them to marry off their sons. Inter-caste marriages are strictly prohibited and always result in out-casting of the entire family such that they are rare. The on-going patriarchal practice of child marriage causes a great degree of turbulence in the society, as there are frequent cases of girls who resist moving into their in-laws house and starting married life. This often happens especially if the husband is following the traditional shepherding occupation, rather than working in the town. In such cases, it is the duty of the girl's parents to coerce her to move in with her in-laws. If that does not happen, 2 One exception is a woman who is known for her skills as a traditional animal healer and as a midwife. Because of her outgoing nature and ability to articulate problems, she was asked to join the board of the NGO. The position provided her with the opportunity to travel to several places in Rajasthan and even to Delhi. During a meeting with a Minister of State who headed the Prime Minister's Office, she cast off her traditional female role of keeping quiet when men speak and concisely articulated the problems of her community in accessing grazing land. As a consequence she was selected by the NGO to represent her community during a UN level conference in Switzerland. This was possible because her husband had no objections and because a close male relative agreed to come as chaperone. Her outstanding ability to communicate across language and cultural barriers and to cope with unfamiliar surroundings resulted in further invitations, again at UN level. With the author as her translator, she subsequently travelled to Kenya to share experiences with pastoralist communities there, making her a minor celebrity. However on return to Rajasthan, many Raika men were annoyed at her newly found self-confidence and rhetorical ability, telling her to shut up and sit quietly. Over the years, some of them gradually came to accept her as a community leader, especially after she made a strong speech in a public altercation with the local Forest Department about grazing rights. €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko then the caste panchayat (council of elders) is called in to resolve the issue. Caste panchayats are basically assemblies of older men no longer active in livestock herding that uphold the social and behavioural standards within the community. They punish transgressions against the norms with substantial fines and, in extreme cases, “outcasting”. When a girl does not follow through with a marriage agreed upon in her childhood, the caste panchayat will first impose a substantial fine on her family, and if that is not being paid, the family will be out-casted. As long as the family is outcasted, none of her siblings can get married either. Families who are outcasts are prohibited from any social interactions with the rest of the community; they cannot participate in any social events, and will not be re-admitted until they have paid a large fine and hosted a meal for the entire community. A recent case of a marriage dispute illustrate the paternalistic attitude prevalent in Raika society. The girl had a college education, but her marriage was arranged according to the atta-satta principle in exchange for another girl. However when time came to consummate the marriage and move in with her husband, her inlaws refused to accept her, on the grounds of not wanting an educated (parhi-likhi) girl, but an illiterate one (anparh). The case is now being dealt with by the caste panchayat. 6.3. Sheep husbandry: women and men are equal partners The roles and workloads of women are different depending on whether Raika families practice sedentary (village-based) or migratory sheep herding. In non-migratory families, girls from the age of about 12e13 have to join in daily wage labour in construction, road-building or crop harvest, in addition to their sheep husbandry related tasks. 6.3.1. Sedentary sheep husbandry: women as nurturers Interviews were conducted with 52 Raika men and seven women in the Godwar area, concerning the gender-related distribution of tasks in sedentary Raika shepherding families (Geerlings, 2001).3 The gender imbalance among the interviewees resulted from the refusal of women to be interviewed or from the fact that it was considered inappropriate for the woman rather than the man of the house to provide information. The data gathered indicate that it is usually men who take the flocks on their daily grazing rounds. Women care for newborn and young animals, who are kept in pens near the house while their mothers graze. When the animals are old enough they too will go to pasture with the herd. The women also care for the animals that are ill, but do not accompany animals who are grazing. Men always have the main responsibility of herding the flocks, but in 13% of the cases women also contributed to this chore. In 58% of all households interviewed milking was viewed as the responsibility of men. In 42% of the interviewed families, women were mainly responsible for milking, while in 18% ofthese households men and women shared the task. In 91% of the cases, women were in charge of processing the milk into ghee and buttermilk, while in 17% if these families men contributed to this task. Geerlings (2001:77) concluded that “the sheep husbandry system of the Raikas should not be seen as a male dominated enterprise but more as a system dependent on labour inputs of all members of the family. … children often help their family in all related tasks. But because most of them also go to school (in contrast to their mothers and fathers, only 3 of the 59 respondent 3 The data by Geerlings for her master's thesis at the University of Wageningen were collected under the authors supervision and guidance. 35 ever went to school) their labour input is less than that of their adult family members. However, since the majority of the respondents were adult males it might be that the labour input of children is underestimated, as was the fact with female labour in Raika women.” Looking at this information from an ecofeminist perspective, we can note that women indeed play a nurturing role by looking primarily after the new-born and young animals and by processing milk for household consumption, while men are more engaged in the primary production of sheep rearing. Both chores are equally important and cannot be performed in isolation from each other they are components of an indigenous production system that seeks to optimally utilize biodiverse biomass for food production. 6.3.2. Nomadic sheep production: peril and pleasure The majority of sheep in the study area are managed in nomadic systems. With this mode of production comes a large set of challenges but also big rewards. The nomadic herds only stay in Godwar during the rainy season, from July to October. In October/November their Raika owners move southwards towards the Mewar area of Rajasthan and the Malva area of Madhya Pradesh to utilize the residues in harvested fields as well as common property resources. For security purposes and mutual support during the migration, they organise into large herding groups that are composed of 8e15 families called dera. A dera will own a total of around 3000e4000 sheep. There are an estimated 40 deras in the two tehsils (Bali and Desuri) that compose €hlerthe study area, amounting to around 140,000 ewes (Ko Rollefson et al., 2014). Each dera is headed by a patel, also called numberdar in other parts of Rajasthan (Agrawal, 1999). The patel is always a man and elected every year between migrations. His election is based on his experience, his contacts and his impartiality. He makes all the decision with respect to when to move, where to move and where to stay overnight. It is his duty to liaise with land owners or any authorities necessary. Although being patel is not a paid position, it brings status and prestige; the patel's expenditure for travelling and meeting with people is shared by the entire group. Being a patel carries a lot of responsibility and requires the ability to resolve conflicts within the group and between the group and outsiders. It requires contact with land owners and knowledge about the area and its grazing opportunities, with good patels always scouting for € hler-Rollefson et al., 2014). new grazing opportunities (Ko The composition of a dera changes from year to year and it is not clear until just before departure which dera a family will join or who will be the patel. For the most part, a patel will choose his relatives to be in his dera before allowing anybody else to join. Before a patel will allow a non-relative into his dera he will first find out the background and reputation of the person, which dera they were previous with, and whether there was any trouble. Even small children, including babies in arms, are taken on migration. They enjoy the company of the animals. Elder children are useful helpers with daily chores, but in general they are sent to school in the home village where they are staying with relatives. Migration is a challenging task, and hostile and unpleasant interactions with officials from the Forest Department, the police and farmers are part of the routine. The Raika encounter continuous problems. For example, it is quite frequent that their animals get killed in road accidents because highways have been built on their migratory routes. Often there are altercations with land owners worried about their crops, especially early on in the migration season when harvest has not been completed. In addition, theft of sheep by organized gangs that attack at night, is a regular occurrence. If such incidents occur, the Raika rarely seek, and even more rarely receive, any support from police and local administrators. 36 €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko Migration is also physically demanding. With the exception of small children who are placed onto camels' backs together with the household equipment, all members of the herding group walk the entire distance. The dera uses camels and/or donkeys to transport utensils, bedding, small children and newborn animals. When it moves it does so in a characteristic fashion. The camels are in front, followed by donkeys in a throng, then the individual family flocks, and finally the lambs in separate groups. Women usually lead the camels, often carrying some of the cooking equipment on their heads. Since the Raika do not use tents or any other kind of mobile habitations, migration means not having any shelter and being exposed to sun or rain throughout the day or night. All the cooking has to be done in the open. The members of the dera stay together during the eight months of the whole migratory cycle. A dera does everything collectively and all tasks and responsibilities are strictly assigned. It is a collective with a regular routine that is the same everywhere. The individual family units that compose the dera are called dolri. A dolri is signified by a charpoy (string bed) on which the possessions of the family are stacked (bedding, cooking utensils, supplies). Each dolri represents a family and is always managed by a woman who takes care of cooking food, washing clothes, carrying water, and loading and unloading the burden animals when the camp is moved. The woman is not necessarily married to the man; fatherdaughter teams are frequent; and sometimes a dolri can be composed of a man and his sister-in-law, if family circumstances demand such an arrangement. The dolris are set up in a wide circle and always have the same position to each other in every encampment. At night, sheep are within the circle and form a ring around the dolris. The women sleep inside the circle while the men stay at the periphery to guard against thieves. Almost all families hire one or two guals (hired herders) who help them take care of the flock and who usually own a small number of sheep themselves. The gual is usually a bachelor who never brings along a family, therefore he needs to be taken care of by the woman of the dolri as well, who is responsible for cooking his food and washing his clothes. The men take the flocks out for the first round of grazing before or at sunrise. During this time, the lambs are retained at the camp where they are looped together in long lines. The women do not need to get up at this stage, they can sleep in for a while, but then have to prepare breakfast. They churn sheep milk from the night before into butter and make flat breads on makeshift stoves out of metal that they set up using as a wind break their string-beds that are also used as a storage platform. While they cook, they also supervise small children and lambs. At around 10 a.m. the men and the sheep return. Reuniting the ewes with their lambs is a process that takes much time and goes along with vocal communication between ewes and lambs as they try to identify each other. It requires the intervention of the shepherds who carry around the bleating lambs to match them with their mothers. The men then have breakfast or rather a full meal. If the dera moves camp, then the women start packing up all the belongings and, with the help of the men, start loading it onto the backs of the camels and donkeys e a chore that takes about two hours. If the camp stays in place, the men go out again for the main grazing at around 1 p.m. The women clean up the dishes, bring water in clay pots from the nearest well, take baths, and lop some tree branches as feed for the lambs, but also have some leisure time, can rest, talk, and play with the children. The men return after sunset, and again the ewes have to be united with their lambs. There is dinner, then the men take turns as night watch men to prevent attempts at theft. Many of the women and girls interviewed at different stages of this research stated that they prefer going on migration to staying in the village throughout the year because they perceive the work load as lower. For instance, Manju (14 years old) said “I prefer to be on migration to staying behind in the village. There I have to work much harder … get up early before sunset to get water and cook food, then from 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. I have to go for labour in house construction or fields, and afterwards work in the house again.” In contrast, Kanya Raika, the wife of a patel, about 48 years old, expressed her sentiments as follows: “I have been born on migration. There is no grazing and water in Marwar. This is the only work we know. So we have to keep wandering from one place. I have 6 sons and one daughter. My daughter has already two children. Three of my sons are working in Pune as labourers, other three are studying in school. They don't like this work. We are only two. When we are tired and fatigued then we will stop this. We are not unhappy, but there is always so much work. Getting water, loading the camels, unloading them and sometimes the camels are not good and throw off everything. In the night the thieves come by motorcycle. They take 8e10 lambs at a time.” When asked why they don't switch to sedentary sheep raising, Dailibai (age around 55) explains: “Our sheep do not allow us. After the rains have stopped, they urge us to move and we cannot keep them in the village any longer, we have to follow them.” She concedes that “it is safer to stay in the villages, but then there are also huge problems, with the forest being closed to us and wild animals, such as leopards and crocodiles, increasing and preying on our animals.” Giving up shepherding is not considered an option. “Our sheep are our life. Without them we will starve. We are sad without animals”. This is the unanimous opinion of Raika women over the age of around 40. A life in the city is unimaginable among this age group. “Our sons go there, but they don't tell us how they feel. Some of them would prefer to herd sheep, because working as labourer is too hard” a group of about six Raika women agreed among themselves. They did not know of any Raika women that have made the transition from sheep breeding to a life without animals. Women of all ages appreciate the comparatively lower work load during migration because the men take the sheep out early and they themselves can sleep until 8 a.m. By contrast, while in the villages, they have to get up at 5 in the morning, make food, take care of sheep and if unmarried, from 8 a.m. onwards also work as daily wage labourers until 6 p.m. After that they have to cook the evening meal. Thus, on migration, they have more leisure, although the days on which they are moving and have to pack everything onto the camels are arduous. They are grateful if they can stay in the same place for several days. We can say that migration, labour and responsibilities are distributed along classic patriarchal lines, with women nurturing young animals and small children and taking care of cooking, fetching water and washing clothes, while men are in charge of security, negotiating with outsiders and “productive activities” (grazing). 7. Significance of nomadic system for food security There is a general consensus among the Raika that the output of the migratory system is significantly higher per sheep than the sedentary herding system. This is attributed to the healthier condition of the animals when they stay out in the open and not in pens where they have high parasite burdens. Community leader Dailibai echoes the sentiments often stated by men: “The income is so much better because the animals are healthier when they keep moving instead of having to stay in the same eoften dirty e pen every night. The sheep grow quicker and male lambs from nomadic systems sell for double the price than those raised in villages, for Rs. 4000e5000 Rs, rather than Rs. 1500 to 2000.” The products include meat, manure, and milk, while these days €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko wool has become almost worthless. Production rate varies from year to year, depending on rainfall and on disease prevalence. It is very difficult to obtain estimates from shepherds about the population structure of their herds and about the number of male lambs sold per year, as they say there is too much variability between years. The first output, lambing, occurs at about 1.5 years of age after a pregnancy of five months. The ewes then lactate for four months. The rate of loss due to abortions and diseases is quite high. In a good year, there may be up to 70 lambs born into a herd of 100 sheep. Of these, 20e30 die due to various causes. Only the male lambs are sold, the females are kept for replacement and to increase herd size. This means that there is a crop of 20e25 saleable lambs per 100 ewes. Based on a total sheep population of Rajasthan at around 9 million head, we can conclude that around two million ram lambs are produced and sold each year. Assuming an average price of Rs 2000 (equivalent to 28 Euro at mid-2015 exchange rates), we arrive at an income of 28 million Euro for the sale of sheep for meat by pastoralists in Rajasthan. Calculating an average live weight of 11 kg per lamb this would translate into 22 million kg⁴. All of this would have been produced by making use of “waste” or excess biomass that would otherwise not be utilized. The demand for mutton is so high, that buyers follow the shepherds on their migration and come to their villages during the rainy season. The second major (or equally important) output of the system is manure which makes it possible for the owner of the fields on which the Raika flocks stay, to reduce or avoid purchase of urea and other chemical fertilizers. Here it is not just the reduction in costs to the farmer that counts, but, according to local farmers, the fact that artificial fertilizer is harmful to soils in the long term and makes them hard to work. In contrast, manure improves soil quality in a sustainable way. A herd of 100 animals produces one trolley of manure per month which is sold at rates between 1000 and 2000 Rs. However, this situation only holds for the sedentary phase of the yearly cycle. While on migration, the flocks move so the manure is deposited directly on the fields of farmers at night. Most farmers pay about 100e150 Rs per night for penning animals on their field, either in cash or in the form of food. The amount of chemical fertilizer that is saved by means of nomadic shepherding systems in India was recently calculated for the state of Karnataka by Athani et al. (2015) who concluded that the state's 64 million sheep provide Rs 14.68 billion worth of fertilizer annually. 8. Ecology and commerce can be combined! The migratory Raika sheep production system provides an example of indigenous technologies deemed as backward and unproductive by the predominant scientific and development paradigm (Shiva, 1989). This certainly describes the attitude of the government towards pastoralism. The Raika women's intimate knowledge of nature and of livestock concurs with the ecofeminist argument that women are the “guardians” of biodiversity and of food production in harmony with nature. But this knowledge is not restricted to Raika women, it is knowledge owned by both Raika women and men: the entire sheep production system is a way of producing food in harmony with nature rather than against it. Together, both Raika men and women produce food in a way that nurtures the soil and exemplifies regenerative food production as envisioned by Mies and Shiva (2014). 4 This is a conservative estimate. The Rajasthan Development report from 2006 estimated that there were 200,000 shepherds in the state and 3million sheep slaughtered per year resulting in 33 million Kg of mutton. 37 The Raika sheep production system is characterized by an almost total absence of modern technologies, with the exception of mobile phones which are owned both by women and men but are often out of operation because of the lack of battery charging opportunities. But the absence of technologies is also the strength of the system and one would be hard pressed to imagine any technologies that could improve the lot of the Raika, as they are practicing a biological way of production that seeks to capitalize on variability and makes use of dispersed and unpredictable resources through mobility. This mode of production is achieved by the Raika through the use of their observational powers to gauge the nutritional needs of their animals, judge the availability of grazing resources and seek to align the two through mobility and arrangements with farm owners. The sheep and goats that they keep are not the high-yielding varieties promoted by the government, but hardy and resilient breeds characterized by the ability to walk long distances and endure feed shortages. In other countries, pastoralists use trucks to transport their animals between summer and winter grazing areas. However, this approach would not be appropriate in the context of the Raika from Godwar because there are no long distances to overcome, and their system is based on accessing cultivated land as soon as it becomes available after the harvest, requiring frequent short-distance movements. We infer that it is the lack of technologies and the underlying principle of opportunism and variability that has prevented the Raika (and other) sheep pastoral systems of India from being appreciated and recognized by scientists and policy makers. Notably, they do not conform to the notion of livestock production that was imbued in the Indian system during colonial times: orderly farms with enclosed pastures and stables in which highyielding usually exotic livestock breeds are fed with calculated rations, leading to predictable growth rates. Even more so, the Raika do not conform to the “Livestock Revolution” that seeks to maximize livestock production along the lines of the Green Revolution with hybrid animals that require high inputs in terms of proteinrich feed and protection from climatic extremes. Technologies - with the exception of solar panels to recharge their mobiles- are not the answer to the increasing pressure and security problems of the migratory Raika. Instead, official recognition and acknowledgment of their important role in national and global food security is essential. They need land use plans that actively retain space for them in the crop cycle, that ensure access to common pool resources and that secure their migratory routes. They require the protection of the police and of administrators. Moreover, they would benefit from mobile human and veterinary health services. The hardships faced are not gender-specific, they concern men, women and children equally. However, they act to discourage even those Raika women who basically enjoy and appreciate the traditional way of life. These suggested interventions, ones that go beyond technological fixes, require a fundamental change in attitude. The ecofeminist perspective sees a dichotomy between subsistence and commercial economies, and basically derogates any kind of commodification and commercialism. However, as noted above, Raika sheep pastoralism is commercial and produces commodities that render India the largest exporter of sheep and goat meat worldwide thereby contributing to the food security of many countries in Asia and the Middle East. These commodities are produced in an ecologically harmonious manner, without any of the usual environmental costs that occur in food production, even contributing inputs to crop cultivation. The irony is that this is not being recognized by the agricultural establishment which is instead aiming for the western model of industrial livestock production with its known negative impacts on the environment. 38 €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko With respect to the question of patriarchy, we have to on the one hand acknowledge that Raika women live in a patriarchal system in so far as the society is ruled by panchayats which are assemblies of old conservative men that strictly enforce arranged childhood marriages and draconically punish and eventually expel any family that does not adhere to these rules. On the other hand, unlike in other patriarchal and pastoral systems, Raika women actively manage and largely control the family income. We cannot say that they are negatively impacted by commercialization, in fact they benefit from it. Raika sheep nomadism was always predominantly commercial venture, although previously oriented towards wool rather than meat production. As the Raika are vegetarians, subsistence was never the main focus of their production system, although dairy products are important food items on migration and cereals are often obtained from farmers in exchange for manure. Because of this commercialization, Raika women always have cash on hand and therefore have no need to participate in self-help savings groups which are popular among other rural women. Can the liberation of women and of “Mother Earth” only be achieved simultaneously? In the Raika case we do not see a linkage between liberation from patriarchal marriage traditions and official support for pastoralism. The two are unrelated. The former struggle is happening within Raika society and going on independently from that related to migratory sheep pastoralism. If however, the official attitude towards pastoralism would change to a supportive stance, Raika women would have the freedom to decide between a pastoralist and a non-pastoralist way of life, without their decision being influenced by fears concerning their security. 9. Conclusions: development interventions and the role of Raika pastoralist women in food security The question posed at the beginning of this paper was whether gender-focused interventions as promoted by major development agencies such as “securing women's access to livestock assets”, “increasing access to livestock technologies and services”, “integrating gender and poverty indicators in monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment”, are what pastoralist women need and want (e.g. Gurung, 2010; ILRI n.d.; Rota and Sperandini, 2010a,b; Rota et al., 2010). Women in Raika society are “oppressed” by western standards, having little control over their choice of husband and thereby over their future, but this is in line with the general position of women in traditional Hindu society, and not something specific to their pastoralist existence. An increasing number of young Raika women reject the husbands selected for them, and a frequent reason for this is that they would prefer a life in the city. They use all the agency they have at hand to achieve a way of life in line with their preferences; so far they seem to be rarely successful in revolting against their parents' arrangements, but eventually the dams will break. However, we note that Raika pastoralist women, despite being caught up in an extremely patriarchal system, neither request, nor would benefit, from gender-focused interventions since they share the same concerns and worries as the men. For women who are actively engaged in nomadic pastoralism the greatest concern is for the overall security of their families while on migration. In principle, many of them prefer the nomadic way of life to settlement in the villages because of the relatively lower workloads while on migration. Their hardships derive from the overall pressures that the pastoralist way of life is under, due to lack of recognition and support by policy makers. For the Raika. policies such as securing of migratory routes, support en route by police and district administrators, and official recognition of the value of pastoralism would be regarded as more important than any gender-specific measures. Similar sentiments were expressed in the Declaration that was issued by the Global Gathering of Pastoralist Women held in Mera, India in 2010 in which four Raika women participated. This elaborate 23 point statement puts more emphasis on the general recognition of pastoralists' rights than specifically on those of women (Rota et al., 2010). Firstly, it recommends the recognition of the essential role of pastoralists in global environmental sustainability, including the conservation of biodiversity, mitigation of climate change and combating desertification. Secondly, it endorses equal rights for pastoralist women and the need to recognize their key role in society, including the work of women pastoralists as a valid profession and as a fundamental component of pastoralism. The remaining points refer to the recognition of pastoralist mobility as a fundamental right, ensured access to resources, including traditional grazing lands and the protection of the rights of pastoralists and of security in nomadic areas including the enforcement of laws that guarantee the safety of women. Among the Raika of Rajasthan, shepherding is teamwork, and in contrast to the situation reported for some other pastoral groups in India, the participation of women is regarded as absolutely essential during sheep migration. The nuclear units (dolri) in the herding conglomerates always contain at least one woman. For the Raika men in the study area, it is inconceivable to go on migration without women to take care of the cooking, fetching water, looking after the lambs during daytime and packing household equipment onto camels and donkeys when moving camp. Essentially, the absence of women willing to go on migration is often the tipping point for discontinuing nomadic sheep husbandry. Sheep production and export is a major foreign currency earner for India and supplies mutton to many countries, especially in the Middle East. Sheep nomadism also makes a major contribution to maintaining agricultural soil fertility. Although nomadic sheep husbandry is profitable for families, Rajasthan's sheep population has been in decline since 2002. The attitude of women towards the shepherding profession and the desire of many Raika women for urban based livelihoods is a major factor in this decline. Policy makers interested in maintaining or expanding India's position as the world's largest exporter of sheep and goat meat would be well advised to maintain or re-create space for nomadic shepherding in the landscape and implement measures that reduce the current insecurities and dangers of the profession. That would be a major factor in increasing the attraction of nomadic pastoralism for Raika women who are a key factor, or even the lynchpin in maintaining family-based sheep production. Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude towards Hanwant Singh for making this research possible and especially for providing insights into the functioning of the Raika caste panchayat. Jagdish Paliwal was helpful in interviewing patels and Mrs. Dailibai Raika, board member of LPPS, was invaluable in establishing contacts with Raika women. I am very grateful to Ellen Geerlings and Aisha Rollefson for the diligent execution of their research projects, leading to the theses that have been quoted. Fieldwork was supported by Misereor and the Ford Foundation, while a short term study was undertaken under the aegis of the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED). I am also appreciative of the efforts of the two editors of this special issue to help me shape this paper into an appropriate form. References Agrawal, A., 1993. Mobility and cooperation among nomadic shepherds: the case of €hler-Rollefson / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 30e39 I. Ko the Raikas. Hum. Ecol. 21 (3), 261e279. Agrawal, A., 1999. Greener Pastures: Politics, Markets and Community Among a Migrant Pastoral People. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Albrecht, C., 2004. The Old World Camel as Productive Farm animal. Thesis. Uni€ttingen. versity of Go Athani, B., Krishna, G., Kuruba, N., 2015. The significance of nomadic pastoralism for sustaining soil fertility in Northern Karnataka. In: Paper Presented at the International Grasslands Conference in New-Delhi, 20-23 November, 2015. Azhar-Hewitt, F., 1999. Women of the high pastures and the global economy: reflections on the impacts of modernization in the Hushe Valley of the Karakorum, Northern Pakistan. Mt. Res. Dev. 19 (2), 141e151. Available at: https:// www.jstor.org/stable/3674255?seq¼1#page_scan_tab_contents. Benanav, M., 2015. Himalaya Bound. Harper Collins, Delhi. Bravo-Baumann, H., 2000. Gender and Livestock: a Winning Pair. Capitalisation of Experiences on Livestock Projects and Gender. Swiss Development Cooperation, Bern. Available at: http://www.fao.org/WAIRDOCS/LEAD/X6106E/x6106e01. htm. Eneyew, A., Mengistu, S., 2013. Double marginalized livelihoods: invisible gender inequality in pastoral societies. Societies 3, 104e116. Ensminger, Jean, 1984. Theoretical perspectives on pastoral women: feminist critiques. Nomadic Peoples 16, 59e71. FAO, 2012. Invisible Guardians Invisible Guardians - Women Manage Livestock Diversity. FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 174. FAO, Rome. Flintan, F., 2008. Empowering Women in Pastoral Societies. Report for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Ethiopia. IUCN, Addis Abada. www. iucn.org/wisp/resources/?3627/report-womens-empowerment-in-pastoralsocieties. € ter, D., 2002. Konflikt zwischen Schutz und Nutzung der natürlichen Vegetation: Flo €tze zur Lo €sung am Beispiel einer Region im Darstellung, Analyse und Ansa westlichen Rajasthan. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken. Geerlings, E., 2001. Sheep Husbandry and Ethnoveterinary Knowledge of Raika Sheep Pastoralists in Rajasthan, India. MSc thesis. Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Geerlings, E., 2004. The black sheep of Rajasthan. Seedling. www.grain.org/es/ article/entries/436-the-black-sheep-of-rajasthan. Ghotge, N., Ramdas, S., 2002. Women and livestock: creating space and opportunities. LEISA Mag. 18 (4), 16e17. Government of India, 2013. National Livestock Policy. Ministry of Agriculture Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries. Government of Rajasthan, n.d. State Livestock Development Policy, Government of Rajasthan. http://animalhusbandry.rajasthan.gov.in/StateLiveStockPolicy/state_ LS_dev_policy.pdf). Gurung, J.D., 2010. Gender and Desertification: Expanding Roles for Women to Restore Dryland Areas. Report for IFAD. IFAD, Rome. www.ifad.org/pub/gender/ desert/gender_desert.pdf. Hodgson, D.L., 1999. Pastoralism, patriarchy and history: changing gender relations among Maasai of Tanganyika, 1890e1940. J. Afr. Hist. 40, 41e65. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Horowitz, M., Jowkar, F., UNIFEM, 1992. Pastoral Women and Change in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. IDA Working Paper No. 91. Institute of Development Anthropology, Binghamton NY. ILRI. n.d. Empowering Women through Livestock. http://www.ilri.org/node/132. Joekes, S., Pointing, J., 1991. Women in Pastoral Societies in East and West Africa. Drylands Network Programme. Issues Paper 28. IIED (International institute for Environment and Development), London, p. 30. Jowkar, F., Horowitz, M.M., Naslund, C., Horowitz, S., 1991. Gender Relations of Pastoral and Agropastoral Production. A Bibliography with Annotations. UNIFEM and UNDP, Institute for Development Anthropology, New York. Kavoori, P., 1999. Pastoralism in Expansion: the Transhuming Herders of Western Rajasthan. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Kipuri, K., Ridgewell, A., 2008. A Double Bind: the Exclusion of Pastoralist Women in the East and Horn of Africa. Report for Minority Rights Group International (MRG). MRG, London. www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id¼593. €hler-Rollefson, I., 1992. The Raika dromedary breeders of Rajasthan: a pastoral Ko system under crisis. Nomadic Peoples 30, 74e83. €hler-Rollefson, I., 1995. Rajasthan's camel pastoralists and NGOs: the view from Ko the bottom. In: Stiles, D. (Ed.), Social Aspects of Sustainable Dryland Management. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 115e128. €hler-Rollefson, I., 1996. Kamelkultur und Kamelhaltung bei den indischen Raika. Ko Ein Beitrag zum interkulturellen Vergleich von Mensch-Tier-Beziehungen. Habilitationsschrift, LMU München. €hler-Rollefson, I., 1997. Zwischen Brenneisen und Antibiotika. Zur Bedeutung der Ko Ethnotiermedizin. Forschung. Mitteilungen der DFG 1:24e26. (English translation: Between Burning irons and Antibiotics published in Reports of the DFG 2-3/97:4-6). €hler-Rollefson, I. 2016a. Workshop “Counting India's Pastoralists”. Paper preKo sented at the Kullu Workshop on Counting India’s pastoralists, Kullu (India), 13- 39 16 May, 2016. €hler-Rollefson, I., 2016b. The Kullu Call for the recognition of the importance of Ko Common Pool Resources and pastoralism for India's livestock sector. In: Paper Presented at the Stakeholder Consultation on the Role of Pastoralism in the Future of India's Livestock Sector, Held in Delhi, 14-15 December, 2017. €hler-Rollefson, I., Rathore, H.S., Rathore, S., 1999. Traditional animal health serKo vices: a case study from the Godwar area in Rajasthan. in Ethnoveterinary Medicine. Alternatives for livestock development. In: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Pune, India, 4-6 November, 1997. BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune, India, pp. 162e170. €hler-Rollefson, I., Rathore, H.S., 2004. Indigenous versus official knowledge, Ko concepts, and institutions:Raika pastoralists and the outside world. Nomadic Peoples 8 (2), 150e167. €hler-Rollefson, I., Kakar, A.R., Mathias, E., Rathore, H.S., Wanyama, J., 2012. BioKo cultural community protocols: tools for securing the assets of livestock keepers. In: Biodiversity and Culture: Exploring Community Protocols, Rights and Consent, vol. 65. PLA, pp. 109e118. €hler-Rollefson, I., Rathore, H.S., Raika, D., Paliwal, J., 2014. Documentation and Ko Quantification of a Long Distance Migratory Sheep Husbandry System in Southern Rajasthan (Pali District), India. Kr€ atli, S., 2015. Valuing Variability. IIED, London. Raika: unarMerelli, S., 2009-2010. Le strategieterritorialidellacomunita ispostaallacrisidelsistemaagropastorale in Rajasthan. In: Tesi di LaureaSpecialistica, corso di laurea in ScienzePolitiche, studiAfroasiatici. Universit adeglistudi di Pavia a.a. 2009/2010. Mies, M., 1983. Towards a methodology for feminist research. In: Bowles, G., Duelli Klein, R. (Eds.), Theories of Women's Studies. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp. 117e140. Mies, M., Shiva, V., 2014. Ecofeminism. Zed Books, London and New Jersey. Mushi, V., 2013. Women pastoralists and climate change impacts in Kilosa district, Tanzania. In: Mulinge, M.M., Getu, M. (Eds.), Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Pastoralist Women in Sub-saharan Africa. OSSREA and Fountain Publishers, Kampala, pp. 155e185. Patel, T., 1994. Fertility Behaviour. Population and Society in a Rajasthan Village. Oxford University Press, Delhi.  Prevot, S., 2010. Les EleveursRaikaenInde. Nomadesd'aujourd'hui? l'Harmattan, Paris. Rangnekar, S., 1994. Women Pastoralists, Indigenous Knowledge and Livestock Production in Northern Gujarat. A Collection of Papers from Gujarat and Rajasthan. ODI, London, pp. 15e16. Rangnekar, S., 1998. Women in livestock production in developing countries. In: International Conference on Sustainable Animal Production, Hisar, India, 24e27 November. Robbins, P. 2004. Pastoralists inside-out: the contradictory conceptual geography of Rajasthan's raika. Nomadic Peoples new series, vol. 8, no. 2, Special Issue: Whither South Asian Pastoralism?, pp. 136e149. Rollefson, A., 2009. Ein Leben ohne Herde? Eine Studie über die Zukunft des traditionellen Hirtenberufes der Raika. Diplomarbeit. Geographishes Institut, Ruprechts-Karl Universit€ at, Heidelberg. Rota, A., Sperandini, S., 2010a. Gender and Livestock. Livestock Thematic Papers: Tools for Project Design. IFAD, Rome. www.ifad.org/lrkm/factsheet/ genderlivestock.pdf. Rota, A., Sperandini, S., 2010b. Livestock and Pastoralists. Livestock Thematic Papers: Tools for Project Design. IFAD, Rome. www.ifad.org/lrkm/factsheet/ pastoralists.pdf. Rota, A., et al., 2010. Livestock Thematic Papers: Tools for Project Design, Various Authors. IFAD, Rome. www.ifad.org/lrkm/index.htm. Sahu, B., 2012. Pigs, the Protein Pot of the Poor. Innovate Orissa Initiative, Bhubaneshwar. Salpeteur, M., Patel, H.R., Molina, J.L., Balbo, A.L., Rubio-Campillo, X., ReyesGarcía, V., Madella, M., 2016. Comigrants and friends: informal networks and the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge among seminomadic pastoralists of Gujarat, India. Ecol. Soc. 21 (2), 20. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES08332-210220. Sbriccoli, T., 2004-2005. I Raika/Rabari.Una castapastorale dell’ India del Nord. Thesis. University of Siena. Sharma, P., 2005. Tribal Society in a Flux (An Anthropo-sociological Study of Raika). PanchsheelPrakashan, Jaipur. Shiva, V., 1989. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Zed Books, London. Srivastava, V., 1997. Religious Renunciation of a Pastoral People. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), 2007. Women Pastoralists: Preserving Traditional Knowledge: Facing Modern Challenges. United Nations, Bonn. Wagner, A., 2013. The Gaddi beyond Pastoralism. Making Space in the Indian Himalayas. Berghahn Books, New York. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Warlpiri experiences highlight challenges and opportunities for gender equity in Indigenous conservation management in arid Australia T Jocelyn Daviesa,b, Jane Walkera,c,1, Yiheyis Taddele Marub,∗ a b c The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Grevillea Drive, Alice Springs, NT 0870, Australia CSIRO Land and Water, PO Box 2111, Alice Springs, NT 0871, Australia Central Land Council, Lajamanu, Via Katherine, NT 0852, Australia A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Community-based conservation Indigenous ecological knowledge Indigenous protected area Remote Australia Gender equity has been recognized as a guiding principle for conservation management globally. Yet little attention is paid to gender in the design and implementation of many conservation programs including those in the vibrant and expanding arena of Australian Indigenous conservation partnerships. We examined the impact of gender in management of the Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in arid central Australia through qualitative research (interviews and participant observation) with senior Warlpiri women and men and members of the all-male Wulaign community-based ranger group. Senior men and women had many similar perspectives including that customary knowledge, skills and activities were important in managing country and were occurring less through the IPA's management partnerships than they would like. Additional challenges reported by women included lack of vehicles to access country. Senior men specifically called for greater gender equity in allocation of resources including establishment of a women's ranger group. These perspectives indicate that gender equity is a Warlpiri cultural norm for management of country. Differences between Indigenous women's and men's management of country elsewhere in arid Australia suggest that opportunities also exist for gender equity to enhance conservation outcomes. Prevalent belief systems in Australia, and many other developed countries, are gender blind in that they fail to recognize differences between men's and women's needs, interests, knowledges, behaviors and power. Monitoring of Australian Indigenous conservation programs shows that an increasing proportion of Indigenous community-based rangers are women. However factors that might explain and support this trend cannot be readily identified because little or no attention to gender is apparent in program design and project planning. Gender-aware design of conservation management policies, programs and projects is important for challenging and changing gender blindness. Brokers and bridging institutions, or ‘two-way’ approaches, have been important in progressing cross-cultural equity in the implementation of Australian Indigenous conservation partnerships and can be expected to be also valuable for promoting gender equity. 1. Introduction communities derive from protected areas (West et al., 2006). Indigenous and other local peoples have shown themselves to be willing and capable of applying and adapting their knowledge and customary institutions to govern and manage protected areas, often in collaboration with other actors (Berkes, 2009). Win-win outcomes for both conservation and community development are widely sought, although acknowledged as being difficult to establish in practice (McShane et al., 2011; Naughton-Treves et al., 2005). Communities are not, however, homogenous entities (Agrawal and Gibson, 1999). Gender is a key factor in the distribution of the costs and benefits that 1.1. Institutional inertia perpetuates gender inequities ∗ 1 The term ‘gender’ refers to the way that prevailing social and cultural norms lead men and women to assume different roles, responsibilities and behaviors and to experience different opportunities, challenges and outcomes (Sarkar, 2006). Gender is a prime structural determinant of poverty and inequity globally (World Bank, 2016). It impacts on distribution of resources, responsibilities and opportunities within households and societies (Moser, 1993; Sarkar, 2006). Gender Corresponding author. CSIRO Land and Water, PO Box 2111, Alice Springs, NT 0871, Australia. E-mail addresses: jocelyn.davies@cdu.edu.au (J. Davies), j.walker@ghcma.vic.gov.au (J. Walker), yiheyis.maru@csiro.au (Y.T. Maru). Current address: Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority, 79 French Street, Hamilton, Vic 3300, Australia. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.10.002 Received 8 April 2016; Received in revised form 30 September 2017; Accepted 8 October 2017 Available online 15 November 2017 0140-1963/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. et al., 1999; Ens et al., 2012a; Muller, 2003; Nursey-Bray, 2009; Sithole et al., 2008; Urbis Pty Ltd, 2012; Vaarzon-Morel and Gabrys, 2009; Wirf et al., 2008; Young et al., 1991), research that has described, analyzed, or assessed outcomes in this distinct and vibrant arena (e.g. Altman and Kerins, 2012; Burgess et al., 2009; Davies et al., 2011; Ens et al., 2015; Gilligan, 2006; Gorman and Vemuri, 2012; Hill et al., 2013; Hunt, 2012; Jackson, 2006; Mackie and Meacheam, 2016; Ross et al., 2009; Smyth, 2011) has not identified commonalities or differences between women's and men's approaches and experiences nor considered their implications. This gender blindness contrasts markedly with the attention that Indigenous women have attracted as subjects of Australian anthropological research. inequality constrains women's agency and women's capability, that is, women's freedom to make choices that enable them to live lives they have reason to value (Nussbaum, 2000; Sen, 1999). The different needs, interests, knowledge, behavior and power of women and men must be understood and addressed if women and men are to achieve equal outcomes (IUCN, 2007). Thus, gender equity requires that women and men are equally valued and are treated equitably according to their needs (Sarkar, 2006). The gender mainstreaming approach, which became prominent in international development from the late 1990s, stresses that both men and women share responsibility for redressing inequities between the sexes. It was a response to critique that gender equity could not be achieved without men, as well as women, taking responsibility for the necessary social and institutional changes (Alston, 2009; Debusscher, 2012; Smyth, 2007). Institutions include norms or ways of doing things that reflect social and cultural expectations as well as formal mechanisms such as legislation and policy. They determine the opportunities and outcomes that people experience in their lives and their frustrations and limitations (Ostrom, 2005). Decision makers' resistance to institutional change is a key reason why gender mainstreaming approaches have commonly failed to achieve impact (Allwood, 2013; Smyth, 2007; Verma, 2014). 1.3. Women's roles in Australian Indigenous societies and management of country Diverse interpretations of women's role in Australian Indigenous societies, published from the 1970s, countered the assumption implicit in most earlier scholarship that women's perspectives could add little to the knowledge gained from men about Indigenous social life (de Lepervanche, 1993; Gale, 1970; Merlan, 1988). These analyses have in turn attracted critique including that portrayals of Aboriginal women have been constructed to fit researchers' preconceived representations (Sabbioni, 1996; Wirf et al., 2008) and that researchers have focused on reconstructing an idealised past rather than on understanding contemporary gender relations (Merlan, 1988). A growing body of Indigenous women's published life stories and teachings (e.g. Ellis and Dousset, 2016; Turner et al., 2010; Wallace and Lovell, 2009) offer counterpoints to these critiques. They testify to the destructive social impacts of colonisation and racism and also to Indigenous women's resilience, leadership and achievement in family, community and broader domains. Australian Indigenous women, often in cross-cultural collaborations, have also contributed strongly to gaining recognition of the key role of Indigenous ecological knowledge in conservation (e.g. Baker et al., 1992; Daniels et al., 2012; Ens et al., 2012c; Marika et al., 2009; Paltridge et al., 2005; Walsh and Douglas, 2011; Walsh et al., 2013). In arid Australia, as is common in Indigenous societies globally (Pfeiffer and Butz, 2005), women and men tend to harvest different natural resources (e.g. Bryce, 1992; Devitt, 1988) and have separate rituals as well as rituals they participate in together (e.g. Hamilton, 1981; Keen, 2004; Payne, 1989). The tendency of Australian Indigenous women to undertake activities in gender-segregated groups has been described as ‘extreme’ in desert regions (Payne, 1989). However there is substantial diversity across the continent, including within desert regions, in such social practices and in other aspects of gender roles (e.g. see Hamilton, 1981). In contemporary Australian Indigenous and crosscultural conservation management, separation of men and women is common, though not universal, in work teams, planning consultations, networking and conferences (see Daniels et al., 2012; Ens et al., 2012a; Preuss and Dixon, 2012; Sithole et al., 2008). Across a broad range of contemporary settings, Australian Indigenous women and men have different contexts and styles of leadership (Hunt et al., 2008). Social norms that underpin Indigenous gender differences derive ultimately from ontologies that are glossed by the English term ‘Dreamtime’ or ‘The Dreaming’ (Stanner, 2009) and have been portrayed amongst Warlpiri people as the interconnected elements of ngurra-kurlu: family, law, land, language and ceremony (Holmes and Jampijinpa, 2013; Patrick, 2015). Places, songs, stories and relationships have their cosmological genesis in the activities of male and female ancestral beings who continue to exercise agency in the contemporary landscape (Stanner, 2009). As a result, Australia's cultural landscapes are “complexly gendered” (Howitt and Suchet-Pearson, 2006: p.48). Australian Indigenous peoples tend to see gender domains as part of the natural social order; they do not express a generalised concept of ‘personhood’ in which gender is unspecified (Merlan, 1988). 1.2. Gender blindness prevails in conservation programs ‘Gender blindness’ is a term used to characterize policy and planning that does not take account of differences in men's and women's perspectives, priorities, decisions and actions (Alston, 2009; Mavin et al., 2004). Although the global peak body for conservation, The World Conservation Union or IUCN, began to pay attention to gender equity in the 1980s and now recognizes gender equity as part and parcel of efficient and fair governance and management (IUCN, 2007), gender blindness remains prevalent in conservation programs globally. Analyses of the impact of gender on governance and management of protected areas, and on community based conservation and natural resource management more broadly, are relatively scant (Agarwal, 2009; Egunyu and Reed, 2015; Leach, 2007; Westermann et al., 2005). National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) from 174 countries show low awareness of, and attention to, gender (Clabots and Gilligan, 2017). Systematic study of the relationships between gender and sustainability has also been lacking (Meinzen-Dick et al., 2014). Guidance documents produced for protected area managers by IUCN and its associates (e.g. Borrini-Feyerabend et al., 2013; BorriniFeyerabend et al., 2004; Gross et al., 2016; Hockings et al., 2006; Worboys et al., 2015) pay little or no attention to gender, nor much specific attention to women, beyond recognizing that gender equity is an important principle or aspirational goal. In Australia, as in many other developed countries, a belief that male dominance is normal in conservation and natural resource management continues to be prevalent (Allwood, 2013; Alston, 2009; Egunyu and Reed, 2015; Howitt and Suchet-Pearson, 2006; Stratford and Davidson, 2002). Gender had little overt attention and impact in the evolution of government-community partnerships and collaborations in Australian natural resource management (Stratford and Davidson, 2002). A change was heralded in the late 1990s when the rhetoric of gender mainstreaming was adopted in Australian agricultural policy (Alston, 2009). However entrenched male-centric norms meant that policy makers took no steps to understand women's role in agricultural production and in the economic and social fabric of rural areas, which led to catastrophic failure of measures that governments had designed as a financial safety net for drought-affected farmers (Alston, 2009). The prevalent gender blindness of conservation programs extends to contemporary Australian Indigenous conservation management, or management of ‘country’, being the land and/or sea for which Indigenous people have customary responsibilities and from which they draw spiritual strength (Arthur, 1996). With few exceptions (Davies 41 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Fig. 1. Location of Lajamanu and the Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), Northern Territory, Australia. It illustrates the application of Indigenous women's knowledge and skills to conservation of an arid region, and highlights opportunities for institutional change to promote gender equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships. Even where individuals of one gender actually know about matters within the other gender's domain, social conventions maintain the distinctions (Merlan, 1988; Payne, 1989). Two examples from arid Australia indicate that Indigenous women's knowledge and skills can be particularly important for conservation outcomes. The first is from Anmatyerr country, c.200 km north of the central Australian town of Alice Springs (Fig. 1), where women's responsibilities and actions are indicated to be particularly important for management at landscape ecology scale (Wirf et al., 2008). The perspective of both Anmatyerr men and women engaged in research on cultural values of water was that men's prime focus is on spiritual law and sacred/secret sites whereas women are responsible for protecting the whole country including places that are ecologically and culturally important even though they are not sacred/secret (Wirf et al., 2008). The second example is from Martu country, c.1000 km west of Alice Springs, where women's hunting and burning has been shown to be particularly important for ecological outcomes. Martu women typically burn country while they are tracking and digging for goannas and other small game (Bird et al., 2004). Repeated episodes of Martu women's hunting and burning have generated landscapes with significantly finerscale habitat diversity that support higher population densities of the women's target prey than occur in landscapes where lightning has been the main ignition source (Bliege Bird et al., 2008). Martu men's hunting strategies are different and do not have this positive impact on habitat (Bird et al., 2004; Bird and Bird, 2008). We explore the impact of gender on management of the Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), which is located in arid central Australia, through the perspectives of Warlpiri women and men. This case study shows the importance of recognizing and understanding gender-related differences in approaches to conservation management. 2. Warlpiri lands and livelihoods Warlpiri ownership of large areas of their customary estate, in the Tanami Desert, was recognized by the Australian Government through the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act [Commonwealth of Australia], 1976. The Tanami Desert encompasses over 250,000 km2 in the north-western part of central Australia (Fig. 1). Its climate is semiarid with monsoonal influences. The landscape is dominated by hummock grassland on sandplains. Other habitats include sand dunes, rocky outcrops, woodlands along watercourses, and paleo-drainage systems with sub-artesian water (Gibson, 1986). The region has had limited impact from livestock grazing and intensive development. It is recognized as having very high conservation value due to its species diversity, habitat range, ecological condition and as a legacy of long-term Warlpiri management based on customary rights and responsibilities (NTG. NRETA, 2005). Warlpiri and other desert peoples customarily travelled widely to maintain kin relationships, ritual obligations and to source food (Meggitt, 1962). Access to vast areas, facilitated by extensive kinship networks, was essential given the region's low and variable rainfall (Peterson et al., 1978). Land use and management involved spiritual practices, subsistence harvesting and associated burning that generated habitat mosaics. These practices maintained productivity and also developed ecological knowledge and associated skills (Myers, 1991). Disruption to Warlpiri management from the late 19th century 42 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Committee (hereafter termed ‘senior men’ and ‘senior women’), and members of the Wulaign Ranger group. Interviews were conducted in mid-2007 with 11 senior women, 10 senior men and 8 male Rangers. As is important for rigor (Bradshaw and Stratford, 2005), participants had been identified by elders and community members over the course of the field research as the ‘right people’ to speak for and about country, meaning they were recognized as people with ownership and/or management responsibility through Indigenous customary law (CLC, 2015; Walsh and Mitchell, 2002). Questions covered interviewees' personal background and involvement in the IPA; management objectives for the IPA; concerns for country; current and future interests in IPA management; and interviewee's views on the interests and involvement of IPA partner organizations. Participants were interviewed by the field researcher, one of this paper's authors (JW), in gender-specific small groups, in accordance with interviewees' wishes and prevalent cultural protocols (Carter, 2008; Walsh and Mitchell, 2002). One male and two female members of the Lajamanu community who were skilled in both English and Warlpiri were employed during interviews to help guide, interpret and translate questions, discussions and responses. This enabled participants to speak either Warlpiri or English. Interviews were audio-recorded and the field researcher made written notes. Two Warlpiri women with good literacy were employed to transcribe the recordings and translate Warlpiri language to English. Participant observation was also used extensively in the research. By promoting researchers' engagement in day to day community life, this method is valuable for building cross-cultural understanding (Howitt and Stevens, 2005; Walsh and Mitchell, 2002). Respect for Warlpiri cultural protocols meant that the field researcher, being female, spent most participant observation time with senior women. This included ∼150 days of ‘country visits’ in which the field researcher and senior women travelled by vehicle away from the Lajamanu community, for periods ranging from a few hours to several days, to places on surrounding lands where the senior women wanted to go. Country visits have been recognized as important for building relationships and rapport between Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people involved in management of Indigenous owned lands (Walsh and Mitchell, 2002; Wohling, 2001). Country visits enabled the field researcher to directly experience social and cultural processes that were fundamental to the senior women's worldview and the knowledge and practices that senior women used to manage country. Improved access to country was a tangible reciprocal benefit for the women, since most could not drive and did not own a vehicle. All the places visited were on roads and tracks within 60 km of Lajamanu. The senior women directed the location of country visits and who would be involved. On average, eight women were involved in each country visit, travelling with the field researcher in her vehicle. The field researcher made records of observations and interactions in field diaries, photographs, video and voice recordings. Theme analysis (Creswell, 2003) was used to deepen understanding of the research data. Like and disparate concepts raised in interview transcripts and other records were identified and grouped into themes and sub-themes. This paper focuses on one of three themes: Warlpiri people as land managers. Associated sub-themes were Warlpiri people's values; challenges that limit management of country; multi-purpose use and practice in managing country; and the role of traditional knowledge and learning. We draw from this material, including through quotes from interviewees, to illustrate the perspectives, concerns and strategies of women and men and identify commonalities and differences. To facilitate analysis we categorized the various activities that interviewees said they use to manage country into cultural or natural resource management or ancillary activities (Table 1). ‘Cultural management’ was a term commonly used in cross-cultural communication about IPA management. Activities in this category were directed and controlled by Warlpiri people. They derived directly from Warlpiri traditions and/or relied on Warlpiri knowledge and customary skills, threatened biodiversity due to increased prevalence of very large and uncontrollable fires (Edwards et al., 2008). Other contemporary threats include erosion and spread of weeds along watercourses by feral herbivores (CLC, 2015). The Northern Tanami IPA, established in 2007, covers 40,000 km2 of Indigenous-owned land. In establishing the IPA, landowners entered into a partnership with the Australian Government and the Central Land Council (CLC), a regional-scale statutory organization constituted to represent Indigenous people's land rights and interests. A key partnership goal for these agencies was improved biodiversity conservation through the integration of Indigenous knowledge and skills into management practice. The Australian Government's IPA Program was seen by Warlpiri people as a strategic, long-term opportunity to secure ongoing support and recognition for Warlpiri management of country (CLC, 2015). Declaration of the IPA was preceded by a decade-long process led by CLC with landowners' participation. This involved establishing a peak governing body, the Northern Tanami IPA Management Committee; developing a strategic plan and a management plan; undertaking a feasibility study; appointing an IPA coordinator; setting up a work-base for IPA management at Lajamanu; and initiating the Wulaign community-based ranger group (Walker, 2011). As for other IPAs in Australia (Davies et al., 2013), management costs such as rangers' salaries and vehicles, were largely funded by Australian Government programs during this planning phase and subsequently. The IPA Management Committee comprises senior men and women with cultural responsibility to manage the IPA. They are the right people to ‘speak for’ particular estates within the IPA (CLC, 2015; see Section 3). At the time of the research, just under half of the Management Committee's 32 members were women. A quorum for decisionmaking required more than half the members to be present including at least six women. The Wulaign Rangers, comprising 10 to 12 young to middle aged people employed by CLC to implement the IPA Management Committee's decisions, were all men. Most members of the IPA Management Committee, and the Wulaign rangers, lived in Lajamanu which is one of four settlements on the margins of the Tanami desert that were established by governments from the mid-20th century as living areas for those Warlpiri people who were not then working in gold mines and stock camps (Meggitt, 1962). With a population of 650 people (ABS, 2012) Lajamanu is predominately a Warlpiri settlement but is located ∼20 km north of Warlpiri people's customary lands, at the northern edge of the Tanami Desert. The nearest town, Katherine (population 6000), is 550 km northeast (Fig. 1). Lajamanu has a reputation, among both its Warlpiri residents and outsiders, as a ‘strong’ community (Chapman et al., 2014). Employed Lajamanu residents, who comprise 30% of adult females (over 15 years) and 38% of adult males (ABS, 2012), work mainly for local Aboriginal or government organizations, in community services and land management. Other income sources are social security benefits, art sales and payments made to landowners as a consequence of their agreement to mining on their lands. Median weekly income of families is 60% that of Australia as a whole (ABS, 2012). Similar to many other Indigenous populations (Daniel et al., 2010), Lajamanu residents experience high levels of morbidity, social dysfunction, male incarceration and dependence on government-funding. They often express their powerlessness and vulnerability (Chapman et al., 2014). Nevertheless they have been making consistent and innovative efforts to engage meaningfully with broader society and maintain pride in their identity and culture (Chapman et al., 2014). 3. Case study methods This paper derives from qualitative research undertaken between 2005 and 2007 as part of assessing the management effectiveness of the Northern Tanami IPA (Walker, 2011). Research participants included male and female members of the Northern Tanami IPA Management 43 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. “Our country is family because our spirits go back there.”2 Table 1 Comparison of activities that are integral to management of country mentioned by Warlpiri senior women, senior men and Wulaign rangers during interviews, where * means activity was mentioned by one or more interviewees. Activities mentioned during interviews grouped in categories Senior women Cultural management Collect, hunt and manage bush foods * and medicines Intergenerational knowledge transfer * Visit and look around country * Burn country * Maintain law and ceremony * Soakage and waterhole management * Gender responsibilities * Family responsibilities * Learning on country * Take elders on country * Visit and manage sacred sites * Collect firewood * Make artefacts * Combined cultural and natural resource management Cross-cultural knowledge transfer * Track animals * Biological surveys Fire management Natural resource management Weed control Feral animal control Social development Teach at school/school country visits * Enterprise development Commercial seed harvest * Painting country * Tourism management Infrastructure services and access Visit and manage outstations * Senior men Inter-connections between the health of country and the presence of people on country were explicitly recognized by senior people. Strikingly, given the aridity of the region, it was lack of people that made country unproductive rather than lack of rain: Wulaign rangers * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * “Without people it's a dry country, it gets sick and boring. Oh with people it is normal life. It is kuntukuntu [good condition, growing fresh after fire] again. The country is not dead. That country is alive in spirit … because it is not just land, it is alive.”2 Warlpiri people's knowledge and practices were seen as integral to the productivity of country: “We would burn every year for two reasons … to make [country] green and find food …”.3 * Continuity of responsibility to look after country was inherent to senior men and women's identities: * “My grandfather looks after that place. We didn't see him, he passed away, but we are looking after his place today, my grandfather's country.”4 * * * Senior people saw the future of their country as uncertain if youth grew up without good knowledge of their country: * * “… we don't know what will happen, no-one [will look after country], that's why we do it [look after country].”5 Senior people often raised concerns about the lack of identity, pride and self-confidence among Warlpiri youth, a need to “… get back the young people”6: * * “… we teach kids their grandmother and grandfather's country, so they won't forget it, so they keep culture alive”.7 * Like their elders, the younger men in the Wulaign Ranger group indicated that their identity was tied to ownership of country passed down to them from their forebears. The Northern Tanami IPA was seen by senior people of both genders as a valuable long-term initiative to support Warlpiri people to manage country: even though they may be undertaken with new technologies, notably vehicles (Walker, 2011). The natural resource management category comprised two activities, weeds and feral animal control. Both are central concerns for scientifically based approaches to conservation and in government policy and programs (Australian Government, 2013) but are not part of Warlpiri traditions. We categorized activities that bridge between Warlpiri traditions and science-based knowledge as ‘combined cultural and natural resource management’. These include ‘fire management’ which refers to burning by Wulaign rangers that made extensive use of non-Indigenous technologies (drip torches, aerial incendiaries, mapping, fuel moisture analysis) with elders involved in guiding where burning should take place. We distinguish this from ‘burning country’ which did not use these technologies and which we categorized as a cultural management activity. We present women's perspectives in greater depth than men's as a result of our methodology. Our emphasis also recognizes that understanding “women's voices, lived experiences and agency” (Verma, 2014: p. 191) is important for illuminating pathways to greater gender equity. To indicate the impact of the research, we also describe institutional changes initiated by the field researcher subsequent to the research, while she was employed by CLC as the Northern Tanami IPA Coordinator (2007–2010). “We want it in our country … we want country looked after.”8 Senior people saw opportunities from the IPA: “country visits is one yuwayi [yes] … old people explaining country, song lines and dance for that country.”9 Other opportunities came through having a group of strong, young men—the Wulaign Rangers—to help “look after the old lands”10: “jobs for young people yuwayi … rangers look after that place, look after country for us”.11 4.2. Cultural management by both men and women is essential Both women and men placed great importance on using customary management practices to maintain the health of country and culture. This is indicated by Table 1 which shows that more than half the 2 Billy Jampijinpa Bunter (IPA Management Committee), interview 4 May 2007. Joe Japanangka James (IPA Management Committee), interview 8 May 2007. 4 Lilly Nungarrayi Hargraves (IPA Management Committee), interview 23 April 2007. 5 Gladys Napangardi Tasman (IPA Management Committee), interview 24 April 2007. 6 Jerry Jangala Patrick (IPA Management Committee), interview 23 July 2007. 7 Judy Napaljarri Walker (IPA Management Committee), interview 26 April 2007. 8 Unknown senior woman (IPA Management Committee), interview 24 April 2007. 9 Steve Jampijinpa Patrick (IPA Management Committee), interview 23 July 2007. 10 Biddy Napangardi Raymond (IPA Management Committee) interview 26 April 2007. 11 Margaret Nungarrayi Martin (IPA Management Committee), interview 23 April 2007. 4. Warlpiri management of country 3 4.1. Warlpiri people and country – a mutually sustaining relationship Senior Warlpiri people, both men and women, did not see themselves as separate from the landscape. They spoke of interacting with country in very intimate ways, often talking about landscape features and objects as family members: 44 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. activities that interviewees identified as being integral to management of country were categorized as ‘cultural management’. Activities in this category were also those that interviewees mentioned most frequently. Senior women and senior men spoke of the same cultural management activities except that women and not men spoke of firewood collection. Both men and women spoke of the need for people of both sexes to be involved in managing country because of distinct gender responsibilities (Table 1). Both senior women and senior men, and also the younger men in the Wulaign Ranger group, spoke of visiting and managing outstations, which consist of one or two houses and a water bore and were established in the 1980s and 1990s to help Warlpiri families live away from Lajamanu at seven locations on their traditional lands. These outstations were seen by interviewees as important because they facilitated access to country. Only the Wulaign Rangers spoke about fire management, feral animal or weed management, all of which were prominent in their day to day work program. Senior women spoke of a larger number of activities than senior men. However this could reflect their closer relationship with the field researcher. At the time of interview, senior women had spent more than a year sharing their knowledge with the [non-Indigenous] field researcher during country visits. This undoubtedly would have led the women to identify ‘cross-cultural knowledge transfer’ as important (Table 1). Wulaign Ranger interviewees, who also mentioned this activity, had been sensitized to its importance by routine work with nonWarlpiri IPA staff. Other activities mentioned only by senior women—teaching during school country visits, tracking animals and commercial seed harvest—were undertaken by the senior women with the field researcher. Table 2 Issues identified by Warlpiri senior women, senior men and Wulaign rangers during interviews as limiting or challenging their management of country, where * means activity was mentioned by one or more interviewees. Issues identified during interviews grouped in categories Personal and family Concerns for personal safety when on country – age, health Little family support Poor health Other commitments e.g. community meetings Reliance on other people for accessing country Warlpiri youth Lack of ability and desire of youth to be on country Don't like bush foods Don't want to learn Have other interests Need more knowledge to manage Cultural responsibility Many young people have not been through ceremony Need to fulfil gender responsibilities Want to teach management through traditional ways Not enough cultural management Old and young people are not on country together Infrastructure, resources and access People are not on country enough in general Need better maintenance of outstations Limited access to vehicles and resources People's country is often far away Road access is difficult Ecology and climate Too many hot fires Rain and flooding stops access to country Cross-cultural management Non-Indigenous people's attitudes to hunting Non-Indigenous people need to better understand Warlpiri law 4.3. Social change presented challenges for managing country Challenges for managing country that were identified by senior women, men and the Wulaign rangers during interviews are summarised in Table 2. A significant challenge identified by all three groups was the overall lack of people on country. This referred not only to the sparse population of the region, but also to the advancing age of the very few remaining Warlpiri people who were born before Lajamanu was established: “… there's only four old men left here, and [amongst the women, only] two Napurrula and Napangardi and Napaljarri (which are three of the eight female Warlpiri classificatory kin groups). That's all that teaches young people”.11 Wulaign rangers * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * “… we like to take young women [on country] but they don't like to come with us”11 Both senior women and men identified challenges from their own poor health, social obligations, and the lack of maintenance of outstation infrastructure. Time and energy were also challenges for both senior men and women because, due to their cultural standing and authority, they were involved in decision-making for many community organizations and issues. Both senior men and women indicated that their families did not give them practical support to manage country. Women elaborated, identifying inter-related constraints that included limited access to vehicles, reliance on other people to drive them to country, long distances to the places they wanted to visit, poor road access and concerns for their personal safety when travelling due to their age and health (Table 2). Historically, managing country was an integral part of life. Senior women spoke of how they would “walk from soakage to soakage, when little girl with mother”.14 They indicated there are “certain places “In the old days people used to hunt and know every spot … young people have to go out and do things with the elders to learn this”.12 Both senior men and women valued their own experiential mode of learning on country and wanted to teach their grandchildren the same traditional way but recognized they were not on country enough together to do this: “grow up manurlu jana bushngka kurdukurdu … we grew our kids up in the bush … you can't see that anymore, different now”.13 All three groups of interviewees saw Warlpiri youth's lack of knowledge of country as a key challenge (Table 2) that was compounded by young people having other interests such as marriage, sport, friends, jobs and looking after children. Senior women also expressed concern that young women lacked the ability and desire to be 13 Senior men on country, learn about country and eat bushfoods (Table 2): Senior men, women and the Wulaign Rangers all identified that having old and young people on country together was a challenge (Table 2): 12 Senior women 14 Unspecified senior woman (IPA Management Committee), interview notes 24 April 2007. Leslie Jampijinpa Robertson (IPA Management Committee), interview 4 May 2007. Liddy Napangardi Miller (IPA Management Committee), interview 24 May 2007. 45 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. we can't reach by car, where all the waterholes are”.14 The prospect of long walks compounded concerns about their own health. Their limited access to vehicles added to the challenges they faced in teaching and passing on traditional knowledge and skills, as this dialogue indicates: to carry out, to manage country. One senior women identified the possibility of getting jobs for women as rangers: “… some women think that rangers is only for men … [but] in other communities' men and women [are] working as rangers”.11 “… like to take kids our bush … teach them dancing and singing and teach them country … nobody ever goes there [to Pinja, an outstation] … we got no vehicle …”.15 The senior women observed the contrast between their own circumstances and those of the male Wulaign Rangers who had regular paid employment and who regularly travelled on country in IPA vehicles. Senior men were not as challenged by lack of access to vehicles because a much higher proportion of senior men than women can drive and own cars or have male relatives who own cars that they can negotiate to use. Also, as shown below, men had better access to IPA management vehicles. Both senior women and men indicated that ‘cultural management’ (comprising activities categorized as such in Table 1) was not occurring to the extent they would like in the IPA (Table 2). They considered ceremony to be a main avenue for young men and women to learn about and discharge the responsibilities for managing country that they have as Warlpiri people. It was portrayed as central to Warlpiri customary law and to the integrity of country and culture. Ceremony, which many Indigenous people in Australia call ‘business’ (Arthur, 1996), was a sensitive topic that was not discussed openly. It includes male initiation, the start of the journey of boys to manhood (Meggitt, 1962), which involves both men and women in roles defined by gender, kinship and knowledge (Bell, 1983). Senior women indicated that the importance of ceremony in men's development made it relatively easy for the senior men to command younger men's attention and cooperation, compared to the challenges they faced in engaging with younger women: “… it's different, we don't have car … Jupurrula [the IPA Coordinator] got vehicle to take those young men out”.20 Warlpiri gender protocols meant that the IPA coordinator, who had always been male, engaged more extensively with the senior men than with the senior women and facilitated men's access to country more readily than women's. As a result, the young men who comprised the Wulaign Ranger group had opportunities to learn from senior men on country as part of their work role: “… we sit with the old men and [they] tell us old time story”.21 The senior women lacked awareness of their structural power within the IPA Management Committee. They considered that they were involved in the Committee because of their customary right to speak for and about country. However, they did not appreciate the Committee's role as peak governance body for the IPA. The senior women gave no indication that, as members of the Committee, they were participating in making decisions about the overall management of the IPA and the work program of the Wulaign Rangers. They did not perceive that they had an equal claim to men for resources to support their management of country. Rather than perceiving that the Committee was the ‘boss’ of the Wulaign Rangers, they considered the Australian Government, who funded the rangers' wages and vehicles, to have that role. The senior men had a different perception. They talked in interviews about the processes required for effective planning and decision making, in particular the need to ensure that the members of the IPA Management Committee were people with customary rights and responsibilities and sound knowledge. They talked of the importance of the IPA Coordinator and the IPA Management Committee learning from each other given that their spheres of knowledge and experience were different. Senior men also identified the critical need for women as well as men to be involved in IPA planning and decision-making. Senior women, but not senior men, raised challenges for management of country associated with ecology and climate—the destructive impact of wildfires and extreme weather events (Table 2). A crosscultural challenge for IPA management raised only by the senior women had a similar focus, on non-Indigenous people's attitudes to hunting (Table 2). These challenges relate directly to the prime mechanisms through which senior women manage country: collecting bush foods and medicines and burning country to promote its productivity, as described below. “… men teach young fellas, they all right, they do business [ceremony]”.16 Conversely senior men said that lack of participation by young men in ceremony was a challenge for their management of country (Table 2). Their concern was that the multiple stages of learning that are required were not always being followed: “One problem is that they are young boys … many things they need to know, but they have to learn one step first, then do the next step”.2 Senior men also specifically identified non-Indigenous people's limited understanding of Warlpiri customary law as a challenge for IPA management (Table 2): “we are just doing our duty [managing country] by following the law [i.e. customary law] … they [non Indigenous partner agencies and staff] have to understand this … we don't want to lose our country and culture … yuwayi [emphatic]”.17 4.4. Cross-cultural gender inequities constrained management of country Only senior men specifically identified the need to fulfil gender responsibilities as a challenge for IPA management (Table 2). They explained this challenge by saying “we have responsibilities on both sides … men and women”18 and called for the establishment of a women's ranger group and improved support for women through the IPA partnership. Senior women often referred to themselves as the “women's ranger group”19 when discussing the activities that they carried out, or wanted 5. Warlpiri women manage county by hunting with fire Senior women commonly referred to collecting bush foods and medicines as ‘hunting’, even when no animal foods were collected. Hunting was the activity they undertook most frequently on country visits and commanded most time. However the senior women typically undertook a range of activities at the same time that had a mix of economic, ecological, social and/or cultural outcomes. For example, on 15 Judy Napaljarri Walker, Biddy Napangardi Raymond and Biddy Nungarrayi Long (IPA Management Committee), interview 26 May 2007. 16 Unspecified senior woman, Field notes 26 July 2007. 17 Ronnie Jakamarra Lawson and Billy Jampijinpa Bunter (IPA Management Committee), interview 4 May 2007. 18 Ronnie Jakamarra Lawson (IPA Management Committee), interview 4 May 2007. 19 Field notes 5 April 2006, 7 June 2006, 19 July 2006, 28 November 2006, 26 July 2007, 28 July 2007. 20 Margaret Nungarrayi Martin and Myra Nungarrayi Herbert (IPA Management Committee), interview 23 April 2007. 21 Shaun Jakamarra Simon (Wulaign Ranger), interview 7 May 2007. 46 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Lajamanu. After resting over lunch they would hunt again, for up to three hours, returning to Lajamanu or to an overnight camp by sundown. They took some of the resources they collected back to Lajamanu for further preparation, including Acacia spp. seeds gathered for sale to the commercial bushfoods market, wood for artefact-making and medicinal plants. While hunting the women would walk close enough to talk to each other about what they were seeing and which direction to go. Monitoring and assessing country in this way was a vital practice for the women, increasing their knowledge and familiarity with country. They would share that knowledge later with family and use it to plan future trips. Similarly when driving to hunting locations, women's discussions would be wide ranging, covering jukurrpa and customary ownership of particular areas of country, availability of plant and animal resources, past visits to places, and information about country passed on from other family members: a one-day hunting trip the women burnt country, collected ‘bush coconuts’ (an edible insect gall found on the desert bloodwood tree, Corymbia opaca), sang jukurrpa (i.e. ‘Dreaming’ song-cycles about ancestral beings' actions on country), drew representations of totemic geographies in the sand with sticks and fingers, and collected and talked about juju-minyi-minyi (Pterocaulon sphacelatum) a common bush medicine. They talked about feral horses, donkeys and past country visits to hunt echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) and goanna (Varanus panoptes).22 As this suggests, women's resource use and their management practices were multi-dimensional, holistic and responsive to their observations and experiences on the day. The activities the senior women undertook during country visits were similar in nature and frequency to those they described during interviews, with one exception: inter-generational knowledge transfer. Even though the senior women said in interviews that this was important, they were rarely accompanied by younger women or children during country visits. As noted above, the senior women said they found it hard to persuade young women to accompany them. They also enjoyed the opportunity that country visits provided to get away from the pressures of extended family. However they were passionate about recording material to use later in teaching: “We headed out about 10.30am. We drove west along the road towards 28 Mile. Myra talked about how she had been to 28 Mile before, getting wood for coolamons (a carrying vessel used by Aboriginal people), but no one really hunted in this area. Margaret had been told by Jangala (her husband) that the area had been burnt and would be good to look around for goanna. Jangala used to work as a stockman and travelled along this road all the time.”26 “we can go there, see that place and sing songs … and take a tape recorder … to record songs … so we can keep it … Waja waja maninja kujaku [we might lose it] … keep it and learn young and new people … so it can't be forgotten”.23 The women commonly talked about how important it was to them to ‘visit and look around country’. Just being on country allowed them to reconnect with place, strengthen cultural identity and share knowledge. For example: Successful hunting trips relied on the women's skills and their knowledge of plant and animal characteristics, behaviours, populations and availability. Women would use seasonal and biological indicators to assess the readiness of resources for collection: “… Gladys and Alice started to sing the bush yam jukurrpa song, yarla-ngarrka, and said they had danced for this one earlier in the year … Later on that same day we passed a snake jukurrpa area which again spurred discussions of kin ownership and jukurrpa songs for that area of country”.27 “Like yangka ngapa jangkarla mani karlipa jana yuparli pinki ngulajangka yangunungu pinkilki karlipa manirra. Yangununguju cold weather time yinarlingi, rlangu sugarbag, rlangu yangka cold weather time. Cold weather, rlu yangka ka mangarri yirrarni hot time, ji ngulaju ngungkarli. Karlawurru kuwana underneath now cold weather time.” 24 The women sometimes visited women's sacred sites during country visits, performed ceremony, cleaned and maintained these places. Equally they would sometimes discuss events and life in Lajamanu during country visits and collect firewood for use in their Lajamanu homes. Translation: After rain [summer time] bush banana (Marsdenia australis) and yams (Ipomoea costata) grow. In winter there's always plenty of echidna and native bee honey. Goannas are underground now because it's winter. 5.1. Cultural knowledge and skills promoted sustainable livelihoods for Warlpiri women The women always burnt when they hunted unless an area had been very recently burnt. Sometimes they burnt additional country to hunt in later. Locations that the women chose for country visits included those that they knew had been recently burnt by other Warlpiri people and areas where the women had previously hunted successfully. The women talked about burning as being directly linked to maintaining bush food and medicinal resources and/or collecting them: The senior women applied their cultural knowledge and skills in diverse settings and generated multifaceted outcomes, strengthening their livelihoods. Using natural resources provided the women with food and fuel. It also reinforced their cultural identity, enhanced their social capital, promoted their wellbeing and earned them income. The women's knowledge of country underpinned their art practice, with bush foods and tjukurrpa stories being prevalent design elements in the paintings that they made for sale. Because of their knowledge, skills and standing, Lajamanu school employed the senior women casually to teach and to mentor and advise non-Aboriginal staff: “make fire … make more fresh you know … yuwayi … big goanna … bush potato, we find ‘em after fire”.25 Women's hunting is hard, physical work. The women would walk around country closely observing for up to three hours at a time, burning country as they went, tracking animals in the recently burnt ground and digging for goannas and other lizards. Burning gave the women an immediate return: they could easily walk through recently burnt country and rarely came back empty-handed. They prepared, cooked and consumed most of their harvest at a ‘dinner camp’, an area of cleared ground that they had chosen as a desirable place for lunch and a place where women with ailments could rest during the day. The women saved portions of their harvest for family members back in “[we] go to school too, come to school every day in the morning and teach the kids about country”.7 The senior women were also employed casually to track threatened fauna species as part of the IPA's biodiversity conservation program. The role they assumed as cultural teachers enabled their own access to country using the researcher's four wheel drive vehicle. Such relationships also helped the women sell seed that they had harvested since researchers transported the seed to buyers, who were located at some 22 Field notes 21 April 2007. Judy Napaljarri Walker (IPA Management Committee), interview 26 May 2007. 24 Unspecified women (IPA Management Committee), interview 2 May 2007. 25 Biddy Nungarryai Long (IPA Management Committee), interview 26 April 2007. 23 26 27 47 Field notes, 20 September 2006. Field notes 5 June 2006. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. resources to support these activities. Nor were these activities apparent in IPA Program monitoring and reporting (Walker, 2011). The IPA management system was instead focused on efficient application of predominantly non-Indigenous knowledge to address threats to biodiversity conservation. Differences in priorities between Warlpiri people and their partners had raised significant tensions (Walker, 2011). The concern that senior men expressed about non-Indigenous people having only a limited understanding of Warlpiri customary law (Section 4.3; Table 2) was suggestive of these tensions. Subsequent to the research, the field researcher was appointed as Coordinator of the Northern Tanami IPA, the first woman to hold that position. She initiated a number of institutional and practice changes to promote gender equity. These included employing a Warlpiri woman in a new position of community engagement officer to support senior women's interests in IPA management; holding targeted workshops and consultations with senior women to promote their understanding and involvement in IPA management planning; resourcing women's country visits from IPA Program resources; and paying senior women to burn country. Senior women were also paid from IPA Program resources for their work as mentors, cultural advisors and teachers to the Wulaign Rangers and to non-Indigenous community staff and their children. These initiatives enabled senior women to take increased responsibility for managing the Wulaign Rangers. The importance of them doing so also, sadly, became more apparent with the death of some senior men. The strengthened role and greater visibility of the senior women in implementing the IPA Program seemed to influence younger women. By 2010 one had joined the Wulaign Rangers and several others had begun to ask about joining. distance from Lajamanu, at the end of their field work periods. The senior women often spoke of the physical wellbeing they derived from being active on country: “Ngawu jarri kaji karnalu yantarli nyinanjarlaju … kala yangka ngurrju wirlinkyiji. ”28 Translation: We might get sick if we just sit in one place … that is why hunting is good. They also associated physical wellbeing with eating bush foods. When asked why the women hunted karlawurru (goanna) one woman responded: “Pakarninjarla ngarninjaku ngurrju.”.29 Translation: To kill it and eat it. It's good, good meat. Wellbeing also had broader dimensions for the women: it was an outcome of being on country and of maintaining the continuity of their culture. The women's knowledge and skills enabled them and empowered them to be active in their country in ways that they considered were appropriate: “… see cause it's part of my Dreaming … that's why we go out and collect, get those seeds … many people say, like … custodians of those seeds … just like my grandmother, we're hitting the seeds just like they used to”.30 Conversely, not being on country had adverse implications for wellbeing through heightened stress. When asked why country visits were important, the women commonly expressed their concern about not fulfilling their cultural responsibilities: 6. Discussion “Kala warringiyi kirlangu kirdana kurlanguku karnalurla worry jarrimi. Kirdana kurlanguku ngurraraku nganimpa nyanguku, our grandfather's side”.31 6.1. Increasing numbers of Indigenous women rangers Translation: We are worried about our grandfather and father's land. The few pertinent analyses available indicate that the Northern Tanami IPA experience up to 2007, of marginalisation of women in implementation of programs that support contemporary Indigenous conservation management, has not been unusual in Australia. Men had been more prominent than women in the community-based ranger groups and land management organizations that Indigenous landowners began to establish in the early 1990s (Davies et al., 1999; Hill et al., 2013). However demand from Indigenous women for equitable recognition of their perspectives and needs is long standing and has been growing (see Davies et al., 1999; Rose, 1995; Sithole et al., 2008; Smyth, 2011; Young et al., 1991). Improving support for women was a key issue for a community-based review undertaken in the mid-2000s in the northern tropical savannah region of the Northern Territory (Sithole et al., 2008), a cradle of the contemporary Australian Indigenous conservation management movement (Davies et al., 1999). That review identified seven women's ranger groups and 26 other ranger groups, three of which involved women as well as men (Sithole et al., 2008). Similar to our case study, the review found that involvement of women in ranger groups was important to Indigenous men as well as to women. However external resources were skewed towards men's involvement and women feared their own involvement was invisible to governments (Sithole et al., 2008). Increases in funding and other support from governments since 2007 has markedly boosted employment opportunities for Australian Indigenous people in conservation (Hill et al., 2013; Mackie and Meacheam, 2016). The proportion of women in community-based ranger positions has increased steadily such that women held a third of the nearly 2000 jobs in over 100 ranger groups that were funded nationally by the Australian Government in 2014/15 (CA DPMC, 2016). In the same year, women held nearly 30% of the 113 ranger jobs in the region of southern arid Northern Territory that includes the case study area (CLC, 2016). Outcomes for women that are specifically attributed to their participation were increased confidence, more active 5.2. Strengthening the role of Warlpiri women in IPA management At the time of the research, IPA Program resources were directed only to men's involvement in management. The strong relationship senior Warlpiri women had built with the field researcher helped them address some of the challenges they said they experienced in managing country: limited access to vehicles, long distances, and concerns for their own health and safety. When on country with the field researcher, the women controlled what they would do and how. Outcomes for the women included respect within their community and heightened feelings of well-being. However sustaining their engagement with country was difficult after the completion of the research project when their lack of a vehicle to access country once again became a real constraint. In contrast to the senior women, the Wulaign Rangers were paid to work on country and travelled for their work in vehicles provided through IPA Program resources. However they had relatively little control about where they went in the IPA and the activities they undertook because the Rangers' work program and practices were planned in advance and were required to meet funding accountabilities to the two non-Warlpiri IPA partner organizations. Most of the partner agency staff who were directly involved with the IPA were non-Indigenous conservation management professionals. They did consider that cultural management activities—those activities directed and controlled by Warlpiri (see Section 3)—were important to the IPA Program (Walker, 2011). However they only rarely applied IPA Program 28 Judy Napaljarri Walker (IPA Management Committee), interview 2 April 2007. Lilly Nungarrayi Hargraves (IPA Management Committee), interview 2 May 2007. 30 Alice Napaljarri Kelly (IPA Management Committee), interview 8 May 2007. 31 Gladys Napangardi Tasman (IPA Management Committee), interview 8 April 2007. 29 48 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Walsh and Douglas, 2011) may influence institutional change towards greater gender equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships by facilitating Indigenous women's engagement. Recruitment by Australian Indigenous and cross-cultural conservation organizations sometimes targets women for professional positions because Indigenous gender norms mean that female staff can engage with female Indigenous community members more readily than male staff can. However no robust analysis is available of the effectiveness of this or other strategies in promoting gender equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships. In addition to brokers, bridging institutions have been important for overcoming cultural blindness in Indigenous conservation partnerships. Bridging institutions are ways of doing things that respect and accommodate the norms of different groups of people (Davies et al., 2017). In the context of Indigenous conservation partnerships, bridging institutions are often termed ‘two-way’ approaches because they engage both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges, methods and people (Ens et al., 2012b; Preuss and Dixon, 2012). Fire management in the case study context had to bridge between planning informed by scientific assessments of fuel loads and fire histories and the senior women's integration of burning with hunting during country visits. Paying the senior women from IPA resources to burn country, and involving them in directing the ranger group's fire management program, are examples of new institutions that were introduced to bridge between these two ways of managing country, and that also promoted gender equity. Bridging institutions applied elsewhere in Australian Indigenous conservation management to promote cross-cultural equity include flexibility at all levels in field work schedules of scientists, to be able to incorporate Indigenous elders' ideas and desires into projects (Horstman and Wightman, 2001); story telling (Howitt and SuchetPearson, 2006; Muir et al., 2010); robust hardware and software for entering field data through text, number and picture menus (Ansell and Koenig, 2011); field guides to plant species in local Indigenous languages (Ens et al., 2016); involving Indigenous children with traditional owners and scientists in fauna surveys (Ens et al., 2016); and distinctive funding programs for Indigenous land management (Hill et al., 2013). Ranger groups can themselves be institutional bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous conceptions of work, which can otherwise be quite incommensurable (Maru and Davies, 2011; McRaeWilliams and Gerritson, 2010). Examples of bridging institutions that are reported to be promoting gender equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships include genderspecific women's ranger programs, ranger groups, conferences and training courses (Daniels et al., 2012; Ens et al., 2012a; Sithole et al., 2008). Conversely, some Indigenous women working in mixed ranger groups have reported being assigned to tasks that match old-fashioned non-Indigenous cultural stereotypes of ‘women's work’ even though they face no restrictions on the tasks they do when they manage country as part of their family-based activities (Sithole et al., 2008). Disproportionate assignment of Indigenous women rangers to office tasks is also reported with the suggestion that it may constrain gender equity by reducing women's opportunities to access country (Ens et al., 2012a). While these examples present positive achievements as well as challenges for gender equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships, they also again highlight the lack of strategic planned approaches to institutional change. Planning is important since sustained effort is necessary to fully incorporate gender dimensions into adaptive approaches and to harness social learning (Egunyu and Reed, 2015). Gender planning, which is now well-established in international development, involves women, men and gender-aware organizations in diagnosing the gender implications of problems and opportunities at all planning stages, and in designing actions, monitoring and evaluation (Moser, 1993). It appears to be a critical element that is largely absent from Indigenous conservation programs and partnerships. participation in decision making, and increased respect from others (SVA Consulting, 2014). Women rangers were noted as role models because their work in a male-dominated sphere boosted the confidence of other women to work as rangers (Urbis Pty Ltd, 2012). 6.2. Links between gender blindness and cultural blindness Although the gender balance in the Indigenous ranger work force has been shifting in favour of women, a critical look at the program evaluations cited above, and others (e.g. ANAO, 2011; Australian Government, 2012), reveals little about how women are involved in Indigenous conservation partnerships or why. For example the assessment framework for social outcomes from government investment in Indigenous ranger groups (Urbis Pty Ltd, 2012) does not disaggregate for gender in data on opportunities to actively transfer cultural and traditional knowledge or on completed training. Nor does its program logic mention gender (Urbis Pty Ltd, 2012: p16-17). Spatial heterogeneity in Indigenous women's employment as rangers is not explored in program evaluations. Neither are factors that account for success in increasing the proportion of women rangers identified. Overall, no coherently formulated gender policy is apparent, which indicates gender blindness in program design and implementation (Moser, 1993). Gender blindness in Australian Indigenous conservation policy and programs may be a corollary of a more pervasive cultural blindness or ‘cultural violence’ (Galtung, 1990). As Jackson (2006) discusses in relation to Indigenous interests in water, non-Indigenous people's conceptualization of Indigenous values as ‘cultural’ makes those values easier to ignore when non-Indigenous people and organizations are making decisions about ecological, economic and other ‘non-cultural’ value sets. Indeed, our own use of the term ‘cultural management’ in the case study as a gloss for Warlpiri people's self-motivated and self-directed management of country (see Section 3) suggests cultural blindness by implicitly denying that non-Indigenous conservation management also reflects a particular cultural paradigm. Male perspectives dominate in that paradigm and women who participate are expected to operate in the same way as men (Alston, 2009; Daly, 2005). However, Warlpiri women's self-directed management of country as described in our case study is quite different to that of Warlpiri men and of nonIndigenous conservation managers. It may also have specific ecological benefits, similar to those generated by Martu women's management of country (Bird et al., 2004; Bliege Bird et al., 2008). Cultural blindness and gender blindness are both implicated when conservation partnerships fail to fully harness such benefits. 6.3. Positive impacts on gender equity from brokers and bridging institutions Our experience in the case study indicates that women professionals can promote change in prevailing gender blind institutions through their role as brokers. Brokers are individuals who link between social networks that would otherwise be discrete (Burt, 2005). Experiential learning and applied research in other contexts have shown that brokers are important catalysts for institutional change in that they facilitate flow of information between groups, transmitting ideas and information, fostering relationships and trust, and influencing the social norms of both groups (Burt, 2005). Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people fill broker roles in various Indigenous settings in desert Australia such as in education, employment and bush food trading (Davies et al., 2017; Maru and Davies, 2011). IPA and ranger group coordinators are typically important brokers, linking between Indigenous communities and their conservation partners as well as amongst stakeholders (Woodward, 2008). Individual rangers have also been observed to play critical roles as brokers between Indigenous and other knowledge systems (Robinson and Wallington, 2012). Employing women professionals as ranger group coordinators and IPA coordinators (e.g. Preuss and Dixon, 2012) and as leaders in crosscultural ecological research (e.g. Bird et al., 2004; Ens et al., 2012c; 49 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. SSC70105. 2011 Census of Population and Housing. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra. Agarwal, B., 2009. Rule making in community forestry institutions: the difference women make. Ecol. Econ. 68, 2296–2308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.02.017. Agrawal, A., Gibson, C.C., 1999. Enchantment and disenchantment: the role of community in natural resource conservation. World Dev. 27, 629–649. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/s0305-750x(98)00161-2. Allwood, G., 2013. Gender mainstreaming and policy coherence for development: unintended gender consequences and EU policy. Women's Stud. Int. Forum 39, 42–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.01.008. Alston, M., 2009. Drought policy in Australia: gender mainstreaming or gender blindness? A J. Feminist Geogr. 16, 139–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663690902795738. Altman, J., Kerins, S. (Eds.), 2012. People on Country: Vital Landscapes, Indigenous Futures. The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, Australia. ANAO. Australian National Audit Office, 2011. The Auditor-general Audit Report No. 14 2011/12 Performace Audit: Indigenous Protected Areas, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. http://www.anao.gov.au/Publications/Audit-Reports/20112012/Indigenous-Protected-Areas, Accessed date: 12 April 2012. Ansell, S., Koenig, J., 2011. CyberTracker: an integral management tool used by rangers in the djelk indigenous protected area, central arnhem land, Australia. Ecol. Manag. Restor. 12, 13–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011.00575.x. Arthur, J.M., 1996. Aboriginal English: a Cultural Study. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Australian Government, 2012. Respecting Culture and Country: Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia: the First 15 Years. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/respecting-culture-IPA. pdf, Accessed date: 12 May 2017. Australian Government, 2013. Caring for Our Country Achievements Report. National Priority Area on Biodiversity and Natural Icons 2008-2013. Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Canberra. http://www.nrm. gov.au/system/files/resources/a98dcec2-41a6-44aa-b989-14b01ae15607/files/ achieve-report-bni.pdf, Accessed date: 9 March 2017. Baker, L., Woenne-Green, S., community, M., 1992. The role of Aboriginal ecological knowledge in ecosystem management. In: Birckhead, J., De Lacy, T., Smith, L. (Eds.), Aboriginal Involvement in Parks and Protected Areas: Papers Presented to a Conference Organised by the Johnston Centre of Parks, Recreation and Heritage at Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales 22-24 July 1991. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, pp. 65–73. Bell, D., 1983. Daughters of the Dreaming, second ed. McPhee Gribble, George Allen & Unwin, Melbourne, Vic, Australia. Berkes, F., 2009. Community conserved areas: policy issues in historic and contemporary context. Conserv. Lett. 2, 19–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2008. 00040.x. Bird, D.W., Bliege Bird, R., Parker, C.H., 2004. Women who hunt with fire: aboriginal resource use and fire regimes in Australia's Western Desert. Aust. Aborig. Stud. 2004, 90–96. Bird, R.B., Bird, D.W., 2008. Why women hunt: risk and contemporary foraging in a western desert aboriginal community. Curr. Anthropol. 49, 655–693. http://dx.doi. org/10.1086/587700. Bliege Bird, R., Bird, D.W., Codding, B., Parker, C.H., Jones, J., 2008. The “fire stick farming” hypothesis: Australian Aboriginal foraging strategies, biodiversity and anthropogenic fire mosaics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 105, 14796–14801. http://dx. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0804757105. Borrini-Feyerabend, G., Dudley, N., Jaeger, T., Lassen, B., Broome, N.P., Philips, A., Sandwith, T., 2013. Governance of Protected Areas: from Understanding to Action. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No 20. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/29138, Accessed date: 22 June 2017. Borrini-Feyerabend, G., Kothari, A., Oviedo, G., 2004. Indigenous and Local Communities and Protected Areas: towards Equity and Enhanced Conservation. World Commission on Protected Areas, Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No 11. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. https://portals.iucn.org/library/ node/8549, Accessed date: 20 June 2017. Bradshaw, M.B., Stratford, E., 2005. Qualitative research design and rigour. In: Hay, I. (Ed.), Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography, third ed. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 69–80. Bryce, S., 1992. Women's Gathering and Hunting in the Pitjantjatjara Homelands. Institute for Aboriginal Development, Alice Springs. Burgess, C.P., Johnston, F.H., Berry, H.L., McDonnell, J., Yibarbuk, D., Gunabarra, C., Mileran, A., Bailie, R.S., 2009. Healthy country, healthy people: the relationship between Indigenous health status and “caring for country”. Med. J. Aust. 190, 567–572. Burt, R., 2005. Brokerage and Closure: an Introduction to Social Capital. Oxford University Press, New York. CA DPMC (Commonwealth of Australia. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet), 2016. Reporting Back 2014-15: Working on Country and Indigenous Protected Area programmes. Commonwealth of AUstralia, Canberra. https://www.dpmc.gov.au/ sites/default/files/publications/2014-15-WOC-IPA-Reporting-back.pdf, Accessed date: 3 May 2017. Carter, J.L., 2008. Thinking outside the framework: equitable research partnerships for environmental research in Australia. Geogr. J. 174, 63–75. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1111/j.1475-4959.2007.00251.x. Chapman, R., Holmes, M., Kelly, L., Smith, D., Weepers, J., Wright, A., 2014. Yakarrapardija-pina: Insights from a Developmental Approach to Rebuilding Governance in Aboriginal Communities. The Lajamanu community and the Central Land Council, 7. Conclusion Our case study from arid central Australia illustrates that Indigenous women who applied their knowledge and skills to management of country experienced outcomes that they valued for their livelihoods and well-being. Research from other arid Australian settings points to the potential for Indigenous women's management of country to also enhance ecological outcomes from Indigenous conservation partnerships. Our case study considered the expressed views of Warlpiri men and women but focused on senior women's voices, lived experience and agency. Such a focus on women has been argued as important for understanding the impact of dominant gender norms and for initiating change (Verma, 2014). However, in the case study, senior Warlpiri men were the actors who most clearly expressed that gender equity is important to their conservation partnerships because of the distinctive responsibilities that Warlpiri men and women have for management of natural resources, landscapes and places. The senior men's comments indicated that gender equity is a Warlpiri cultural norm for management of country. The contrast between this norm and the dominance of male perspectives in non-Indigenous conservation management indicates that gender blindness in Indigenous conservation partnerships can be closely associated with cultural blindness. Local-level institutional changes helped to address some of the challenges to gender equity in managing country that senior Warlpiri men and women reported in the case study. Brokers and bridging institutions, or ‘two-way’ approaches, have been important to addressing cultural blindness and promoting cross-cultural equity in Indigenous conservation partnerships elsewhere. They contributed to promoting gender equity in the case study. Although Indigenous women are being increasingly employed as community-based rangers, no overall framework or planning for gender equity is apparent in programs and partnerships that support Indigenous conservation management in Australia. More concerted attention to gender in planning, implementing and evaluating Indigenous conservation partnerships would open up opportunities to enhance understanding about the value of enhancing gender equity, and what approaches are most effective. New understandings of the impact of gender equity on conservation outcomes might also emerge. Funding This work was supported by the Northern Territory Government Research and Innovation Board and Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre [DK-CRC 1.103]. Ethics and permits The research was undertaken with the approval of the Charles Darwin University Human Research Ethics Committee and under a Central Land Council research permit. Conflict of interest The authors declare they have no conflict of interest. Acknowledgements We thank Warlpiri people for their keen engagement with this research, staff of Central Land Council and the Australian Government Indigenous Protected Area Program for their participation and active support, and Vanessa Chewings for providing the map. References ABS, 2012. Basic Community Profile Based on Place of Usual Residence. Lajamanu 50 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Gorman, J., Vemuri, S., 2012. Social implications of bridging the gap through ‘caring for country’ in remote Indigenous communities of the Northern Territory, Australia. Rangel. J. 34, 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ11037. Gross, J.E., Woodley, S., Welling, L.A., Watson, J.E.M., 2016. Adapting to Climate Change: Guidance for Protected Area Managers and Planners. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No 24. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. https://portals. iucn.org/library/node/46685, Accessed date: 20 June 2017. Hamilton, A., 1981. A complex strategical situation: gender and power in Aboriginal Australia. In: Grieve, N., Grimshaw, P. (Eds.), Australian Women: Feminist Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Vic, Australia, pp. 69–85. Hill, R., Pert, P.L., Davies, J., Walsh, F., Robinson, C., Falco-Mammone, F., 2013. Indigenous Land Management in Australia: Extent, Scope, Diversity, Barriers and Success Factors. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Cairns. http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ SiteCollectionDocuments/natural-resources/landcare/submissions/ilm-report.pdf, Accessed date: 27 June 2017. Hockings, N., Stolton, S., Leverington, F., Dudley, N., Courrau, J., 2006. Evaluating Effectiveness: a Framework for Assessing Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas, World Commission on Protected Areas. Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No 14. second ed. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/8932, Accessed date: 20 June 2017. Holmes, M.C.C., Jampijinpa, W., 2013. Law for country: the structure of Warlpiri ecological knowledge and its application to natural resource management and ecosystem stewardship. Ecol. Soc. 18http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/es-05537-180319. Article 19. Horstman, M., Wightman, G., 2001. Karparti ecology: recognition of Aboriginal ecological knowledge and its application to management in north-western Australia. Ecol. Manag. Restor. 2, 99–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1442-8903.2001.00073.x. Howitt, R., Stevens, S., 2005. Cross-cultural research: ethics, methods and relationships. In: Hay, I. (Ed.), Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography, second ed. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 30–50. Howitt, R., Suchet-Pearson, S., 2006. Changing country, telling stories: research ethics, methods and empowerment in working with Aboriginal women. In: Lahiri-Dutta, K. (Ed.), Fluid Bonds: Views on Gender and Water. STREE, Kolkata, India, pp. 48–64. Hunt, J., 2012. ‘Caring for country’: a review of Aboriginal engagement in environmental management in New South Wales. Australas. J. Environ. Manag. 19, 213–226. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/14486563.2012.731308. Hunt, J.E., Smith, D., Garling, S., Sanders, W. (Eds.), 2008. Contested Governance: Culture Power and Institutions in Indigenous Australia. ANU Press, Canberra. IUCN, 2007. Policy on gender equity and equality. IUCN. The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland. https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/content/documents/iucn_ gender_policy.pdf, Accessed date: 9 May 2017. Jackson, S., 2006. Compartmentalising culture: the articulation and consideration of Indigenous values in water resource management. Aust. Geogr. 37, 19–31. http://dx. doi.org/10.1080/00049180500511947. Keen, I., 2004. Aboriginal Economy and Society: Australia at the Threshold of Colonisation. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Leach, M., 2007. Earth mother myths and other ecofeminist fables: how a strategic notion rose and fell. Dev. Change 38, 67–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007. 00403.x. Mackie, K., Meacheam, D., 2016. Working on country: a case study of unusual environmental program success. Australas. J. Environ. Manag. 23, 157–174. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/14486563.2015.1094752. Marika, R., Yunupingu, Y., Marika-Mununggiritj, R., Muller, S., 2009. Leaching the poison - the importance of process and partnership in working with Yolngu. J. Rural Stud. 25, 404–413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2009.05.007. Maru, Y., Davies, J., 2011. Supporting cross-cultural brokers is essential for employment among Aboriginal people in remote Australia. Rangel. J. 33, 327–338. http://dx.doi. org/10.1071/RJ11022. Mavin, S., Bryans, P., Waring, T., 2004. Unlearning gender blindness: new directions in management education. Manag. Decis. 42, 565–578. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 00251740410522287. McRae-Williams, E., Gerritson, R., 2010. Mutual incomprehension: the cross cultural domain of work in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. Int. Indig. Policy J. 1http://dx.doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2010.1.2.2. Article 2. McShane, T.O., Hirsch, P.D., Tran Chi, T., Songorwa, A.N., Kinzig, A., Monteferri, B., Mutekanga, D., Hoang Van, T., Dammert, J.L., Pulgar-Vidal, M., Welch-Devine, M., Brosius, J.P., Coppolillo, P., O'Connor, S., 2011. Hard choices: making trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Biol. Conserv. 144, 966–972. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.038. Meggitt, M.J., 1962. Desert People: a Study of the Warlbiri Aborigines of Central Australia. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. Meinzen-Dick, R., Kovarik, C., Quisumbing, A.R., 2014. Gender and sustainability. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 39, 29–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ101813-013240. Merlan, F., 1988. Gender in Aboriginal social life: a review. In: Berndt, R.M., Tonkinson, R. (Eds.), Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 15–76. Moser, C.O.N., 1993. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training. Routledge London and New York. Muir, C., Rose, D., Sullivan, P., 2010. From the other side of the knowledge frontier: indigenous knowledge, social–ecological relationships and new perspectives. Rangel. J. 32, 259–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/RJ10014. Muller, S., 2003. Towards decolonisation of Australia's protected area management: the nantawarrina indigenous protected area experience. Aust. Geogr. Stud. 41, 29–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8470.00190. Myers, F., 1991. Pintubi Country, Pintubi Self: Sentiment, Place, and Politics Among Western Desert Aborigines. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. Alice Springs, NT, Australia. http://www.clc.org.au/files/pdf/Lesssons_Learnt_from_ the_Lajamanu_Governence_Project_May_2014.pdf, Accessed date: 4 February 2016. Clabots, B., Gilligan, M., 2017. Gender and Biodiversity: Analysis of Women and Gender Equality Considerations in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans. IUCN Global Gender Office, Washington DC, USA. https://portals.iucn.org/union/sites/ union/files/doc/iucn-egi-nbsasp-report_final_jan17.pdf, Accessed date: 19 May 2017. CLC (Central Land Council), 2015. Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area Plan of Management 2015: Mardarnilipa Ngurra Manu Kuruwarri Tarnngangku Pirrjirdili Keeping Country Alive and Healthy. Central Land Council, Alice Springs, NT, Australia. http://www.clc.org.au/files/pdf/Northern_Tanami_IPA_Plan_of_ Management.pdf, Accessed date: 6 May 2017. CLC (Central Land Council), 2016. Ranger Program Report: Supplement to Central Land Council Annual Report 2015-16. Central Land Council, Alice Springs, NT, Australia. http://www.clc.org.au/files/pdf/2015-2016-CLC-Ranger-Report.pdf, Accessed date: 17 May 2017. Creswell, J.W., 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, second ed. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California. Daly, M., 2005. Gender mainstreaming in theory and practice. Social politics: international studies in gender. State & Soc. 12, 433–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sp/ jxi023. Daniel, M., Lekkas, P., Cargo, M., 2010. Environments and cardiometabolic diseases in aboriginal populations. Heart, Lung Circulation 19, 306–315. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.hlc.2010.01.005. Daniels, C., Nelson, E., Roy, J., Dixon, P., Ens, E., Turner, G., 2012. Commitment to our country. In: Altman, J., Kerins, S. (Eds.), People on Country: Vital Landscapes, Indigenous Futures. The Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, Australia, pp. 174–189. Davies, J., Campbell, D., Campbell, M., Douglas, J., Hueneke, H., LaFlamme, M., Pearson, D., Preuss, K., Walker, J., Walsh, F.J., 2011. Attention to four key principles can promote health outcomes from desert Aboriginal land management. Rangel. J. 33, 417–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/RJ11031. Davies, J., Higginbottom, K., Noack, D., Ross, H., Young, E., 1999. Sustaining Eden: Indigenous Community Based Wildlife Management in Australia. Evaluating Eden Series No. 1. International Institute for Environment and Development, London. http://pubs.iied.org/7788IIED.html, Accessed date: 27 June 2017. Davies, J., Hill, R., Sandford, M., Walsh, F., Smyth, D., Holmes, M., 2013. Innovation in management plans for community conserved areas: experiences from australian indigenous protected areas. Ecol. Soc. 18, 14. Davies, J., Maru, Y., Walsh, F., Douglas, J., 2017. Remote, marginal and sustainable? The key role of brokers and bridging institutions for stronger Indigenous livelihoods in Australia's deserts. In: Walker, I., Schandl, H., Hosking, K. (Eds.), Social Science and Sustainability. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 75–98. de Lepervanche, M., 1993. Women, men and anthropology. In: Marcus, J. (Ed.), First in Their Field: Women and Australian Anthropology. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, pp. 1–14. Debusscher, P., 2012. Mainstreaming gender in european union development policy in the european neighborhood. J. Women Polit. Policy 33, 322–344. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/1554477x.2012.722427. Devitt, J., 1988. Contemporary Aboriginal Women and Subsistence in Remote Arid Australia. PhD Thesis. Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Queensland. Edwards, G.P., Allan, G.E., Brock, C., Duguid, A., Gabrys, K., Vaarzon-Morel, P., 2008. Fire and its management in central Australia. Rangel. J. 30, 109–121. http://dx.doi. org/10.1071/RJ07037. Egunyu, F., Reed, M.G., 2015. Social learning by whom? Assessing gendered opportunities for participation and social learning in collaborative forest governance. Ecol. Soc. 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08126-200444. Ellis, L.M., Dousset, L., 2016. Pictures from My Memory : My Story as a Ngaatjatjarra Woman. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, ACT. Ens, E., May, K., Thomassin, A., Daniels, C., Indigenous Women Rangers, 2012. Indigenous Women Rangers Talking: Sharing Ideas and Information about Women Rangers' Work. Australian National University and Sidney Myer Fund, Canberra. http://caepr.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/cck_misc_documents/2012/09/Women %20Rangers%20Talking%20LOW%20REZ.pdf, Accessed date: 16 May 2017. Ens, E., Scott, M.L., Rangers, Y.M., Moritz, C., Pirzl, R., 2016. Putting indigenous conservation policy into practice delivers biodiversity and cultural benefits. Biodivers. Conservation 25, 2889–2906. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1207-6. Ens, E.J., Finlayson, M., Preuss, K., Jackson, S., Holcombe, S., 2012b. Australian approaches for managing 'country' using Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge. Ecol. Manag. Restor. 13, 100–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011. 00634.x. Ens, E.J., Pert, P., Clarke, P.A., Budden, M., Clubb, L., Doran, B., Douras, C., Gaikwad, J., Gott, B., Leonard, S., Locke, J., Packer, J., Turpin, G., Wason, S., 2015. Indigenous biocultural knowledge in ecosystem science and management: review and insight from Australia. Biol. Conserv. 181, 133–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014. 11.008. Ens, E.J., Towler, G.M., Daniels, C., 2012c. Looking back to move forward: collaborative ecological monitoring in remote Arnhem Land. Ecol. Manag. Restor. 13, 26–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011.00627.x. Gale, F. (Ed.), 1970. Women's Role in Aboriginal Society, second ed. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra. Galtung, J., 1990. Cultural violence. J. Peace Res. 27, 291–305. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/0022343390027003005. Gibson, D., 1986. A Biological Survey of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory. Parks and Wildife Commission of the Northern Territory, Alice Springs. Gilligan, B., 2006. The Indigenous Protected Areas Program - 2006 Evaluation. Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra. 51 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 40–52 J. Davies et al. Stanner, W.E.H., 2009. The Dreaming (1953), the Dreaming and Other Essays. Black Inc., Agenda, Collingwood, Vic, Australia, pp. 57–72. Stratford, E., Davidson, J., 2002. Capital assets and intercultural borderlands: socio-cultural challenges for natural resource management. J. Environ. Manag. 66, 429–440. https://doi.org/10.1006/jema.2002.0597. SVA Consulting, 2014. Evaluative Social Return on Investment Report: Social, Economic and Cultural Impact of Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa's On-country Programs. Social Ventures Australia Consulting. http://socialventures.com.au/assets/2014-KJ-SROI-ReportFINAL.pdf, Accessed date: 1 May 2017. Turner, M.K., McDonald, B.M.J., Dobson, V., 2010. Iwenhe Tyerrtye: what it Means to Be an Aboriginal Person. IAD Press, Alice Springs, Australia. Urbis Pty Ltd, 2012. Assessment of the Social Outcomes of the Working on Country Program. Prepared for the Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Australia. https://www.environment.gov.au/ indigenous/workingoncountry/publications/pubs/woc-social.pdf, Accessed date: 17 May 2017. Vaarzon-Morel, P., Gabrys, K., 2009. Fire on the horizon: contemporary aboriginal burning issues in the Tanami desert, central Australia. GeoJournal 34. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/s10708-008-9235-8. Verma, R., 2014. Business as unusual: the potential for gender transformative change in development and mountain contexts. Mt. Res. Dev. 34, 188–196. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1659/mrd-journal-d-14-00072.1. Walker, J., 2011. Processes for Effective Management: Learning from the Northern Tanami IPA. PhD Thesis. PhD thesis. Charles Darwin University, School of Social Policy. Wallace, K.K., Lovell, J., 2009. Listen Deeply: Let These Stories. IAD Press, Alice Springs, Australia. Walsh, F., Douglas, J., 2011. No bush foods without people: the essential human dimension to the sustainability of trade in native plant products from desert Australia. Rangel. J. 33, 395–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/rj11028. Walsh, F., Mitchell, P. (Eds.), 2002. Planning for Country: Cross-cultural Approaches to Decision Making on Aboriginal Lands. Jukurrpa Books/IAD Press, Alice Springs. Walsh, F.J., Dobson, P.V., Douglas, J.C., 2013. Anpernirrentye: a framework for enhanced application of indigenous ecological knowledge in natural resource management. Ecol. Soc. 18http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-05501-180318. Article 18. West, P., Igoe, J., Brockington, D., 2006. Parks and peoples: the social impact of protected areas. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 35, 251–277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev. anthro.35.081705.123308. Westermann, O., Ashby, J., Pretty, J., 2005. Gender and social capital: the importance of gender differences for the maturity and effectiveness of natural resource management groups. World Dev. 33, 1783–1799. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.04. 018. Wirf, L., Campbell, A., Rea, N., 2008. Implications of gendered environmental knowledge in water allocation processes in central Australia. Gend. Place Cult. 15, 505–518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09663690802300852. Wohling, M., 2001. Ngaparrtji ngaparrtji nintilpayi: reciprocal thinking in indigenous land management. In: Baker, R., Davies, J., Young, E. (Eds.), Working on Country: Contemporary Indigenous Management of Australia's Lands and Coastal Regions. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 156–170. Woodward, E., 2008. Social networking for Aboriginal land management in remote northern Australia. Australas. J. Environ. Manag. 15, 241–252. Worboys, G.L., Lockwood, M., Kothari, A., Feary, S., Pulsford, I., 2015. Protected Area Governance and Management. ANU Press, Canberra. World Bank, 2016. The Little Data Book on Gender 2016. World Bank, Washington DC, USA. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0556-1, Accessed date: 1 May 2017. Young, E., Ross, H., Johnson, J., Kesteven, J., 1991. Caring for Country Aborigines and Land Management. Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra. Naughton-Treves, L., Holland, M.B., Brandon, K., 2005. The Role of Protected Areas in Conserving Biodiversity and Sustaining Local Livelihoods. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. pp. 219–252. NTG. NRETA, 2005. Draft Northern Territory Parks and Conservaton Masterplan Northern Territory Government. Department of Natural Resources, Environment, and the Arts, Darwin. Nursey-Bray, M., 2009. A guugu yimmithir bam wii: ngawiya and girrbithi: hunting, planning and management along the great barrier reef, Australia. Geoforum 40, 442–453. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2009.02.002. Nussbaum, M.C., 2000. Women and Human Development: the Capabilities Approach. Cambridge University Press, New York, USA and Cambridge, UK. Ostrom, E., 2005. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Paltridge, R., Gibson, M.N., Gibson, C.N., 2005. A New Technique for Monitoring the Movement Patterhns and Hunting Behaviour of Feral Cats in the Sandy Deserts of Central Australia, Appendix a of Rachel M Paltridge, Predator-prey Interactions in the Spinifex Grasslands of Central Australia. PhD Thesis. School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong. Patrick, W.S.J., 2015. Pulya-ranyi: winds of change. Cult. Stud. Rev. 21, 121–131. Payne, H., 1989. Rites for sites or sites for rites? The dynamics of women's cultural life in the Musgraves. In: Brock, P. (Ed.), Women Rites and Sites: Aboriginal Women's Cultural Knowledge. Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd, North Sydney, NSW, Australia, pp. 41–59. Peterson, N., McConvell, P., Wild, S., Hagen, R., 1978. A Claim to Areas of Traditional Land by the Warlpiri and Kartangarurru-kurintji. Unpublished. Central Land Council, Alice Springs. Pfeiffer, J.M., Butz, R.J., 2005. Assessing cultural and ecological variation in ethnobiological research: the importance of gender. J. Ethnobiol. 25, 240–278. http://dx.doi. org/10.2993/0278-0771(2005)25[240:ACAEVI]2.0.CO;2. Preuss, K., Dixon, M., 2012. ‘Looking after country two-ways’: insights into indigenous community-based conservation from the southern Tanami. Ecol. Manag. Restor. 13, 2–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011.00631.x. Robinson, C.J., Wallington, T.J., 2012. Boundary work: engaging knowledge systems in Co-management of feral animals on indigenous lands. Ecol. Soc. 17. http://dx.doi. org/10.5751/es-04836-170216. Rose, B., 1995. Land Management Issues: Attitudes and Perceptions Amongst Aboriginal People of Central Australia. Central Land Council, Alice Springs. Ross, H., Grant, C., Robinson, C.J., Izurieta, A., Smyth, D., Rist, P., 2009. Co-management and Indigenous protected areas in Australia: achievements and ways forward. Australas. J. Environ. Manag. 16, 242–252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14486563. 2009.9725240. Sabbioni, J., 1996. Aboriginal women's narratives: reconstructing identities. Aust. Hist. Stud. 27, 72–78. Sarkar, A., 2006. Gender and Development. Global Media/Pragun Publications, New Delhi, India. Sen, A., 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press, Oxford UK. Sithole, B., Hunter-Xenie, H., Williams, L., Saegenschnitter, J., Yibarbuk, D., Ryan, M., Campion, O., Yunupingu, B., Liddy, M., Watts, E., Daniels, C., Daniels, G., Christophersen, P., Cubillo, V., Phillips, E., Marika, W., Jackson, D., Barbour, W., 2008. Aboriginal Land and Sea Management in the Top End: a Community-driven Evaluation. CSIRO, Darwin. http://www.csiro.au/files/files/plcc.pdf, Accessed date: 10 July 2008. Smyth, D., 2011. Review of Working on Country and Indigenous Protected Area Programs through Telephone Interviews. Final Report. Smyth and Bahrdt Consultants, Atherton. https://www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/workingoncountry/ publications/pubs/woc-interviews.pdf, Accessed date: 27 June 2017. Smyth, I., 2007. Talking of gender: words and meanings in development organisations. Dev. Pract. 17, 582–588. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614529701469591. 52 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Exploring the potential of household methodologies to strengthen gender equality and improve smallholder livelihoods: Research in Malawi in maizebased systems T Cathy Rozel Farnwortha,b,∗, Clare M. Stirlinga, Amon Chinyophiroc, Andrew Namakhomac, Rebecca Morahand a International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Sustainable Intensification Program, Apdo, 6-641 06600, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico Pandia Consulting, Teigelkamp 64, 48145 Muenster, Germany Formerly NASFAM, African Unity Avenue, Lilongwe, Malawi d Twin and Twin Trading Ltd., Third Floor, 1 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3LT, United Kingdom b c A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Malawi Gender women's empowerment Household methodologies Maize-based systems Climate-smart agriculture Household methodologies (HHM) intervene directly in intra-household gender relations to strengthen overall smallholder agency and efficacy as economic agents and development actors. Strengthening women's agency is one mechanism for progressing towards collaborative, systemic farm management. It is expected this will contribute to improved farm resilience in the face of climate change, strengthen food and nutrition security, and improve other development indicators. HHM are built around a vision, gendered analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), an action plan, and indicators. Some HHM - including Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS), the focus of the research - use drawings making them easy to use for low-literate individuals. There is considerable evaluation report evidence of the efficacy of HHM in strengthening value chains, food security, and gender equality. However, this has yet to be complemented by a robust systematic evaluation of the methodology which includes non-intervention communities as controls. Here we report on the findings of a research study into GALS in Malawi where the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM) has been implementing GALS since 2013 with 4274 farmers (2821 women and 1453 men to May 2016). We held sex-disaggregated FGDs with 40 GALS households and 40 non-GALS households, all NASFAM members. Community profiles and a matrix activity focusing on task allocation, asset distribution, and expenditures by gender with 125 non-GALS and 135 GALS respondents were also conducted. Our analyses indicate a significant shift towards sharing of on-farm tasks and household tasks, and joint realization of the benefits from agricultural produce in GALS households. They are building up portfolios of assets including livestock, houses, ox-carts, and land, unlike non-GALS households. Respondents in GALS households, particularly de facto women-headed households, report an increase in social standing and participation in community life. In both GALS and non-GALS households, men and women agree that men continue to dominate marketing and are final decision-makers. However, financial transparency and intra-household agreement on expenditures characterize households with GALS participants. 1. Introduction The 'gender gap' in agriculture in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become something of a mantra over the past decade. Indeed, a robust literature indicates that women's agricultural productivity on women-managed plots remains lower than that of men on men-managed plots. This is attributed to women's continuing weaker access, in comparison to men in the same household, to stocks of ∗ capitals necessary for production: social, financial, human, natural, political, cultural, and physical (Farnworth and Colverson, 2015; World Bank, 2012; Peterman et al., 2014; FAO, 2010; Flora and Flora, 2008; Udry, 1996). Probably more than any other document, the FAO's State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) Report (FAO, 2010) argument that 'if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 - 30 percent … ’has shaped contemporary approaches to working on gender inequalities in agriculture. Corresponding author. Pandia Consulting, Teigelkamp 64, 48145 Muenster, Germany. E-mail address: cathyfarnworth@hotmail.com (C.R. Farnworth). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.10.009 Received 5 June 2017; Received in revised form 23 October 2017; Accepted 23 October 2017 Available online 03 November 2017 0140-1963/ © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/). Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. research into jointness in farm decision-making in sub-Saharan Africa. We return to these concepts in the conclusion to assess the extent to which the implementation of HHM in Malawi has promoted meaningful choice for women whilst stimulating jointness. Numerous development interventions continue to be based on Womenin-Development (WID) type interventions - in practice if not in word, whereby women are singled out for economic empowerment initiatives in order to close the gender gap (UNWomen, no date; OECD, 2011). FAO's claim in the SOFA Report appears to be predicated on the assumption that women and men in male-headed households will continue to manage their plots more-or-less separately, at least in SSA. We take issue with this claim by providing research evidence that some plots are jointly managed. Based on this evidence, we consider that interventions built on expectations of lack of jointness are misplaced. Instead, we posit that initiatives which foster effective partnership between women and men, based on fostering more equal gender relations, are more likely to result in higher productivity and other gains (see Farnworth and Colverson, 2015 for an extended discussion). We do not agree with the apparent assumption behind FAO's and broader work on women's economic empowerment that male productivity will remain unchanged whilst female productivity will increase if women are supported effectively. Rather, we posit that jointness is likely to have synergetic effects contributing to a number of benefits across the farm and within the household. (We also hypothesize that gender inequalities contribute to low male productivity in smallholder systems though this has not been researched to our knowledge.) We consider that improvements in female productivity on smallholder farms in SSA to the extent envisaged by FAO is not achievable unless there are changes on an enormous scale in gender relations. Achieving this means shifting away from understanding gender as a characteristic of individuals which can somehow be strengthened, to understanding gender as an iterative dynamic process in which gender is constantly being 'remade'. Shifts and reconfigurations which strengthen women's gender interests and women's voice are unlikely to succeed unless men consider themselves partners and beneficiaries of this process. In our view, too much gender analysis has historically been constructed around explicit and implicit dichotomies - his assets, her assets - thus failing to pick up sufficiently on collaborative decisionmaking processes around assets (Djoudi et al., 2016 for a summary of 41 papers in relation to how gender is framed in relation to climate change; Johnson et al., 2016 for details of GAAP agricultural research worldwide). Analytic simplicity is not helpful and it can also be dangerous to women if programmes are designed on this basis. A number of studies indicate that male violence against women can increase when women are targeted for economic empowerment, though findings are not unanimous (GDSRC, 2012 for a summary of the evidence). There is also evidence that joint decision-making reduces violence (GDSRC, 2012). In this paper, we examine the potential of a relatively new family of behavioural change methodologies termed household methodologies (HHM) for promoting joint decision-making in the household. They have emerged independently of formal science-led 'research for development' initiatives and have been developed primarily by NGOs (particularly OxfamNovib) and fostered by bilateral and multilateral agencies (especially SIDA and IFAD) in close collaboration with farmer organizations (Farnworth et al., 2013). Private sector organizations (TWIN, Divine, Nestlé, International Coffee Partners, and others) are now implementing HHM in various projects. Whilst the operational details differ, all HHM work to change gender relations within the 'black box' of the household. They do not aim to empower women at the seeming expense of men. Rather, they work to promote the understanding that unequal power relations between women and men may result in failures to make the best decisions possible, and thus contribute to poverty. Improving the gender equity of intra-household decision-making processes is expected to lead to improvements in how households marshal and manage resources across the farm and in offfarm activities, and lead to a more equitable distribution of the benefits to household members. Before turning to the Malawi case study, we examine the concept of meaningful choice (Kabeer, 1999). We then provide an overview of 1.1. Intra-household decision-making and meaningful choice In an attempt to clarify the concept of empowerment, Kabeer (1999) argues that one way of thinking about power is in terms of the ability to make choices: to be disempowered implies to be denied choice. The notion of empowerment is inescapably bound up with the condition of disempowerment and refers to the processes by which people who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability. Empowerment implies a process of discovering new ways to exercise choice, or new domains in which choice might be exercised. Choice self-evidently requires options, the ability to choose otherwise (Kabeer, 1999). Some choices have greater significance than others in terms of their importance for people's lives. First order choices are strategic life choices, such as choice of livelihood, where to live, who and whether to marry, whether and how many children to have, and so on. These are critical for people to live the lives they want. First order choices help frame second order choices which may be important for one's quality of life, but do not constitute its defining parameters. The ability to exercise choice can be thought of in terms of three interrelated dimensions: Resources (preconditions) → Agency (process) → Achievements (outcomes) Resources include material, human and social resources which serve to enhance the ability to make choice. Agency is the ability to define one's goals and act upon them. Agency can take the form of decisionmaking, of bargaining and negotiation, deception and manipulation, subversion and resistance as well as the processes of reflection and analysis. Agency has positive and negative meanings in relation to power. In the positive sense of ‘power to’, it relates to people's capacity to define their own life choices and to pursue their own goals. ‘Power over’ refers to the capacity of people to override the agency of others. ‘Power with’ refers to the capacity to augment power through collective action. Power can also exist in the absence of any apparent agency. For example, the norms and rules governing social behaviour tend to ensure that certain outcomes are reproduced without obvious exercise of agency (Kabeer, 1999). Over the past two decades or so, considerable attention has been paid to researching individual agency and how to strengthen it, to the extent that some researchers prefer to use the word autonomy rather than agency. For instance, Acharya et al. (2010) argue that women's autonomy in decision-making is a critical variable to securing beneficial outcomes. The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is constructed around the agency aspect of Kabeer's definition of strategic choice. The WEAI is an aggregate index, reported at the country or regional level, which is based on individual-level data on men and women within the same households. It has two sub-indexes: (1) five domains of women's empowerment (5DE) and (2) gender parity index. The 5DE sub-index measures how empowered women are vis-a-vis men regarding: (1) decisions over agricultural production, (2) access to and decision-making power over productive resources, (3) control over use of income, (4) leadership in the community, and (5) time use (Malapit et al., 2015). The production domain measures women's input into agricultural decisions, and their autonomy in production [our italics], “for example, what inputs to buy, what crops to grow, what livestock to raise, and so on - [this] reflects the extent to which the respondent's motivation for decision-making reflects his or her values.” (Alkire et al., 2013). Explicit and implicit analytic and interpretative frameworks, such as the WEAI, are premised on male: female dichotomies, appear to assume 54 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. within dichotomies, improving synergies appears to be a useful way forward. that women and men do not have interests - or values - in common, and they inevitably lead researchers to presume that higher levels of female autonomy in the domains of interest are intrinsically preferable and lead to better outcomes for women and children. However, in many societies there isa strong sense of family togetherness and individual identity is closely tied to that of the family; making decisions often involves complex negotiations (Alam, 2017; Mokomane, 2012; Belcher et al., 2011; Acharya et al.,2010). In such a situation, a singular focus on autonomy as an indicator of empowerment may lead researchers to overlook how women exercise agency in complex multi-dimensional relationships. Restoring the relational to gender provides a means of understanding of gender as a flow. Gender identities are in constant flux. They emerge from and are modulated through uncountable interactions with spouses, children, extended family members, wider society, and deep cultural norms. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Research value and hypothesis Several studies, typically evaluations or mid-term reviews without controls, have been commissioned by the development partner to assess the impacts of HHM (IFAD, 2014; Farnworth, 2010; Bishop-Sambrook and Wonani, 2009). They suggest significant behavioural change in target groups has occurred, leading to improved value chains, improved smallholder farm management, and improved gender equality, among other indicators. However, to date there has been no systematic evaluation of HHM that involves comparing sites with and without the HHM intervention. The International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the National Smallholder Farmers‘ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) therefore designed a research study to compare communities in Malawi with and without HHMs but otherwise similar agro-ecologies and socio-cultural conditions. NASFAM is the largest smallholder-owned membership organization in the country, with 164,000 members (56% women) in 2016. With respect to overall development, Malawi scores low on the Human Development Index (HDI) globally - 173 from 189 countries and low within sub-Saharan Africa (UNDP, 2015). The Gender Inequality Index (GII) reflects gender-based inequalities in reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity. In 2014, Malawi was ranked 140 out of 155 countries meaning that gender inequalities are highly prevalent and impose significant development costs (UNDP, 2015). Women overwhelmingly bear responsibility for household tasks and caring roles. In Malawi, 88% of rural working men do not perform any domestic activities. Half of rural working women devote between 11 and 30 h per week to domestic activities, with 4 percent of men doing so (FAO, 2011). Women more than men are involved in a 'zerosum game', a closed system in which time or energy devoted to any new effort must be diverted from another activity (De Schutter, 2012; Gyasi and Uitto, 1997). Women's labour becomes fragmented to handle existing and new work, often resulting in reduced efficiency and effectiveness across productive as well as care work. The hypothesis of our study was that through increasing jointness in intra-household decision-making these households become more resilient and productive. We sought evidence in the form of measureable gains in terms of reducing women's labour burden in the household and on the farm, improving their access to and control over assets both individually and as a household, stronger participation by women in expenditure decisions, and we queried whether women's social standing in the community and in organizations had been strengthened. We wanted to know if women as well as men were setting out clear goals and working towards them successfully. 1.2. Jointness and lack of jointness in intra-household decision-making on farm management in East and Southern Africa In recent years two strands of research evidence have started to converge. They show that smallholder households in sub-Saharan Africa can simultaneously exhibit jointness, and lack of jointness, in intra-household decision-making. Lack of jointness refers to the observation that women and men in many households run more-or-less separate, individually-managed production, business, and consumption activities. This frequently includes managing and operating different agricultural plots on the same farm (Marenya et al., 2015; Doss, 2013, 1999). Recent research points out, however, that there is jointness in some households on all or specific plots (Farnworth et al., 2017; Sheremenko and Magnum, 2015; Marenya et al., 2015; Kassie et al., 2015). A study conducted in Mozambique examined the differential fertilizer application rates on plots managed individually by men, women, and jointly in dual adult households (Marenya et al., 2015). It found that men manage the majority of plots: 62% of maize plots, 56% of fruit and vegetable plots, and 71% of non-staple cash crops plots. Twice as much inorganic fertilizer is applied to maize plots managed by men than by women. Men also apply considerably more fertilizer to their other crops than do women. Fascinatingly, however, fertilizer use is highest on jointlymanaged maize and fruit and vegetable plots, and lower for non-staple cash crops than on individually managed fields-whether male or female managed. Jointly-managed plots also exhibit higher incidences of soil and water conservation structures, and are more likely to have maizelegume intercropping, use of manure, and improved agro-ecological practices more generally (Marenya et al., 2015). A study in Kenya (Ndiritu et al., 2014) using sex-disaggregated survey data at the plot level broadly confirms these findings. It found that women plot managers are less likely to adopt minimum tillage and manure for soil fertility management than men. This is attributed to women having weaker access to labour, knowledge - particularly the extension services - and resources such as livestock and credit. The researchers note that minimum tillage requires herbicides but due to liquidity constraints women are less likely to able to finance this practice. Women also own fewer livestock which limits the amount of manure available to them. Gender does not affect the adoption of improved seed varieties, maizelegume rotations, maize-legume intercrops, soil and water conservation, and chemical fertilizer. However, compared to male-managed plots, jointly managed plots are more likely to adopt maize-legume intercropping, maize-legume rotations and improved seeds. These findings demonstrate the effects lack of jointness can have upon women's potential productivity and income generation. They also imply that jointness in intra-household decision-making has the potential to strengthen input use, improve adoption of climate-smart technologies, and to underpin more equitable distribution of benefits within the household, including better food and nutrition security (Ndiritu et al., 2014; Meinzen-Dick et al., 2010). Rather than work 2.2. Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) in Malawi NASFAM was trained by TWIN, a Fair Trade organization specializing in cocoa, nuts and coffee, in a HHM called Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) (OxfamNovib, 2014; Mayoux, 2013, 2012). The GALS starts with women and men as individuals and uses only pictorial tools making it suitable for low literate populations. Practitioners use visualization tools to enable them to map out a vision for change at a personal and household level. Once household members become familiar with applying the tools to their own lives, further tools are introduced to help build collective action at the community level and in producer groups, and for advocacy. The process as developed by NASFAM starts with an Inception and Planning workshop. Potential peer trainers from target communities are identified and trained in a 'Change Catalyst Workshop'. Termed GALS Champions, they are expected to train at least five other community members. Community 55 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. Action meetings are advised to meet fortnightly. These bring together participants to enable them to share their visions and to discuss their challenges and opportunities in order to obtain advice and support. After around six months a 'Gender Justice Review Workshop' is convened. One aim is to assess progress and provide assistance on tools as required. A second aim is to make sure that women are not being left behind. This can happen because men typically have stronger stocks of capitals than women to draw upon. Various tools to explain and promote the importance of achieving gender equality are used to facilitate this process. 2.3. Study sites The fieldwork for this study was conducted with NASFAM Association members in Lilongwe North and in Lilongwe South. In Lilongwe North NASFAM two Associations were introduced to the GALS in 2013. NASFAM selected the two Associations for the GALS intervention because they had the lowest percentage of women leadership across all NASFAM Associations nationally. We combine the findings from the two sites since they are so similar and collectively call them the GALS Site in our paper. In Lilongwe South, where a new NASFAM Association was established in December 2014, GALS has not been introduced. This control site is termed the non-GALS Site. The two study sites share key cultural characteristics which facilitate comparison. Each site is predominately ethnic Chewa, thus sharing language, beliefs and ways of organizing themselves. They are patrilocal with the woman moving to her husband's community upon marriage, and also patrilineal with inheritance passing through the male line. Polygamy is widespread and associated closely with 'being a man'. Men see themselves as key decision-makers including which crops to grow and where and when to sell them. Traditional Authorities (TAs) in the area generally support existing cultural norms which can be harmful to women. This includes asset stripping of widows and divorcees, which is common. TAs rarely challenge this practice because strong vested interests support it. decision-making processes, the gender division of labour regarding care and household tasks and on the farm, responsibility for marketing and for expenditure, access to and control over assets, and on perceived social standing. Respondents were asked not only to report on these issues, but to provide proof. For example, if men said they cooked, they were asked how often. If women said the husband shared financial information with them, they were asked to give a detailed example. Discussion of household level visions was key. It was selected for investigation because the word 'vision' in Chichewa is widely used and is clearly understood by non-GALS participants. However, in the GALS the term is operationalized and called the Vision Journey as shown in Fig. 1. Visions are accompanied by detailed plans with timelines for as little as three months, or as long as several years. 2.4. Key informant questionnaire 2.6. Gender balance tree questionnaire A structured questionnaire was used with key informants: TAs, teachers, nurses, and pastors in the study sites. Interviews were sexdisaggregated with a minimum of two interviewees of the same gender per session to help triangulation (twelve respondents in total, eight in the GALS sites and four in the non-GALS sites). These provided comprehensive gendered data on local governance structures, infrastructure, economic opportunities and challenges, food and nutrition security, and the impact of recent droughts in each study site. The study team also developed an analytic matrix based on a GALS tool called the Gender Balance Tree (GBT). The GBT helps participants to understand the work men, women, boys and girls contribute to their household economy, the benefits they derive, and the assets they have. It highlights imbalances in the 'tree' and allows practitioners to develop their own ways to rebalance the tree. For research purposes, we developed three sets of questions regarding responsibility for task areas, benefits from each task, and access and ownership over assets and in relation to the three main crops in the area: maize, groundnut and tobacco. Ten enumerators used tablets to record the information. They interviewed a total of 260 individuals, none of whom participated in the FGDs. Wherever possible both the male and female heads of a household were interviewed together, but in some cases only one person was available from the household such that the final number of interviews totaled 135 (75 women and 60 men) for GALS and 125 (51 women and 74 men) for the non-GALS households. Data were analysed using Pearson's Chi-square (χ2) tests with Yate's correction. Fig. 1. Simplified overview of the vision journey. 2.5. Focus group discussions Thirteen focus group discussions (FGDs) were held in sex-disaggregated groups with GALS and non-GALS participants with an average of 5–6 participants. Each participant represented a household. FGDs were segregated into married men, married women, and de facto women heads of households (which form around a third of all households in the study communities). More women were interviewed due to the supplementary FGD with women heads of household - no men are single. The majority of respondents, both women and men, were in their 30s and 40s, with a few being in their 20s, 50s and 60s. Of the men, roughly half had attended primary school (48%) and the remainder secondary school (52%). Of the women 14% had not attended school, 64% percent had attended primary schooling, and 22% had attended secondary school. In both cases, several respondents had not completed all levels of their respective schooling. To aid discussion, a FGD Guide was developed. This posed questions around visions that people have of their future (masomphenya in Chichewa, the language spoken by all respondents), intra-household 3. Results The research findings are broadly summarized in Table 1 and discussed in detail below. The respondents' own words are used to illustrate the findings set out in more detail below. A single ‘+’ means that the man or woman are typically responsible for this activity, or has good access to the asset. A ‘0’ means that either the man or the woman lacks personal responsibility for it, or has weak access to it. Two ‘+ +‘means that there has been a marked positive change over the past three years or so. 56 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. individual visions. This did not happen before. However, several women remarked that men often expected help with achieving their vision 'first'. Married men report their visions are fundamentally about securing more money. They are typically 'larger' than women's visions because men have more assets to invest in the visioning process. At the same time, all men respondents argued that their visions are contributing to jointness in asset management and benefits. For example, one man said his vision was buying "livestock, ox-carts, a plot with houses on it, a TV, a computer and radio. These assets are for me and my wife jointly."Men ascribed success in acquiring assets to working together as a family. The majority of women base their visions on building a livestock portfolio of different species as stepping stones to longer range visions such as building houses, buying a motorbike, etc. One woman explained, "My vision was to have many livestock and I bought 2 goats last year. Those goats had 2kids each so I now have 6 goats. This year I bought 2 pigs. My other vision was to properly educate my children. At first it was hard to train them but nowadays they help me on the farm so we are able to get better yields which enable me to pay their school fees My vision now is to continue educating them." The strengthened ability of women to command children's labour to work on the farm towards a vision, and help more in household chores, is a repeated finding; this work does not appear to compromise children's schooling. De facto women heads face greater challenges than married couples to achieving their visions. This is because they have few assets to deploy in comparison to the access they enjoyed when married. They reported they are considered beggars and rarely receive support even from siblings. However, women in this category claimed that many of them are achieving their visions. These vary from achieving basic needs, particularly food security, to - in a few cases - building a house, acquiring livestock, and buying bicycles. GALS respondents explained that the physical process of drawing the vision is central, including placing it where it can be seen every day. A woman explained, "There is a huge difference between having the vision drawn on paper and keeping it in your head because you know that there is a vision that is drawn that needs to be achieved whereas if it is not drawn, you can easily change their vision when you have cash after selling the produce [ALL AGREE]." Another woman added, "If you do not draw the steps to achieving the vision you can easily get carried away with other activities happening in the community such as wedding celebrations.." In other words, the physical picture prevents unplanned expenditures and continually refocuses attention on a long-term goal. An important innovation is that, on NASFAM's advice, GALS households now sell the entire cash crop to enable them to realise elements of their vision immediately. For example, building a house may take three years, with bricks being bought in year one, the roof in year two, and the house constructed in year three. Previously, farmers sold their crop in small amounts. The money was spent on daily necessities and, according to respondents, 'vanished' meaning that larger goals could not be achieved. Selling crops in small amounts is still happening in the non-GALS Site. NASFAM warns households not to sell stocks of maize required for food security in order to achieve visions. Table 1 Summary of findings from Focus Group Discussions. GALS sites Vision (detailed, written) Discussion with Spouse Care and Household Work on Farm Marketing Access to Assets Social Standing Non-GALS site Women Men Women Men + + + ++ 0 ++ ++ + ++ ++ ++ + ++ + 0 + + + 0 + 0 0 + 0 + + + + 3.1. Vision In the non-GALS site, neither married men -bar one exception, see below - nor married women have visions beyond achieving a higher yield in farming. They do not have a detailed, specific vision, have not developed an action plan, nor set indicators. They rarely discuss ideas with children but have discussions with their spouse. However one man said he has set a five year timeline for his vision and has shared it with his wife, though he considers the vision to belong to him. De facto single women in the non-GALs sites explain they all have visions. They have been given land by their parents to settle on, but want to build their own house or purchase more land. However, since they have insufficient money none have made plans to achieve these visions. They agreed that, "These are just things that we think about and wish that we will be able to achieve some day"and added they are relying on their children to help them. One woman explained, "Since they were little, they encourage and laugh with me and they tell me that when they grow up everything is going to be all right because they will find some money." In the GALS sites, participants have developed individual as well as joint visions as shown in Table 2. The most popular visions are livestock (38%), housing (35%), and transport (19%). Individual women concentrate overwhelmingly on livestock. For example, 18 women were building stocks of livestock compared to 3 men. This is not surprising because livestock do not depend on holding land, are highly mobile, and their value can be realized quickly. This is of great value to women who do not own land in their own right. This preference for livestock appears to find its way into joint visions, with 38 joint visions prioritizing livestock. This suggests that women's voices are being heard in intra-household decision-making. Improved housing forms a clear second preference followed by transport. Land refers to 'neutral land' which can be rented or bought. The majority of land is still allocated by TAs, primarily to men under customary law. Participant reasoning behind the selection of visions is explored below. With respect to achieving visions, women reported that the most important innovation is that spouses now help each other achieve their Table 2 Overview of Visions in GALS Site (2015 visions). Vision Transport (bicycle, car, minibus and ox-cart) Livestock (goats, cows, pigs, chickens) House (with iron sheets) Land Driving lessons Individual visions Joint visions Total Visions % of total Visions F M 3 5 21 29 19 18 3 38 59 38 11 8 36 55 35 4 0 3 1 4 0 11 1 155 7 1 100 3.2. Development, access and control of assets In the non-GALS site, women said the purchase of items like clothes, utensils, bicycles and other assets is usually discussed with the man. There is a strong sense that these are shared because the couple worked together for them. Women agreed that they do not own any assets other than kitchen utensils. In a breakdown situation - divorce, death or separation, the woman is expected to leave the house, the community and sometimes her children. In the case of divorce, her ability to take assets may depend somewhat on the husband's personality. In most cases, women said, they can take cooking utensils, clothes and select the children she wants to take with her. Men agreed with this analysis, though they stressed that since children are expected to inherit 57 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. purchases such as land, ox-carts, etc. unilaterally. Both women and men hide income from each other. De facto women-headed households said they discuss their ideas with their children. In the GALS Site, married men likewise insisted they retain ultimate decision-making power in all areas, particularly in relation to the purchase of land. This is due to the prevalence of the social norms in this area which insist that land is owned and controlled by men and their lineage. However, women can now discuss “any issue” with them. Women agreed Despite this openness, men continue to dominate marketing. They expressed concern about being stripped of their role as managers of money and as head of the family more broadly. Even if a woman grows her own crop men often market it for them. However, there is much more transparency, according to both women and men. One woman said, "In the past I heard from other people that my husband had sold the tobacco but I did not know. I also did not know what a sale sheet is but my husband shows it to me nowadays." customary land the man or his extended family may keep them in order to retain access to it. One man suggested that if a man is wealthy the wife may be able to take some large assets. Another man explained that you procure assets with wife and children in mind, but after death you cannot prevent your kin from taking those assets. In the GALS Site, the findings show that although participants are taught to develop their own vision and encouraged to create joint visions, many respondents, particularly women, are reluctant to develop truly shared visions with respect to developing asset portfolios. They relate this explicitly to the fact that communities are patrilocal and patrilineal. Women who marry into the lineage access rights to various capitals through marriage, and they do not necessarily have claims beyond use rights upon capitals they have helped to build, such as a house. Should the marriage fail women are at risk of being expelled with only the assets they can carry. One woman explained that is precisely because of the potential danger of a breakdown situation that she has developed her own vision, to buy land and build a shop and house, and that her husband has agreed to help her do this. Another woman remarked she made a big mistake by building her house on land belonging to her husband's relatives and is concerned about what would happen if her relationship with her spouse should end. One man has ensured that his wife is named on the land purchase certificate in order to prevent his family from seizing it on his death. However, despite women's concerns around developing assets, data from the Gender Balance Tree Matrix (Table 3) shows a significant increase in jointness for control of all assets except for oxcarts and cattle in the GALS households. Control does not imply ownership and the ability to dispose of the asset, but the results do show that women and men are now using all assets more equitably - apart from cattle and oxcarts. 3.4. Jointness in the gender division of labour and associated benefits In the non-GALS site, married women conduct almost all home and care work, though one woman said her husband cooks once a week. A typical response was "All household chores are for me. As far as my husband's work is concerned, I do not help him either."The men agree house and care work are entirely women's responsibility. Married women work with men in agricultural production tasks. They do not help men with culturally ascribed male fieldwork such as ploughing or building the kraal. In the GALS sites, married women and men reported significant changes. Men and boys engage daily or several times a week with household chores including cooking, washing children, cleaning the house, and collecting firewood and water. This enables women to get up later, reduces tiredness and strain in relationships, facilitates their participation in community events, and increases happiness. Importantly, children are helping more than hitherto. A consequence is that women are able to manage time more effectively:"People used to say I was not organized and I wasn't smart but now that I share tasks with my husband, everything is always clean and in order." Furthermore, the gender division of labour in the field has loosened. Women take on men's work which means that if the man is ill, or absent, the work still gets done. Women said this was partly a token of their appreciation for his help in the home. One business woman who refused to help her husband on the farm now does so and claimed as a consequence they are now food secure. Women also reported new income generation opportunities, for example on road construction and school building, which were previously considered men only. In both the GALS and non-GALS sites most respondents agreed they were not fully food secure. However, several GALS households reported improved yields which they ascribed to cooperation across the farm and across crops. "Instead of getting 4 bales we get up to 12 bales of tobacco, from 1 ox-cart full of maize to about 5, from 2 buckets of groundnuts to about 20 buckets and from no soya at all to about one and a half bags. The 3.3. Jointness in marketing and expenditure In the non-GALS site, there is variation in experience with some married women indicating discussion with spouses. However, all women agreed that the husband is the ultimate decision-maker with respect to expenditures. Women repeatedly asserted that they plead for the purchase of inorganic fertilizer in order to boost productivity but are not necessarily successful. They cannot afford to make such purchases on their own. Taking out a loan to buy fertilizer, they explained, would enable them to improve productivity but then they would be stuck with paying back the loan upon selling the crop and thus be unable to buy fertilizer for the following year. More broadly, women considered that the main obstacle to improving productivity was men's personal spending habits. This includes eating out: "Sometimes he might even want to use the money for buying half a chicken at a restaurant although we have chickens at home". Women claimed they do not market crops. One man contested this regarding his own wife, but other men agreed that women are not involved. Non-GALS men confirmed that they are the final decision-maker but that they consult with their wife. However, men take decisions on large Table 3 Summary of Pearson Chi-square analysis of who controls different farm assets. Numbers are the totals observed for each category: joint; man; women together with respective percentages (in parentheses) in GALS and non-GALS households. Pvalue is the level of significance. Asset GALS:joint GALS:man GALS:woman non-GALS:joint non-GALS:man non-GALS:woman Pvalue Land Plough Other Agricultural Tools Oxcarts Household Utensils Cattle Goats Poultry Pigs 42 40 54 28 19 29 44 53 36 82 (61.2) 23 (36.5) 64 (52.9) 25 (47.2) 3 (2.3) 23 (40.4) 29 (34.9) 10 (10.1) 16 (28.1) 10 (7.5) 0 (0) 3 (2.5) 0 (0) 109 (83.2) 5 (8.8) 10 (12) 36 (36.4) 5 (8.8) 11 (8.8) 10 (40) 30 (27) 6 (31.6) 5 (4) 8 (34.8) 16 (28.6) 22 (29.7) 9 (25.7) 91 (72.8) 13 (52) 70 (63.1) 13 (68.4) 4 (3.2) 12 (52.2) 29 (51.8) 26 (35.1) 21 (60) 23 (18.4) 2 (8) 11 (9.9) 0 (0) 115 (92.7) 3 (13) 11 (19.6) 26 (35.1) 5 (14.3) 0 0.0251 0.0035 0.1799 0.0119 0.4203 0.0168 1e-04 0.0016 (31.3) (63.5) (44.6) (52.8) (14.5) (50.9) (53) (53.5) (63.2) 58 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. Table 4 Summary of Pearson Chi-square analysis of who has responsibility for various tasks associated with maize, groundnut and tobacco production. Numbers are the totals observed for each category: joint; man; women together with respective percentages (in parentheses) in GALS and non-GALS households. Pvalue is the level of significance. Variable Maize Land Preparation Planting Weeding Inorganic Fertilizer Application Organic Fertilizer Application Harvesting Processing Residues Selling Groundnuts Land Preparation Planting Weeding Harvesting Processing Residues Selling Tobacco Land Preparation Planting Weeding Harvesting Processing Residues Selling GALS:joint GALS:man GALS:woman non-GALS:joint non-GALS:man non-GALS:woman Pvalue 86 (63.7) 104 (78.8) 104 (77.6) 117 (86.7) 80 (60.6) 88 (66.7) 32 (24.1) 84 (62.7) 61 (47.3) 31 (23) 10 (7.6) 13 (9.7) 8 (5.9) 41 (31.1) 7 (5.3) 5 (3.8) 28 (20.9) 31 (24) 18 18 17 10 11 37 96 22 37 (13.3) (13.6) (12.7) (7.4) (8.3) (28) (72.2) (16.4) (28.7) 59 89 81 88 68 86 29 62 30 (47.2) (71.8) (64.8) (72.7) (59.1) (70.5) (23.2) (51.2) (27) 38 (30.4) 10 (8.1) 18 (14.4) 15 (12.4) 31 (27) 3 (2.5) 20 (16) 25 (20.7) 71 (64) 28 25 26 18 16 33 76 34 10 (22.4) (20.2) (20.8) (14.9) (13.9) (27) (60.8) (28.1) (9) 0.0231 0.3575 0.0727 0.0205 0.3451 0.519 0.0036 0.067 0 94 (70.7) 96 (72.2) 105 (78.9) 88 (66.2) 62 (46.6) 86 (65.2) 62 (48.4) 10 (7.5) 4 (3) 2 (1.5) 9 (6.8) 2 (1.5) 26 (19.7) 15 (11.7) 29 33 26 36 69 20 51 (21.8) (24.8) (19.5) (27.1) (51.9) (15.2) (39.8) 66 84 80 74 46 56 26 (53.7) (68.3) (65) (60.7) (38.3) (46.7) (22) 23 (18.7) 7 (5.7) 13 (10.6) 7 (5.7) 5 (4.2) 24 (20) 63 (53.4) 34 32 30 41 69 40 29 (27.6) (26) (24.4) (33.6) (57.5) (33.3) (24.6) 0.0066 0.5366 0.0034 0.5188 0.2472 0.0019 0 78 92 95 93 52 64 35 33 17 15 12 54 25 70 7 (5.9) 8 (6.8) 7 (6) 10 (8.7) 9 (7.8) 26 (22.6) 10 (8.7) 42 51 57 48 28 30 13 (57.5) (69.9) (78.1) (66.7) (46.7) (41.7) (18.1) 18 (24.7) 12 (16.4) 4 (5.5) 10 (13.9) 22 (36.7) 22 (30.6) 52 (72.2) 13 (17.8) 10 (13.7) 12 (16.4) 14 (19.4) 10 (16.7) 20 (27.8) 7 (9.7) 0.0336 0.2466 0.0248 0.0602 0.1483 0.1675 0.1678 (66.1) (78.6) (81.2) (80.9) (45.2) (55.7) (30.4) (28) (14.5) (12.8) (10.4) (47) (21.7) (60.9) Interestingly, in the case of selling maize and groundnut, the increased jointness in GALS households was also associated with more woman taking on this responsibility on their own. This hints at a willingness in men to allow women access to pricing and sales information. This in turn is likely to strengthen women's voice in intrahousehold decision-making around expenditures, which in itself may reflect an increase in empowerment in terms of access to and control of earned income. problem in the past was that we never had enough fertilizer." A woman added, 'When I grew groundnuts on my own I sold thirty pails. Now I sell 100 pails, because my husband is helping me.' A man explained that cooperation enabled the household to increase tobacco yields from 300 kg in 2013 to 700 kg in 2014. Some men respondents connected reductions in gender-based violence to improved productivity because lower GBV, they explained, contributes to improved cooperation between household members. Several respondents said that productivity was the same between GALS and non-GALS participants, but that paying attention to realizing the vision meant that the GALS participants invested their money well and that they started to develop more quickly. It is not clear how many households experience improved yields, nor to independently verify respondent statements in the present study. The gender balance tree matrix analysis supports many of the FGD findings. Table 4 shows that in relation to productive tasks there are large shifts in GALS households towards jointness. The most significant observations are: 3.5. Social standing In the non-GALS site, all women reported low social standing and do not have any leadership roles, either in traditional decision-making bodies, in community groups, or institutions like the school or church. The women chorused together that, "we have never contributed in any discussion processes in the community." This said, they feel valued as friends and as sources of advice by other women Conversely, the men said they were leaders in the church, village school committees, and trainer of trainers. None of the single women has a leadership position though they participate in school construction through drawing water. One explained she tries to participate in discussions but the others said they are not called upon because "if one does not have money, most people think that you cannot have any good ideas or give advice." NASFAM data on women in leadership roles (chairperson and vice, secretary and vice, treasurer and committee members) in NASFAM Association governance committees is shown in Table 5. This shows the proportions of women in leadership between 2012 and 2016 in the GALS Site and non-GALS Site. Women's participation improved from 5.2% to 53.5% in the GALS Site. However, women's participation in leadership in the non-GALS Site in 2016 was almost 50%. According to NASFAM this is because the Association (a new member) deals only with groundnuts and soya bean, both traditionally considered women crops. Associations in the GALS Sites deal with tobacco and maize and therefore experience strong male participation. In the GALS sites, single women reported increased independence, increased respect, and increased participation in community life."People no longer disrespect me. I am now able to provide for my basic needs and do • Maize. There is a significant increase in ‘jointness’ with GALS re• • garding land preparation (p = 0.0231); fertilizer use (p = 0.0205); processing (p = 0.0036) and selling (p = 0.00) Groundnut. A significant increase in ‘jointness’ with GALS for land preparation (p = 0.0066); weeding (p = 0.0034); residue management (p = 0.0019) and selling (p = 0.00) Tobacco. Significant increase in ‘jointness’ with GALS for land preparation (p = 0.0336); planting (p = 0.0205) and weeding (p = 0.0248) Table 5 Women in leadership roles in NASFAM associations between 2012 and 2016. Source: NASFAM internal data Association Percent Women 2012 Percent Women 2016 GALS Site Non-GALS Site 5.25 Not applicable 53.5 49.7 59 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. not beg. In the past when I was very poor, people such as some relatives and the chief treated me as a child and would send me on many errands." Another said, "Nowadays, we participate in many programmes and we are included in assistance programmes. For instance, our names now appear on beneficiary lists to receive some things whereas in the past this never used to happen." They attribute improved social standing to their increased asset portfolio through the GALS. Fascinatingly, married and single women have seized the chance to take up technical training roles (GALS and other) in the GALS Site. The number of female trainers increased from 14 in 2012 - prior to the GALS intervention - to 138 in 2015. This reported increase in women's leadership roles in NASFAM Associations during the FGD and by NASFAM was not supported by the Gender Balance Matrix which showed no significant increase in leadership roles for women in GALS households. This discrepancy in findings is most likely due to weaknesses in phrasing of the leadership questions in the Gender Balance Matrix exercise with respondents assuming the questions related to leadership positions in the wider community rather than more specifically NASFAM Associations. We also do not have any data on women who are 'well regarded' and may be considered informal leaders. Fig. 2. Iterative model of change prioritizing women's agency. (preconditions) → Agency (process) → Achievements (outcomes). She also placed particular importance on the ability of women to make meaningful, life-changing choices. Our research shows that the GALS is indeed a methodology which promotes the processes by which people who have been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability. The visioning process and accompanying tools facilitate women (and men) to define choices that can be life-changing, first-order choices (houses, land are first order choices in the study communities) or choices which are lodged somewhere along the way between first and second order choices (such as livestock - particularly larger livestock). Our findings suggest that resources as conventionally understood - particularly productive assets - take a secondary rather than primary function. The GALS enables poor people, including very poor people, to change their lives in significant ways, and in so doing stimulate changes in how they are viewed in wider society. This in turn provokes positive feedback loops with a variety of effects. We can therefore modify Kabeer's simple linear model with a more complex version (Fig. 2). Fig. 2 prioritizes agency as the primary condition for change and suggests that even in circumstances of extremely low resource allocation women's agency can be a very powerful force for change. The two-way arrows symbolize what will become increasingly systemic iterations between agency - resource - achievement as feedback loops are set in motion. The findings draw attention to the extraordinary intrinsic power poor people can have to change their lives. Household methodologies represent a mechanism whereby poor people gain control over empowerment and defines what it means to them in their particular life and particular situation. In so doing, they are very much following Sen's (1990:44) conceptualization of empowerment as “replacing the domination of circumstances and chance by the domination of individuals over chance and circumstances." 4. Discussion and conclusion The Chichewa word for vision is used in both the GALS and nonGALS sites; no new words have been coined for this concept in relation to the GALS. However, in the non-GALS sites the word, much as in English, expresses an aspiration and hope for the future. In the GALS sites, due to the training, respondents have reduced the abstract character of the concept by linking it closely to a specific time-bound goal together with a staged plan to get there. A key effect of the GALS has been to strengthen financial planning at the household level and to reduce expenditure on 'moneyeaters' such as beer, girlfriends, hairstyles, and snacks. The use of gendered analytic tools such as the Gender Balance Tree, and others, is important. Households come to realise that inequitable gender relations hobble their livelihood planning. Realizing the vision necessarily requires identifying and overcoming gender-based constraints. Many women involved in the GALS still prefer to concentrate on building assets that indisputably belong to them. It can, therefore, be argued that lack of jointness is continuing due to the weak position of women in these patrilineal, patrilocal communities. Improved jointness in intra-household decision-making is difficult to achieve when community institutions do not support it. At the same time married women are demonstrably more able to articulate and realise their own visions and plans, and they expect their spouses and children to support them. They, likewise, support their partners. At this level, jointness is improved. Taken together, two conflicting forces seem to be in operation. The process of developing visions strengthens the individual agency of both men and women while at the same time it is having a transformative effect on household relationships, increasing co-operation, optimism and resilience. This is contributing towards assets being managed together. Moves towards dissolving the gender division of labour in farm tasks, and in the designation of crops as women's or men's, are taking place. Respondents trace causal links between jointness and improved yields. Adult men, and boys, are taking on domestic tasks. This is in a context where it is culturally almost unheard of for men to do so. The GALS methodology allows household members to 'practice jointness' in the company of other GALS households. Safe spaces in which to debate, to identify and challenge social constraints and vulnerabilities and model alternative behaviours, visions, and trade-offs help to anchor behavioural change over the longer term (Kegan, 2000; Kreber, 2012; Brookfield, 2012). We can now return to Kabeer's (1999) empowerment framework. As a reminder, she posited that the ability to exercise choice can be thought of in terms of three inter-related dimensions: Resources Acknowledgements This work was implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from CGIAR (P269) Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar. org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organizations. References Acharya, D.R., Bell, J.S., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E.R., Regmi, P.R., 2010. Women's autonomy in household decision-making: a demographic study in Nepal. Reprod. Health 2010, 7–15. Alam, N.N., 2017. Extended Family and Women's Household Autonomy in Matlab, Bangladesh. Preliminary draft. April 28, 2017. https://www.ioea.eu/students/ 60 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 53–61 C.R. Farnworth et al. Mayoux, L., 2013. Rocky Road to Diamond Dreams. GALS Phase 1: Visioning and Catalysing a Gender Justice Movement – Community Implementation Manual (Draft for Piloting). http://www.wemanresources.info/documents/Page2_GALS/ RRoadDDreams1.pdf 56 Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in SubSaharan Africa. Meinzen-Dick, R., Quisumbing, A., Behrman, J., Biermayr-Jenzano, P., Wilde, V., Noordeloos, M., Ragasa, C., Beintema, N., 2010. Engendering Agricultural Research. IFPRI Discussion Paper 973. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. www.ifpri.org/publication/engenderingagricultural-research. Mokomane, Z., 2012. Role of Families in Social and Economic Empowerment of Individuals. Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa. http://www.un.org/ esa/socdev/egms/docs/2012/FamilyZithaMokomane.pdf. Ndiritu, S.W., Kassie, M., Shiferaw, B., 2014. 2014. Are there systematic gender differences in the adoption of sustainable agricultural intensification practices? Evidence from Kenya. Food Policy 49, 117–127. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0306919214001109. OECD, 2011. Women's Economic Empowerment Issues Paper. Prepared by DAC Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET). https://www.oecd.org/dac/genderdevelopment/47561694.pdf. OxfamNovib, 2014. Gender Action Learning System: Practical Guide for Transforming Gender and Unequal Power Relations in Value Chains. http://www.gender-ingerman-development.net/custom/images/contentBilderGalerie/ bilderGalerie1000508/GIZ-BMZ-OXFAM-WEMAN-Gender-action-leraning-system2014-EN.pdf. Peterman, A., Behrman, J.A., Quisumbing, A.R., 2014. A Review of Empirical Evidence on Gender Differences in Non-land Agricultural Inputs, Technology, and Services in Developing Countries. Springer Netherlands, pp. 145–186. Sen, A.K., 1990. Development as capability expansion. In: Griffin, Keith B., Knight, John B. (Eds.), Human Development and the International Development Strategy for the 1990s. Macmillan, London, pp. 41–58. Sheremenko, G., Magnan, N., 2015. Gender-specific Risk Preferences and Fertilizer Use in Kenyan Farming Households. Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the 2015 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association and Western Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, July 26–28. . Udry, C., 1996. Gender, agricultural production and the theory of the household. J. Political Econ. 104, 1010–1046. UNDP, 2015. Briefing Note for Countries on the 2015 Human Development Report.Malawi. . http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/ MWI.pdf. UNWomen (no date). In Brief: Economic Empowerment of Women. UNWomen. http:// www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment. World Bank, 2012. Levelling the Field: Improving Opportunities for Women Farmers in Africa. World Bank. commun/download/alam_nabeela_3.pdf.html. Alkire, S., Meinzen-Dick, R., Peterman, A., Quisumbing, A.R., Seymour, G., Vaz, A., 2013. The women's empowerment in agriculture index. World Dev. 52, 71–91. http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.06.007. Belcher, J.R., Peckuonis, E.V., Deforge, B.R., 2011. Family capital: implications for interventions with families. J. Fam. Soc. Work 14, 68–85. Bishop-Sambrook, C., Wonani, C., 2009. The Household Approach as an Effective Tool for Gender Empowerment: a Review of the Policy, Processes and Impact of Gender Mainstreaming in the Agricultural Support Programme in Zambia. Brookfield, S.D., 2012. Critical theory and transformative learning. In: Taylor, E.W., Cranton, P., Associates (Eds.), The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 131–146. De Schutter, O., 2012. Women's Rights and the Right to Food. Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter. Human Rights Council Twenty-second session. United Nations. Agenda item 3. . Djoudi, H., Locatelli, B., Vaast, C., Asher, K., Brockhaus, M., Basnett Sijapati, B., 2016. Beyond dichotomies: gender and intersecting inequalities in climate change studies. Ambio 45 (Suppl. 3), 248–262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0825-2. Doss, C.R., 1999. Twenty-five Years of Research on Women Farmers in Africa: Lessons and Implications for Agricultural Research Institutions; with an Annotated Bibliography. CIMMYT Economics Program Paper No. 99–02. CIMMYT, Mexico D.F. Doss, C., 2013. Intra-household Bargaining and Resource Allocation in Developing Countries. Policy Research Working Paper 6337. The World Bank. FAO, 2010. The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011: Women in Agriculture-closing the Gender Gap for Development. [Online] Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTARD/EXTGENAGRLIVSOUBOOK/0, contentMDK:21348334∼pagePK:64168427∼piPK:64168435∼theSitePK:3817359, 00.html. FAO, 2011. Gender Inequalities in Rural Employment in Malawi. An Overview Prepared by the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division of FAO 2011. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Farnworth, C.R., 2010. Gender aware approaches in agricultural programmes: a study of Sida-supported agricultural programmes. Sida Eval. 2010, 3. Farnworth, C.R., Colverson, K.E., 2015. Building a gender-transformative extension and advisory facilitation system in sSub-Saharan Africa. J. Gend. Agric. Food Secur. 1 (1), 31–50. http://www.agrigender.net/views/Building-gender-transformativeextension-JGAFS-112015-2.php. Farnworth, C.R., Fones Sundell, M., Nzioki, A., Shivutse, V., 2013. Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Southern and East Africa. Sustainable International Agriculture Initiative (SIANI). Stockholm Environment Institute, Sweden. Farnworth, C.R., Stirling, C.M., Sapkota, T., Jat, M.L., Misiko, M., Attwood, S., 2017. Gender and inorganic nitrogen: the implications of moving towards a more balanced use in the tropics. Int. J. Agric. Sustain. (IJAS). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 14735903.2017.1295343. Flora, C., Flora, J., 2008. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change, third ed. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. GDSRC, 2012. Helpdesk Research Report: Economic Empowerment and Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) 03.02.12. By Erika McAslan Fraser. . www.gsdrc.org/ docs/open/hdq790.pdf. Gyasi, E., Uitto, J.I., 1997. Environment, Biodiversity and Agricultural Change in West Africa. Perspectives from Ghana. University Press, United Nations. http://archive. unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80964e/80964E0f.htm. IFAD, 2014. Case Study: Household Approach for Gender, HIV and AIDS Mainstreaming, Malawi. Prepared by Frieda Kayuni and Rexy Tolani, DAES, for IFAD Gender, Targeting and Social Inclusion. https://www.ifad.org/documents/10180/bccb9f621794-453c-834e-017c9a5f348d. Johnson, Nancy L., Kovarik, Chiara, Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela, Njuki, Jemimah, Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2016. Gender, Assets, and Agricultural Development: Lessons from Eight Projects. World Dev. 83, 295–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev. 2016.01.009. Kabeer, N., 1999. Resources, agency, achievements: reflections on the measurement of women's empowerment. Dev. Change 30 (3), 435–464. Kassie, M., Stage, J., Teklewold, H., Erenstein, O., 2015. Gendered food security in rural Malawi: why is women's food security status lower? Food Secur. 7 (6), 1299–1320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0517-y. Kegan, R., 2000. What “form” Transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In: Mezirow, Jack, Associates (Eds.), Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 35–69. Kreber, C., 2012. Critical reflection and transformative learning. In: Taylor, E.W., Cranton, P. (Eds.), The Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 323–341. Malapit, H.J.L., Kadiyala, S., Quisumbing, A.R., Cunningham, K., Tyagi, P., 2015. Women's empowerment mitigates the negative effects of low production diversity on maternal and child nutrition in Nepal. J. Dev. Stud. 51 (8), 1097–1123. http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1018904. Marenya, P., Kassie, M., Tostao, E., 2015. Fertilizer use on individually and jointly managed crop plots in Mozambique. J. Gend. Agric. Food Secur. 1 (2), 62–83. Mayoux, L., 2012. Gender mainstreaming in value chain development: experience with gender action learning system in Uganda. Enterp. Dev. Microfinance 23 (4), 319–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2012.031. Cathy Rozel Farnworth holds a PhD from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden. Shehas a strong theoretical and practical background on gender issues in agriculture, value chains and climate change. She has twenty years of experience of working in many countries around the world on behalf of multi-lateral and bilateral agencies, research institutions and NGOs. She has worked for CIMMYT for several years. Email: cathyfarnworth@hotmail.com Clare Stirling is a senior scientist in the Sustainable Intensification Program of CIMMYT. She has more than 25 years' experience in tropical and temperate agriculture. Her research interests span natural resource management, agroforestry, rural livelihoods and environmental limitations to crop production with a specific focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation. She holds a PhD in Environmental Crop Physiology from the University of Nottingham. Email: c.stirling@cgiar.org Amon Chinyophiro is a rural development expert and agricultural value chain consultant. Until April 2017, he worked for 11 years at NASFAM as Community Development Programme Manager responsible for coordinating implementation of interventions that support farmers' livelihoods. He has valuable expertise in managing Gender, HIV and AIDS, Climate change, Food and Nutrition Security and Child Labour Projects. Email: achinyophiro@gmail.com Andrew Namakhoma holds a Master of Science degree in Strategic Management, University of Derby. He works on gender, HIV/AIDS issues, child Labour and project management with over 15 years of experience working in the NGO sector in Malawi and Zambia. Andrew was Community and Development Programmes officer at NASFAM for 12 years.Email: mureinvest@gmail.com. Rebecca Morahan is a consultant working in the field of gender in value chains with particular experience of coffee, cocoa and groundnuts. She specialises in participatory methodologies including GALS. She has over 15 years experience working within the Fairtrade sector and is currently an associate at Twin, the Cooperative College and InsightShare. Email: rebeccamorahan@twin.org.uk. 61 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv The connective strategies of Bedouin women entrepreneurs in the Negev Aleksandra Biernacka , Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, Gideon M. Kressel ∗ T Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Israel A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: Women self-employment Ethnic entrepreneurship Ethnic enclaves The study examines various forms of entrepreneurship of the Negev Bedouin women, mostly within the urban settings, in order to determine strategies applied in their entrepreneurial development. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with 28 women entrepreneurs, interviews with representatives of institutions supporting entrepreneurship and on participatory observations. The research draws on existing ethnic entrepreneurship theories and the family-embeddedness perspective, which allows for consideration of the relation between economic processes and family system characteristics and transformations which occur simultaneously and have reciprocal impact. The Bedouin women entrepreneurs are found to operate mainly within their urban ethnic enclaves, whereby difficult economic conditions combined with gender pressures create a mostly informal sector that complements insufficiencies of the formal market. These women develop their businesses by applying specific patriarchal connectivity strategies, which were developed due to strong impact of familial factors, such as: transitions in family structure, accessibility to family financial and human resources, adherence to the social codes and values. The impact of the last factor is visible on two levels: gender-separation of economic activities and networks (products and services addressed to women and children) and different roles of male and female family members. Whereas female members become employees or assistants, the male members keep their patriarchal positions as protectors and facilitators between the social requirements and exigencies of the economic activities. The connective strategies of Bedouin women entrepreneurs aim strongly at fulfilling their social roles as women, mothers and wives within the patriarchal order and as such, they bridge the gap between the strategies that previously accommodated desert condition subsistence living and the exigencies of the market economy of their contemporary semi-urban desert environment. 1. Introduction 1.1. General definition of the problem This study examines various forms of entrepreneurship of the Negev Bedouin women, mostly within the urban settings, in order to determine strategies applied in their entrepreneurial development. These women constitute a social group in Israel which suffers from a double marginalization – as Arab minority in a Jewish State and as women within a patriarchal tribal society (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2016). However, so far, there has been little scholarly work done in order to investigate current economic developments of these Bedouin women, specifically their entrepreneurial activities, notwithstanding, with a closer look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurship in the Negev Bedouin context. Minority women entrepreneurship, specifically Arab and Muslim women, have received scarce attention by scholars (De Vita et al., ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: olabiernacka@o2.pl (A. Biernacka). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.10.004 Received 28 May 2016; Received in revised form 6 October 2017; Accepted 9 October 2017 Available online 21 October 2017 0140-1963/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 2014), though research on female entrepreneurship in the non-European contexts has been growing since 2003 (Henry et al., 2016). Application of qualitative methods of investigation and paying more attention to the contexts in which women's business activities are embedded have allowed for better understanding of the great heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs and the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, religion and entrepreneurship; for instance: Essers and Benschop (2009), Al-Dajani and Marlow (2010), Tlaiss (2015). The Bedouin women entrepreneurs researched in this study were found to operate mainly within their urban ethnic enclaves where difficult political-economic conditions combined with social pressures create a mostly informal sector; which complements insufficiencies of the formal labour market. Considering previous studies on women's agency and strategies applied in business relative to their embeddedness in differing contexts (for example Shelton (2006), Brush et al. (2014), Roig et al. (2016)), our study aims at revealing the specific practices that Bedouin women Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. use in navigating between their enterprises and contextual constraints and opportunities. This research found that Bedouin women operate their businesses by applying specific patriarchal connectivity strategies, which were developed due to strong impact of familial factors, such as: transitions in family structure, accessibility to family financial and human resources, adherence to the social codes and values. The impact of the last factor is visible on two levels: gender-separation of economic activities and networks (products and services addressed to women and children) and different roles of male and female family members. Whereas female members become employees or assistants, the male members keep their patriarchal positions as protectors and facilitators between the social requirements and exigencies of the economic activities. This research contributes to the growing body of scholarly work on women entrepreneurs with applied qualitative methods of investigation focusing on their embeddedness and the interplay between contexts and the entrepreneurial processes. By focusing on the family embeddedness of the Bedouin women within their socio-cultural, family environment, this study will add to the extant body of knowledge on the contextualised women entrepreneurship shedding more light on the nature of gendered practices in business and enriching the currently scarce scholarship on minority ethnic women entrepreneurship and on the Bedouin women in Israel specifically. of effects, depending on the local contexts. Aldrich and Cliff (2003) claim that transformations within family structures, shifts in timing of life-cycle processes, as well as changing roles of mothers and children, have impacts on creating new business opportunities. Their conceptual framework emphasizes relationships between the family's characteristics - such as ‘transitions, resources, norms and values’ - and the processes behind establishing new business entities. In recent studies on women entrepreneurship, understanding their embeddedness in context helps to uncover the roots of variations between men and women-led businesses. Such differences have been found to arise due to the gendered nature of the entrepreneurial process and could not have been explained in earlier studies conducted with gender as variable (GAV) approach in which the word 'gender' was equivalent to 'sex' and was not problematized (Henry et al., 2016). The degree of family embeddedness of businesses depends on roles and social expectations and as such, may be different for men and women, affecting the distribution of power, assets and availability of time spent on networking and business development (Brush et al., 2014). Studies on female entrepreneurs point to such factors as family support, role models, self-assurance and marriage as having significant impact on the ways that business is run by women (Nikina et al., 2015). 1.2. Theoretical approach of entrepreneurship as a process embedded in context The abundant research on women entrepreneurship has been largly focused on women in developed countries, although a significant share of small and medium business activity is undertaken by women living in developing regions (De Vita et al., 2014). These studies focused mostly on women's characteristics, psychology, motivations, networking activities, performance and growth (De Vita et al., 2014). Since 2003, the field's research has expanded into emerging economies within the nonEuropean context, included immigrant women in developed countries and delved more into studying social, economic and institutional context in which female entrepreneurship is embedded (Henry et al., 2016). Although there are common characteristics of women entrepreneurs in developing countries, such as entrepreneurial propensity, sectoral concentration, preference for the domestic sphere as a site of production and the importance of family enterprise (Al-Dajani and Marlow, 2010), the new perspectives allowed for capturing the heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs, the differing contexts and their diversified impacts. The reciprocal relation of entrepreneurship and gender has been examined from two angles: how gender effects entrepreneurial processes, for example, the impact of societal legitimation on entrepreneur's activity (Singh et al., 2010) and how the gendered systems are effected by entrepreneurship (Al-Dajani and Marlow, 2013). A popular theme includes analyses of the microcredit programmes aimed at alleviating the poverty levels in developing regions among women and their families and their effect on women's status; finding that these efforts do not challenge patriarchal systems (Al-Dajani and Marlow, 2010), but keep women in home-based industries with lowpaid jobs (Erdoganaras et al., 2013), and may lead to debt accumulation (Girón, 2014). Women were also found to be more affected by informal institutions such as social norms and perceptions than men (Roig et al., 2016). Research on women's agencies proves that undertaking entrepreneurial efforts requires women to enact certain strategies and negotiation in situations challenging the existing social orders and to navigate between exigencies of business, family and society (Shelton, 2006) – a practice common to women globally. The number of studies of Muslim and Arab women entrepreneurs is still relatively scarce (De Vita et al., 2014), though examples include studies of women in their home countries (such as Lebanon - Jamali, 2009; Saudi Arabia - Ahmad, 2011) as well as Arab women ethnic entrepreneurship (Arab women in Spain - Roig et al., 2016; Muslim women in the Netherlands - Essers and Benschop, 2009) which point to 1.3. The gaps in literature on minority women's entrepreneurship This research contributes to the growing body of scholarly work on women entrepreneurs with applied qualitative methods of investigation, with focus on their embeddedness and the interplay between contexts and the entrepreneurial processes. In the entrepreneurial theory, both individual action of entrepreneur and organizational operation are seen as dependent on their surrounding environment of institutions and social relations, which is called embeddedness. This term has been introduced by Karl Polanyi in 1944 as a characteristic of non-market economies and was later challenged by revealing the embeddedness of market economies as well (Gemici, 2008). The level of social embeddedness of businesses has been found to be higher in collective types of societies, where the interdependent self-construal (relative to the social norms) has a more dominant effect on the business decisions and results than business trainings or experience (Siu and Siu-chung Lo, 2011). Greater embeddedness has also been found among ethnic entrepreneurs (belonging to immigrant or an ethnic minority group), though it should be viewed rather as an outcome of intersectional influences (gender, minority status, class, etc.) than mere cultural characteristics (Anthias and Mehta, 2003). Studies on the complexity of institutional, economic, political and socio-cultural factors impeding on the ethnic entrepreneur led to the development of mixed-embeddedness theoretical approach, applied specifically to immigrant entrepreneurship (Brush et al., 2014). Entrepreneurial embeddedness as a theoretical concept has developed further to distinguish four types of embeddedness: structural, cultural, institutional and family embeddedness (Brush et al., 2014). Structural embeddedness refers to networks, alliances and ties. Institutional embeddedness places the entrepreneurial process in the context of formal and informal institutions, policies and legal systems. Cultural embeddedness focuses on the impact of norms, values, traditions and customs on entrepreneurship. Since cultural norms and values affect mental processes of decision making, cultural embeddedness is associated with the cognitive embeddedness approach and has proved to have both constraining and an enabling effects. In studies of entrepreneurship, the family embeddedness is a relatively recent approach (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003) and aims to re-establish the links between the seemingly divided worlds of work and family, the public and private domains. These mutual impacts were found globally to be significant for small and medium enterprises (Welsh, 2006), with a variety 63 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. within their socio-cultural, family environment, this study will add to the extant body of knowledge on women entrepreneurship in its closest contexts, shedding more light on the nature of gendered practices in business and enriching the currently scarce scholarship on minority ethnic women entrepreneurship and on the Bedouin women in Israel specifically. Considering previous studies on women's agency and strategies applied in doing business in relation to their embeddedness in differing contexts, our study aims at revealing the specific practices that Bedouin women use in navigating between their enterprises and contextual constraints and opportunities. the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurship. The level of women's engagement in the labour market in Middle Eastern countries is still low in comparison to other regions (De Vita et al., 2014). Countries in this region also vary in levels of women entrepreneurship, with the Persian Gulf women taking the lead what is attributed to higher rates of financing and training available to them (Roig et al., 2016). Embeddedness in the patriarchal environment and patriarchal gender order is seen as the causal factor for the low rates of labour market participation by women (Ahmad, 2011). Despite the common perception of self-employment as a convenient option for combining work and family duties, Arab women entrepreneurs point out that finding this balance constitutes for them one of the greatest challenges in doing business (CAWTAR report 2007 cited in Roig et al., 2016). In their study on Palestinian women entrepreneurs in Jordan, Al-Dajani and Marlow (2010) found little spill-over of work into family life and concluded that entrepreneurship is done in a way that maintains the patriarchal order, rather than challenges it. Researchers have also explored interconnections between entrepreneurial identity of Muslim women and Islam (Tlaiss, 2015) and impacts of secular and Islamic feminism on entrepreneurs. The focus on gender and community justice of the Islamic feminist approach is seen as a stronger factor in reshaping the gender relations in both home and the public space (Özkazanç-Pan, 2015). In order to facilitate entrepreneurship, Muslim ethnic entrepreneurs were found to craft individual religious identities to resists dogmatic interpretations of Islam. A religious Muslim identification is believed to be stronger than ethnic identity and less confining (Essers and Benschop, 2009). Research on the Arab and Bedouin minority entrepreneurs in Israel finds a high degree of embeddedness of the community's businesses. Schnell and Sofer, 2002 revealed that Arab male entrepreneurship in Israel is over-embedded in their local-Arab milieu and under-embedded in the Israeli-Jewish milieu, which keeps their businesses within their ethnic enclave and prevents their growth and expansion into the interethnic market. A high level of social embeddedness is also a feature of Arab women entrepreneurs in Israel (Heilbrunn and Abu-Asbah, 2011). By taking into consideration the frequency of contacts with clients and clients' home locations, they showed that majority of Arab women's businesses depend on regular, locally-based residents. This factor was related to such business characteristics as operating in the service and retail sector, being homebased and unregistered. The over-embeddedness of this group was also characterized by a higher number of underaged children, lack of human, financial and social capital; the latter including also “social permission”. In Israel, Palestinian women entrepreneurs were found to have the smallest rates of entrepreneurship in comparison to women from other ethnic groups in Israel (veteran Jewish and immigrants from Former Soviet Union), they have more difficulties in obtaining financial capital and handling laws and regulations than other groups. These findings point to the lack of institutional support rather than group's inner factors that block the entrepreneurial potential of this group (Heilbrunn et al., 2014). Regarding the Bedouins in Israel, Meir and Baskind (2006) examined Bedouin male ethnic business entrepreneurship. They reported that employment of brothers, cousins, sons and nephews is the most common practice. Only 45% of the surveyed businesses employed women, of whom majority were Jewish women, and in other cases close family members: sisters and nieces. According to this study, doing business is considered to be a man's activity and women play very minor roles in bringing income. However, they noted cases where women's jewellery was used to provide the funding capital for the business. Women were also found to support their husbands' businesses in an informal manner. As for perceptions of women's entrepreneurship, such practice was mostly associated with marginal women (Jakubowska, 2000). By focusing on the family embeddedness of the Bedouin women 1.4. The context The arid environment of the northern part of the Negev Desert in Southern Israel has been for centuries home to the nomadic tribes that made use of its scarce natural resources to develop their economic subsistence system based on pastoralism and agriculture. The global processes of sedentarization, urbanisation and transformation into market economy have been intensified in this community by the political process of the creation of the State of Israel and the enforcement of the closed area in northeast part of the Negev 'siyagh' (Arabic word for “the permitted area”) in the 1960's, where the Bedouin tribes were relocated and concentrated under Israeli military control. Their mobility outside of the siyagh was restricted, requiring permits to leave for work and other purposes (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009). During the 1970's and 1980's, seven towns were designated for the Bedouin population in order to curb spontaneous settlement in the desert. The Bedouins could move there on the condition they gave up their claims to recognition of their rights to the land on which they had lived previously. Rejection of moving into the town resulted in becoming a resident of an unrecognized settlement (Medzini, 2012). The new towns (Rahat, Tel Sheva, Laquiya, Kseife, Hura, Segev Shalom, Arara) with a population of about 117900 (Bedouin Statistical Yearbook, 2010) lacked adequate infrastructure and were ill-designed in terms of Bedouin needs, including lack of employment, and negatively affected the gendered reconstruction of space, in terms of permitted and forbidden spaces for women (Fenster, 1999). The population size of the unrecognized settlements currently amount to about 90000 (Abu-RabiaQueder, 2016) and are considered illegal by the State, thus they often lack basic infrastructure: electricity, water, roads, transportation, access to health clinics and schools, etc., (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009). Since 2002 ten of the spontaneous Bedouin settlements were recognized as legal (Berkowitz, 2013), however, some services or building permissions are not provided. The residence of these Bedouin ethnic enclaves became dependent on the wage economy created in the Jewish sector. The new urban setting had relatively less impact on the employment of Bedouin men, since they had entered the labour market mostly in the low-paid jobs (while retaining some of their pastoral activities) much before the relocation to towns. Its effect was more adverse on the status of - Bedouin women. Apart from being located near the vicinity of developed centers, such as Beer Sheva, the new towns, with their poor infrastructure, had no economic alternative to offer for women. Traditionally, most of the work done by the Bedouin women within the society's pastoral, subsistent economy was serving the immediate needs of the family: preparing food, making clothes, weaving rugs and tents, tending the flock, milking animals, processing the milk and bringing water and wood. Their work significantly contributed to the economic production and reduced the household expenditure (Dinero, 1997). There was a division of tasks with female-male roles and there was interrelatedness and inter-dependence of men and women in agriculture and flock raising that created family cohesion and economic solidarity between the members (Abu-Rabia, 1994). Within the market economy context of the undeveloped urban structures, the balance was disrupted as there were no economic alternatives substituting pastoralist roles for women within their social context. 64 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. active in the field of Bedouin women entrepreneurship and employment were interviewed in English: entrepreneurial training and funding providers (such as Arab Jewish Centre for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, MATI-Small Business Development Centers, The Koret Israel Economic Development Funds and SAWA - microcredit program directed at Bedouin Women in the Negev), and representatives of the Ryan Employment Centre in Hura and in Beer Sheva. Their experiences and perceptions were important to understand the institutional environment in which Bedouin women develop their businesses in the Negev, what kind of support they get and how the institutions perceive the situation and needs of these women. The interviews were complemented with participatory observation and unstructured interviews during home stays at some Bedouin families in Tel Sheva and Rahat; which included volunteering in an NGO ran by Bedouin women and participation in daily tasks of Bedouin entrepreneurs. The participatory observation method's aim was to get acquainted with the Bedouin society and their day-to-day experiences in order to more deeply understand the context of social relations and practices surrounding the women engaged in entrepreneurship. Negev Bedouin women's process of inclusion into the labour market were found to be interwoven with women's family and social status, where single women of low family status are the first to be employed while married women and those of higher social status were not permitted to work (Kressel, 1992, 2006; Lewando-Hundt, 1984; Jakubowska, 2000), what exacerbated the effect of lack of infrastructure in the mostly underdeveloped desert region (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009). Although Bedouin women employment rates have been slowly growing, the rate of Arab women's participation in the labour market in the South is still the lowest in Israel, reaching 9% (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009) and those who succeed face “professional marginality” that blocks their development (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2016). These factors create the socio-political-economic environment of an ethnic enclave in which most of the Bedouin female entrepreneurs operate their economic activities (informal and formal) in which they apply “connective strategies” to overcome the seemingly incompatible: structural barriers, pressures of the market economy, familial and social expectations, rules of their enclave and their own aspirations. 2. Materials and methods 2.2. The characteristics of the researched population 2.1. Qualitative methods applied in the research The group of female entrepreneurs interviewed consists of twentyeight cases revealing various scenarios of life circumstances, as well as, ways of embarking on a business initiative. Their general characteristics are summarized in Appendix 1. Eighteen of the interviewed women were married, whereas the personal status of the rest of respondents was diversified: divorced (3), single (3) and abandoned ‘second wife’ (4). Most of the women had 5 or fewer children. The majority of the women in the sample were between 35 and 46 years-old. Most of these women started their businesses in their 30's, after already being married. The majority of respondents were local women (20), living in close vicinity to their family of origins, even after marriage. The remaining interviewees were either wives coming from other Bedouin locations (5) or from the Palestinian Territories (3). The level of education among the women interviewed is diversified and ranges from college and university level (4) to women with no formal education (4). Eleven women completed only primary education and nine graduated from high school. Only nine of the women interviewed participated in entrepreneurial training, and four of those women have registered their businesses officially. Among the women with higher education, one obtained a diploma in business marketing, one in accounting, one in education, and one started a degree in public administration but did not complete it. Vocational courses, which also provide knowledge on starting a business, were the most popular, especially the cosmetic, hairdressing and photography programmes. The types of work experience prior to the business activities of the interviewed women included managerial position in an NGO, work in Matnas (local cultural centre) secretarial jobs, educational positions, work in a textile factory or agriculture, and traditional household occupations (cooking, sewing, animal raising). The proposed research was based on qualitative methods, including 28 semi-structured interviews, participatory observation and unstructured interviews (Bernard, 1988). The interviews with the women were semi-structured in order to allow the respondents to express their feelings and opinions, and to ensure that a basic set of aspects (personal and family status, education and work experience, motivation, business history, level of income, family involvement, institutional support and training) was addressed by all respondents. Qualitative methods in research into women's entrepreneurship are encouraged within the gendered perspective, as it helps to gain a better understanding of entrepreneurial work as a ‘gendered activity’ (Henry et al., 2016). The qualitative methods help to develop theories, rather than testing them; as one of the goals of this research was to look at the entrepreneurship of Bedouin women in order to explore its own unique features. The fieldwork began between May 2008 and January 2009 and continued from March 2010 until December 2011. A total of 28 Bedouin women entrepreneurs were interviewed. The interviewees lived and operated their activities mostly within the Bedouin towns of Rahat, Tel Sheva, Laqiya, Hura and Segev Shalom. Two of them lived and worked in unrecognized settlements. The interviewed entrepreneurs were selected using the snowball method (Bernard, 1988). This method resulted in recording of personal stories of women of various backgrounds and social status who ran their businesses in very distinct manners, ranging from a small income generating activity at home, to a producer who sells to customers nationally and abroad, or to a chain owner of two shops located on a main street of the town. The field work was conducted by the first author, MA student under the supervision of the two co-authors, between the years 2007–2008 and 2010–2012. The first author is a non-native to the Israeli BedouinJewish context, which helped to position the researcher outside of the hegemonic structure of relations between these groups. The two coauthors are both natives to Israel, however Prof. Kressel belongs to the Jewish majority, while dr. Abu-Rabia-Queder to the Bedouin minority. The interviews were carried out in Hebrew and a Hebrew-native interpreter was present translating into English. Since the translator was a woman in her early 60's and a mother of three daughters, it helped to establish more direct communication, especially with elder and married women who eagerly shared their family stories. In 3 cases where the respondents spoke mostly Arabic, other local women – their daughters or neighbours – helped with their Hebrew and English skills. All interviews were recorded and later transcribed for further analysis. Additionally, a number of representatives of institutions that are 3. Results and discussion 3.1. “Connectivity” as theoretical concept The analysis revealed the existence of specific strategies applied by the Bedouin women in their economic endeavours. These strategies, described below, have been divided into three main groups according to the specific roles: “family dependants” (wives, sisters, daughters), women (in relation to social codes and norms) and mothers. Decisionmaking strategies applied by Bedouin women in situations that constitute a challenge to traditionally accepted norms are named as “connective”, using the concept of “connectivity“- ability to connect with another person, with having fluid boundaries which are less vulnerable than fixed ones. This term was used by Suad Joseph, an anthropologist 65 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. income, that she receives support and respect from her husband, leading to more cohesion in their marriage. In one case of a beauty salon, the husband opened the business in his own name and left its management to the wife. Women's income is not only invested in ‘their own’ shopping, but it is used as part of the investment in the house, buying a car, paying for children's education – including the extended family. It takes time, however, before this specific ‘purchasing power’ created by women's hands is recognized by the husband, who has been so far perceived as the sole breadwinner for the family. In this way, the small businesses bring the Bedouin women back to their capacities of contributing economically to their households, an ability lost in the early stages of forced urbanisation. The maintenance of the equilibrium in marital relations is well illustrated in a story of a woman who designs ‘Arab salons’ and sews and sells mattresses, pillows and other accessories related to house decorations. Before she embarked on her business, she worked in a local Bedouin NGO. She contributed with her salary to enlarging and equipping their home. When her husband decided to open his own business she sold her wedding gold to support him. He succeeded in his business to such extend that they could afford themselves luxuries, such as going on holidays. After some years she decided to quit her job in the NGO and turned her design hobby into a business. specialising in issues of gender, families, children and youth in the Middle East, to build a concept of “patriarchal connectivity” (Joseph, 1999). It is a helpful concept in understanding social relationships within Arab societies, where the domination by males and the elderly is encoded in cultural constructs and in the corresponding codes of responding to it. Although “connectivity” - originally a Jungian term – implies neither hierarchy nor subordination of women and juniors, the patriarchal context entails certain cultural constructs and social relations which are then connectively supported as well as reproduced. Similarly, the connective strategies in business decision making as described in this work serve to explain the entrepreneurial process within the Arab-Bedouin collectivist-type of society and show both the social and family embeddedness of entrepreneurship, as well as, the connective nature of the entrepreneurs. The “connective” aspect underlines that there is no dysfunctionality implied by the relationality of the self as understood in Western, psychological terms of “the self”. Rather, it is a sign of maturity in social relations and thus, a maturity in entrepreneurial choices that should not be measured according to individualistic and economic efficiency scales. 3.2. Connective strategies as “family dependents” (wife-sister-daughter) 3.2.1. Challenging marital social roles as the family “breadwinner” The Bedouin women entrepreneurs operate within a very unfavourable socio-economic environment, where the structural obstacles are coupled with constraints stemming from the patriarchal and tribal social context, in which woman's behaviour casts light on the whole family (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2007). Consequently, her business is viewed in the context of the family and its status. Her economic activities constitute a challenge to the patriarchal order, where the husband is perceived as the family's main breadwinner, a status he seeks to uphold vis-à-vis his associates. During an interview with the representative of SAWA micro-loan programme for Bedouin women, the manager of the programme (a Bedouin woman herself) explained the approach she took, based on her own experience, in her dealing with Bedouin women entrepreneurs and promoting family advancement as a whole, as part of the individual advancement of the woman. “I was always afraid, but kept on encouraging myself. My husband was very supportive, he would come with me to buy the materials, he would advise me what to buy and with what I should wait. I used his visa card to buy the sewing machine. (…) He accompanied me to a material fair in Turkey for 4 days. (…) Me and my husband share a common account, but I always know how much there is in the account. We have a fax and the report from the account comes to us and we look at it and discuss it. My husband earns more than me, but then I help him a lot in the house and with the kids. (…)Even if his brothers need to borrow NIS 11000, I am ok with it and I know that if my children would need money, they will also help them and return it. So I do not protest to my husband about it.” (Arab salon designer and shop owner, Laqiya, 24.01.2011) The woman does not see the income from her business as something of individual value. She acknowledges the rights of her husband and his family to draw from these resources, understanding the reciprocal character of family relations. Although she admits that her husband's earnings are higher, she explains that her lower income is compensated by her additional work at home. She understands her contributions to the household not only in terms of incomes, but rather the total complementarity of tasks, which include household chores and childcare. The negotiations of statuses, roles and individual versus familial interests found in this research resemble findings in other studies. For example Singh et al. (2010) show that the social perceptions of entrepreneurship are obstacles which need to be negotiated. Al-Dajani and Marlow (2010) pointed that Palestinian refugee women in Jordan need to negotiate their subjected identity at home in a way that it does not challenge the patriarchal order, even if it means hiding the truth that a women's income is higher than the husband's. On the other hand, women's ability to contribute to family income in situations of poverty has been also found to be the factor for increasing social acceptance for women-led entrepreneurship. Economic empowerment is probably only the first step, and there is a further need for programmes which will change the power relations at home, giving women more control over their income (Kantor (2005). According to the findings in this research, the Bedouin women struggle to negotiate societal approval for their economic activities by making the individual issue part of the family, in bringing additional income at the disposal for nucleus and extended family needs. Comparatively, other studies found that women tend to have more ethical and socially responsible approach to their business (De Vita et al., 2014) and that a communitarian approach in entrepreneurship programmes provided by “They (Bedouin women who start their activities) have wisdom to look far into the future, to foresee the conflict and to try not to let it happen. I know myself, that when I was taking the decision to continue studying to MA, my husband was just a driver in a private business. So I encouraged him to do his BA, and get a better positioned and responsible job in security – he did his military service – and thus, I could continue with my MA, as I knew my status cannot be higher than the one of my husband, since it would make the people talk bad about us. So the women (who start businesses) also think of delegating some part of what they do to their husbands and to make them responsible for important tasks so they are not left behind.” (Representative of SAWA, microcredit programme for Bedouin women. Rahat, 22.03.2011) In her own case, this woman saw herself as a part of the family that she created with her husband and knew that in her society, the status of the family comes together with the status of her husband and not the wife. Having a wife who occupies a higher position would not bring him honour. For many women, especially those with little education and no previous work experience, proving their money-making skills is a step they need to overcome while starting their business. Many women from the most marginalized Bedouin families, who came to SAWA to obtain a loan of NIS 1000–2000 to start a small activity in their house, cannot count on their husbands' support. Starting a new business is very invasive for a woman's house and family, as she needs to introduce changes to make space to do her activities. It is only after she generates 66 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. above the economic performance of individual goals. Islamic feminist organizations tend to be more successful in changing women's status both at home and in the public (Özkazanç-Pan, 2015). As presented above, Bedouin women gain in income, respect and permission to be present in the entrepreneurial domain. At the same time, they manage to maintain the equilibrium of gender statuses, inscribed in gender roles distributions, which will be discussed below in relation to the roles of mothers. 3.3. Connective strategies as women in relation to traditional roles and gender-segregation Fenster (1999) showed that women's accessibility to the public space of the ethnic enclaves within the recognized towns has been additionally complicated by their culturally insensitive planning; which made the masculine public (such as parks, other neighborhoods and town centers) also “multi-tribal” and thus rendered these spaces even more “forbidden”. The home and neighbourhood remained the only “permitted” areas for Bedouin women, though women associated these spaces with feelings of “suffocation” due to their density of population. However, commercial and service centers located on non-tribal land, accessibility to public transport and heterogeneity of women's statuses (age, social status, different mobility norms in various tribes) were factors that helped making public spaces more permittable for women (specifically in Rahat). The entrepreneurship of Bedouin women is also embedded in these contexts, which lead to creation of new permittable (Fenster, 1999) spaces, expanding female networks and relying on female family human resources. 3.2.2. The 'protectors': fathers, brothers and husbands as agents for women entrepreneurship The examples above suggest that obtaining the equilibrium while challenging the bread-winning roles often entails strengthening men's status in their superior roles. Fathers, brothers and husbands are the ones who can help the women to extend the limitations set by social requirements and protect her against the society's watchful eye. These responsibilities may result in attitudes of both support and constraint. Similar roles were described also by Abu-Rabia-Queder (2008) in case of pioneering women in education and employment. Employment of brothers in a woman's business did not occur in the studied examples. But a partnership or help and protection from brothers, fathers and husbands are frequent phenomena. One of the innovative professions that have developed among the Bedouin women in the Negev, is a wedding photographer. This function combines a new demand for keeping memories of those special days in the form of pictures and films, with the cultural requirements of separation of sexes during wedding celebrations. A wedding photographer from Rahat faced strong opposition from her brother to go out to work at night at a different town, despite the fact that she was already married and her husband was very supportive in this case. Her brother agreed to drive her with his car to every wedding. After three months, when he understood the nature of the work, he agreed to letting her get a driving license and gave her his car as a present. Another story of a successful business owner illustrates how an unmarried woman manoeuvres between entrepreneurial and patriarchal challenges. With her father's consent, she managed to build a full-fledged, tourist-oriented business with a wide network of connections extending outside the ethnic enclave to the rest of the country and abroad. The business is located on a piece of land that belongs to her father. Although she is now in her forties, she needs to ask her father (or in case when he is abroad her mother) for permission whenever she needs to participate in a commercial event, tourist fair, arrange issues related to packaging or meet the accountant. She needs to be accompanied by a male relative. During events that take place in the evenings outside her locality, her elder brother usually drives her. He opposed her having a car, although she obtained a driving licence a long time ago. It is her dream to have a car and its realization would mark, not only an economic success, but also, would increase her own independent status in the family. She has chosen not to push this matter, as it breeds conflicts between her brother and father and she wants to avoid it. She claims that if she ever gets married, it would have to be to someone who will grant her more freedom than what she can currently enjoy. Expecting more freedom from a future husband is currently a theme discussed during settling marriage agreements. Joseph (1994) describes the brother/sister relationship as both of love/nurturing and power/violence nature, where men and women reproduce and relearn the patriarchal structures, inscribed in father/ daughter relationships. Both brothers and fathers (or the next closest male relatives in their absence) maintain crucial roles in the honour/ shame complex, being responsible for restoring the family honour and the protection and well-being of the sister/daughter. Findings in literature suggest that women entrepreneur's ability to speak up to the male relative, gaining more self-confidence and assertiveness are important forms of women's empowerment learnt through the business development process (Özkazanç-Pan, 2015; Jamali, 2009; Al Dajani and Marlow, 2010). However, the examples above point to a connectivity in decision making – where the cohesiveness on the family level is placed 3.3.1. Bedouin women's traditional roles and permittable spaces in commercial activities The scope of women's activities encompasses traditional women's home occupations and services targeted at women's and children's needs and tends to be an extension of women's traditional, domestic roles or women-only services. The economic entrepreneurial activities of Bedouin women in this study are: food preparation (bread, milk, cheese), sewing clothes and clothes repairing, kindergartens or prekindergartens, tents for tourists, shops with clothes and food, jewellery, interior design, sewing mattress's covers and pillows, hairdressing, cosmetics, bride salons, DJs and photographer's services for weddings. The low-skills occupations such as food preparation and sewing were typical for women between 45 and 55 years old with none or basic education. All the activities described in this study are located within the public or private space of the Bedouin ethnic enclave, although some are oriented towards non-ethnic clientele (mostly in the tourism sector). Only one woman in this sample (who is of non-Bedouin origin) runs her activities in another Bedouin town which is not the place of her residence. Other businesses relied on co-ethnics. Bedouin women's entrepreneurial operations stem from their gendered experiences and traditionally accepted domestic roles. As such, they adhere to the gender-segregation expectations, however creatively, finding new niches and opportunities (Bedouin cosmetics, DJs and photographers). They also slowly expand to 'men-only' professions, such as work contractors. For example, SAWA provided loans to a woman who invested in a car to transport women to work in the agriculture sector (not interviewed in this sample). The new areas of business activities that require learning modern skills, such as photography and wedding DJ, although seasonal, tend to bring good income of about NIS 20000 within a month. For comparison, the average income of Arab women in Israel is 3500NIS per month, see Schnell and Shdema (2016). Despite the fact that courses leading to these professions were supported by the Islamic authorities as permittable and their adherence to gender segregation rules practiced during the weddings, these occupations may be still socially loaded with a perception of a low status: “It is not only if they (the girls) want to KEEP the traditions, they live in the whole community that will make them keep it and they cannot go against them. The photographers, it is not related with the tradition. It is something new. Before, they would bring someone from the West Bank but it was considered to be something CHEAP – 67 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. the kind of work was of a low status. It is using the girls in a way that makes them be cheap. I would never allow my daughter to become a DJ.” 3.3.2. Employment of female members Most Bedouin women rely on family members, in particular on their sisters, as a pool for employees and assistants in their businesses, especially in cases of women who live in the same locality as their family of origin. This is also acknowledged by the business course providers, economic advisors, and micro-credit providers. Within the researched sample, there were 12 women who had at least one employee or an assistant. In two cases where an unrelated non-kin woman was employed, the business owner either lived in a town different than her own kin, and thus the people whom she trusted were her friends from the area, or the business required an employee with certain skills, such as hairdressing and cosmetics. There were ten cases where family members were employed or assisted in the business: sisters (5 cases), niece (2), daughter (1), a son (1) and a more distant family relative (1). These data suggest strong preference for engaging family members in the business. One of the business women employs two sisters and one niece (her sister's daughter). She points to the importance of existing relationships in the family which underlie the decisions on employment: The relationship in the family - she (a woman) likes her mother's family more than her father's family; the woman will make her kids to like her family than her husband's family. This is against the Islam. The sheikh says we should not do it but we do. Not only in business. Because I have good relations with them (my own relatives), this is the start. If I had a good relationship with the others (in-laws), I would ask them to help. (Personal communiqué, 26.05.2010, female, business owner, 40) The result of such a cooperation is that the sisters, who are married and live with their husbands' families, increase their visits with their younger children to their original homes (where the businesses are located). Despite belonging to their nuclear families, their small children keep on being socialized in their mother's families, and by having common meals, they are still part of the household economic expenses. On the other hand, family employees lead to a conflict of power. My female respondents admit that there are no ‘business relations’, and the sisters rarely take ‘orders’ as unrelated workers would do. Especially, if efficiency, quality and time are important. Such conflicts may affect the family life and the business. One applied solution was to pay the workers per item of work and not per hour. This helped, though the control of an efficient production process is difficult to keep and becomes a barrier in business expansion. Family workers feel freer to demand very flexible work time, or even refuse, if there are other unresolved conflicts between them and their employer. Although the entrepreneurial trainers try to encourage the women to pass the family boundaries, this is rather difficult in practice in a small business. First of all, it is the family that constitutes the closest social network. Secondly, the fact that the female relatives tend to be the ones with least employment opportunities on the one hand, and strong loyalty to the family on the other, leave little choice for hiring external working hands. Studies on the employment of family members showed that this practice has a rather impairing effect on micro and small enterprises, especially if they were the main source of income (Cruz et al., 2012). Such practices were associated with increased sales, however, the profits were reduced at the same time. Within the Bedouin context, employment of female family members can be viewed also as having an empowering effect on the larger family, by providing income to women who otherwise would not have other options. Such economic assessments should thus consider the business within the larger context of its embeddedness, keeping in mind that the connective approach will imply a strategy that is beneficial in a more holistic rather than individual meaning. (Personal communiqué, 25.07.2010, female, business owner, 40) The hours of work and necessity to work for other families are obvious violations of social norms. Those who travel far and late at night do so with the consent and assistance of their brothers or husbands, who in this way protect their public visibility. The location of a beauty salon in proximity to health clinics or mother and child centers make its accessibility easier for women customers, who can visit it on the way to the medical centre, without asking for specific permission from their husbands. Women running tourist-oriented businesses remain cautious not to create ‘unacceptable’ situations of being alone with male visitors. Most of these business sectors of the Bedouin women are extensions of domestic roles, similar to findings on low-income women in microenterprises in other countries such as Tunisia (Berry-Chikhaoui, 1998) or the USA Smith-Hunter 2006). They also tend to provide goods and services for the needs of women and children. Abu-Rabia-Queder (2007) called this strategy ‘reviving tradition’ in their struggle for economic survival: older women who lacked access to education adhere to traditional roles and products, such as weaving traditional rugs, or they create professions which can suite the traditional gender separation by offering products and services only to the women's sector or children. In Jordan, resorting to traditional crafts was also connected with greater social permission for women to engage in business (AlDajani and Marlow, 2010). Respecting the societal demands regarding patriarchal control and gender-segregation gives the woman legitimization to advance in her economic activities and becomes a ‘source of power and not oppression’ (Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2007, p. 75). Finding creative niches resulting from gender segregation norms like driving school with female instructors or resorting to self-employment to avoid working for a male boss were also an advantage for Muslim women in the Netherlands (Essers and Benschop, 2009). Özkazanç-Pan (2015) states that Islamic feminism, based on the notions of gender and community justice rather than individual achievement, has a power to create legitimization for women's economic practices and thus, has a greater potential for dismantling the gender relations at home as well as in the public space. Considering the heterogeneity of identities constructed by Muslim women entrepreneurs at the inter-sections of gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurship (for example Essers and Benschop, 2009) there are ambient possibilities for business development. The central public space within the ethnic enclave of the Bedouin towns seems to be perceived as the ‘permitted space’ (Meir and Gekker, 2011) in which female entrepreneurs may find opportunities to expand their home businesses. The findings of this research can shed a new light on Fenster's findings (1999) who showed that women in Bedouin towns are confined to their neighbourhoods and those who frequented the centre in the city of Rahat were in minority. Almost twenty years later this research has revealed that more and more women open their businesses, not only in their neighbourhoods, but also in the town centers. Rahat's central market is visited by non-local customers who shop also in women-owned businesses. The factors which turned this public space into permitted space in which women entrepreneurs could find their niche may include: the relative proximity to their homes, the existing demand for culturally-specific products and services and that social norms are expected to be adhered to much more than in the nonethnic localities. Although women enter with their businesses to central locations within the towns, and thus enter the ‘public’ space, they do so by creating a feminine space of their own that starts to legitimize the presence of Bedouin women as business owners in the public sphere separated but not secluded. 3.3.3. Creating female networks in a gender-separated environment Embeddedness in a local milieu may have both positive and negative implications if we consider the marketing networks that it creates. Bedouin women who operate their business from home on a small scale, 68 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. The husband's family's attitudes to women's work may have strategic consequences for childcare. A woman who opened a hairdresser's salon in Laqiya, with financial support of her husband, admits that she would prefer to open the shop in Rahat, which is her hometown. Her own parents support her ideas and she could entrust her children to them while being at work. Her husband's family oppose her idea, demanding that she stay at home with her kids. As a result, her children come from school straight to her salon and she keeps a shorter working schedule between 9:00–15:00 and says that she does not want to advertise and attract more customers than she has, as she feels responsible to dedicate her time to her own children. This woman was unwilling to leave her youngest children in kindergarten. She admits that: reach customers who are usually women from their neighbourhood and relatives. In most cases, women advertise by means of word-of-mouth supplemented with a business card. Only in a few cases they advertised in a local newspaper. One informant, who used to sell cosmetics as a brand company representative, pointed out, that the social norm prevented her from door-to-door sales. Those women, who were interested in the products, had to come to her and spread the word further. According to representatives of the micro-credit programme SAWA, the Bedouin women's businesses usually start from home and only after the businesses reach certain maturity or as more inter-ethnic links are made, the location is changed to a more central one in the town. The creation of a mutual support group in paying back the loans has also been found to be an important factor for sustainability of their businesses, similarly in Jordan (Al-Dajani and Marlow, 2010). Reliance on close neighbourhood networks works well in cases of selling daily products, such as milk and bread, and may bring in a steady income. The most difficult items to market are traditional crafts, like ornaments on walls and colourful trays used for distributing sweets during the henna nights of the wedding week. Lack of connections to seek out potential customers is mentioned as a factor preventing the women from selling their products to shops outside of their own town. Locally established tourist businesses and NGOs help other local women to sell their handcrafts. It is noticeable that the established businesses, as well as NGO's, are usually those who cross the inter-tribal limitations and serve customers or cooperate with women (and sometimes men) from different families, as well as from other ethnic groups. Developing networks that would reach beyond close relatives and friends is an important factor in the development of their businesses, as it is very often related with more investments and may lead to the decision to register the business officially. Development of female networks among Bedouin women increased with the settled way of living and dependence of men on the wage work outside of home, which opened for them new possibilities for group activities (such as shopping in the town that could not be done independently) and access to information by means of new visiting patterns (Lewando-Hundt, 1984). The dependency of Bedouin women on female (including family) networks resembles characteristics of other ethnic entrepreneurs (example of Indian women entrepreneurs in New Zealand, Pio, 2007) and may be the factor for their over-embeddedness, and similar to what has been found for other Arab male and female entrepreneurs in Israel (Schnell and Sofer, 2002; Heilbrunn and AbuAsbah, 2011). According to Crowell (2004), the female networks, although wider in comparison to male networks, have also been found to be weaker in terms of access to business support and information. Overdependency on female family networks may hold back women's businesses from new opportunities, unless such networks get strengthened by expansion of “weak ties” - meaning acquaintances and social networks beyond “strong ties” in family circles. More formal workplaces for women within the towns and more institutional support for women's networking would develop Bedouin women's competences as well as business contacts. These could be factors enabling women to cross the family and tribal divisions and could help them establish more diversified customer base, even within the co-ethnic circles. Increased presence of Bedouin women in local, regional and national institutions for entrepreneurial development would be of value. “Making a profit is not everything, it is not the most important thing. What counts, is what kind of an example you give to your children, what kind of a role-model you will be for them. The next generation depends on it.” (Married, owner of hairdresser salon, Laqiya, 06.12.2010) This woman's example shows how women with small children seek profit-making opportunities on one hand, and on the other are pressured to fulfil their roles as mothers. Other women feel that putting small children into kindergarten instead of bringing them up at home, could be equivalent to neglecting them. “Women work, but still, they have to work in the house. The husband cannot do housework, as the woman does, he cannot take care of the children in the same way as women do, and to make money at the same time, so in the end, the woman is the person who is the manager of the house. “ (Married, DJ, part-time employed as assistant in kindergarten, Rahat, 06.01.2011) Women themselves feel responsible for this task, and as long as their children will need it, they will not make an effort to expand their businesses so as not to lose the balance. The women, who decided to expand their businesses, did it at a time when their children were old enough not to require their attention at home so much, which will be discussed in the last section on family life-cycle. Another woman, who spent her lifetime working in an NGO and now created her own business, admits that one of the results of the advancement of women is that it takes her away from her children. In her own experience, leaving her children for the whole day and not being able to fulfil her role as a mother was one of the biggest inner struggles. Looking back, however, she admits that despite these difficulties, the results of these changes are worth it. Such a strong investment in children is not only dictated by social expectations, but in case of older women, it is also a way of securing one's future. Asked if they save money for their own retirements, the women say no. They invest everything in their children, expecting that they will be the ones to care for them when they get old. A woman, whose husband abandoned her eight years before, runs a clothes store in Rahat's shuq. If she saves any money, it is because she has two sons that need to get married. Two other daughters are already married and live in Ramle. A third daughter, 18 years old, is not married and studies. The shop owner thinks she will leave the store to her, once she retires. She made an important investment of buying the land for her children in Rahat and she currently pays back 3000 NIS per month. The wellbeing of her children, once they grow up, is her only guarantee for the time when she is too old to work. These examples, point out how central the family is in women's perceptions about their roles as entrepreneurs. Whether they are employed, self-employed or engage in academic careers, it is very difficult to separate themselves from responsibilities towards their families which, in the case of the Bedouin women – needs to be considered in their wider, social context. In the research on work and family balance in female entrepreneurship, Smith-Hunter (2006) found that self-employment 3.4. Connective strategies in combining mother and business roles Although the Bedouin urban settings lead to the creation of more independent, nuclear families, parents in-law may still exercise pressures due to the conflict between women's engagement in business and their roles as wives and mothers. Parents in-law, who are concerned about their son's social standing as it is dependent on his wives behaviour, may oppose or be distrustful of their daughter in-law's business ideas. 69 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. The connective strategies enumerated in the previous sections are strongly related to family and social-embeddedness of the entrepreneur. The family-embeddedness perspective (Aldrich and Cliff, 2003) encourages the researcher of entrepreneurship to examine also the impact of transformations within family structures, shifts in timing of life-cycle processes and changing in roles of mothers and children on establishing and developing of business ventures. As in the provided examples, these transitions signify a shift in the context, which in turn, may affect the perception of the entrepreneur on opportunities and obstacles, such as change in status and social expectations related to it. When such transitions are connectively explored, they reveal potential for a balanced business development. enables women to balance their work and family life (in the Western context). Al-Dajani and Marlow (2010) show that the work-family interface is considered as a stressful factor, and family concerns are expected to prevail over the business development, which, in turn, keeps women from earning more. Otherwise, women's economic activities do not receive social approval (Jamali, 2009). The socio-cultural context, with all its social roles and expectations, influences not only the acceptance of female entrepreneurship (De Vita et al, 2014) but also its feasibility - capability and confidence to act - and desirability - beliefs in socio-cultural support, expectancy for performance and outcomes (Brush et al., 2014). Thus, female and male decisions on creating and running a business will be different, as well as, their notions of perceived success. Similarly, in the Bedouin women's case, the work-family balance means keeping their working hours under a certain threshold and not expanding their profits. Özkazanç-Pan (2015) claimed that if the roles in the private sphere are not negotiated, then the economic activity does not bring about change. The question arises, as to what is the time span for change to be expected, since the connectivity concept implies that social structures are rather be reproduced than challenged. 4. Conlcusion The Bedouin women living in the Negev desert have been subjected to a number of political and socio-economic transformative processes that led them from a pastoralist, subsistence model of economy to rapid urbanisation and self-employment guided by market economy rules. As entrepreneurs, they are effected by their ethnic status as a minority in Israel and as women within the Bedouin, patriarchal society. This paper demonstrated results of a qualitative study of 28 Bedouin women entrepreneurs, exploring the family embeddedness of their entrepreneurial practices. These women were found to navigate between the two domains of family and business by means of certain strategies, which were called “connective” to underline their unifying nature. Family embeddedness of the Bedouin female entrepreneurs revealed itself on a level associated with their status, vis-à-vis, other family members (fathers, brothers and husbands), with social values and norms related to gender separation and with the social expectations related to the roles of mothers. Female networks, expanded due to the processes of settling down and urbanisation, enable women to find customers, employees and assistants, though these aspects pose also limitations for business development. These strategies serve to minimize or avoid conflicts by: operating businesses from home or nearby locations, by creating feminine spaces and networks and by expanding the social perceptions of permitted roles through maintaining equilibrium of statuses among spouses and obtaining permission and support from their male relatives. The findings bring to light the complexity of the family embeddedness of the Bedouin women's businesses. Considering the findings by Heilbrunn et al. (2014), who showed no significant difference in terms of family support between Palestinian, veteran Jewish and Former Soviet Union immigrant, one could argue for a further qualitative investigation of this topic among these three groups in Israel. The shift, from a strictly domestic space into operating from nondomestic space within an ethnic enclave, is often a marker of their development and maturity as entrepreneurs and may be accompanied by other changes in the family life-cycle. The micro-loan programme SAWA, operating in the Negev, strengthens this process by providing financial support and guidance for activities that start from home, as it is considered a stage in the entrepreneurial process. Although Bedouin women businesses rely on co-ethnics for customers, a distinction should be made between locals and non-locals (visitors from other Bedouin towns or nearby unrecognized settlements) and further research could examine such links as important markers of business development of Bedouin women. This is especially important while considering the competition of Bedouin women's businesses. Heilbrunn et al. (2014) found that Palestinian women businesses suffer less difficulties in tackling their competitors due to their concertation in the ethnic enclave. However, due to the rising number of similar businesses within the enclave (such as hairdressers, beauty salons, etc) the local and ethnic competition is growing while the local markets are limited. Castelles and Portes (1986) claimed that family strategies and informal economy are the basis for economic survival during periods of 3.5. Family-life cycles and their impact on entrepreneurial decisions The cases in this study, show that family transitions impacted women's work experience and created female role models, which in turn, could affect their perceptions of entrepreneurship and economic decisions in adulthood. In the majority of cases, the women were raised in large families (around 10 siblings, with a majority of sisters in many cases). It resulted either in an early marriage (at the age between 15 and 17) or in taking up a job in agriculture or packaging industries, which delayed their marriage. Women born first or second took the responsibility of earning money that enabled their siblings to study longer. In 8 cases, the respondents' mother became the heads of household due to polygamy (5) or father's death (3). These mothers worked outside (cleaning or in agriculture) or started a small business activity at home, thus creating the first role models for their offspring. Two women benefited from strong support from their fathers. In one case, the father taught her to deal with accounts so that she could help him in his businesses, as his sons were still too young to support him. The entrepreneurial decisions of the women in this study have also been found to be related (in twelve cases) to fluctuation in family structures and their own life-cycles: getting married, divorced, becoming an abandoned wife, having school-age children, disabled or unemployed husband. A married woman with 3 children opened her own salon in a rented building away from home, once her family obligations at home were reduced: “All my children are already big and in school, and I wanted to do something else, not just being a housewife.” (Married, 32, hairdresser salon, Laqiya, 03.11.2011) There were three instances of women who took to money-making as a result of losing the material support from their husbands, who got married to new wives. Two of the businesses showed enormous potential, leading the women to open stores in central locations of town and were motivated by the necessity to provide for their children. Another woman described how she worked in a textile factory when single to help her widowed mother and 4 siblings. After marriage, at the age of 24, she was forbidden to work outside and continued to sew at home. Her income was essential for the family's daily needs, since her husband's earnings were almost completely invested in a 4-story family building. Eight years prior to the interview, at the age of 42 and with 5 grown-up children, her husband left her for another wife. She started trading clothes in the local open market and after five years, she moved to a small store. To expand her business, she obtained 3 loans from SAWA micro credit programme. Currently, she enjoys customers, not only from her own town, but also from other Bedouin localities. 70 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. particular circumstances. Bedouin women contribute in ways which go beyond simple ‘surviving’, such as: renovating homes, investing in a real estate, buying cars or educating their children. This earning power helps them to win the acceptance of their husbands, brothers and parents in-law. These achievements stand in contrast to the general perception of a business owner as a male role, dominant in the Bedouin society (Meir and Baskind, 2006). For this reason, it would be worthwhile to give more public visibility to the success stories of the Bedouin women and creating more role models. This could strengthen their impact on the development of the potential of the next generations of Bedouin men and women and tackle the stereotypes and discriminatory behaviours within the larger society that still undermine their achievements. rapid urbanisation. The Bedouin women entrepreneurs seem to resemble these trends: they apply family-focused strategies, operate mostly in the informal economy (which should be considered as a stage in a process rather than their permanent feature). They also combine resources available to them from both formal (part-time employment, social security, other family members' income) and informal sectors. Although the fear of losing the stable income in form of social benefits is a blockade for business registration, provision of professional counselling and small financial loans (such as SAWA programme) is a way to overcome such obstacles (Allasad Alhuzail, 2013). Following the findings of Schnell and Shdema (2016) regarding the high impact of peripheriality and social integration capital (including social networks) on Arab inclusion in the Israeli labour market, it could be recommended to increase institutional support for strengthening Bedouin women's networks to help their businesses grow outside of the family and tribal (ethnic) circles, making these entrepreneurs less embedded and confined. Abu-Rabia-Queder (2016) showed how highly skilled and educated, professional women suffer from tribal and gender penalties, sustained additionally by lack of institutional support in overcoming them which blocks their achievements. That poses a question, whether the connective strategies applied by the less-educated and impoverished women who run low-income businesses are their leverage or will become barriers if the wider political set-up remains blind to their Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Mrs Mariam Abu Rqaiq and Mrs Galila Elkrenawi for their invaluable support during fieldwork, Mrs Yochevet Gordon for her generous contribution as interpreter during research and to The Robert H. Arnow Centre for Bedouin Studies and Development and Erasmus Mundus Programme for the financial support. Appendix 1. List of interviewees No Age Personal Status Origins Education background Entrepreneurial Course Location of business Legal status Commercial Sector 1 46 married Local 8th grade None home milk selling 2 46 married Local 8th grade None home 3 55 Local None None home 4 32 abandoned wife married Local hischool None home 5 41 single Local BA MATI home 6 54 married Local None None home 7 45 divorced highschool None home 8 38 married West Bank Local highschool SAWA home 9 38 10 36 married married Local Local highschool highschool None SAWA close-to-home close-to-home 11 42 married None None close-to-home 12 40 13 38 14 32 single married married Nonlocal Local Local Local BA above highchool highschool MATI None None close-to-home out-of-home out-of-home 15 37 abandoned wife married Local highschool AJEEC out-of-home Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Registered Nonregistered Nonregistered Registered Registered Nonregistered Registered Local 8th grade None out-of-home abandoned wife married Nonlocal Local none None out-of-home 8th grade None out-of-home abandoned wife married Nonlocal Local 8th grade SAWA out-of-home 8th grade Beer Sheva out-of-home 16 48 17 35 18 40 19 50 20 32 71 Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Nonregistered Registered sewing sewing and traditional ornaments tourism tourism sewing and traditional ornaments bred making sewing and teaching sewing NGO hairdressing tourism cosmetics and tourism interior design, mattresses clothes shop wedding photographer clothes shop clothes shop and foodstore wedding DJ clothes shop hairdressing Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 62–72 A. Biernacka et al. 21 30 married 22 32 married 23 38 24 38 25 39 married single married 26 45 27 42 28 46 divorced divorced married Nonlocal Local Local Local Nonlocal Local Gaza West Bank 8th grade Beer Sheva out-of-home Registered hairdressing 8th grade None out-of-home hairdressing 8th grade highschool highschool None None None out-of-home out-of-home out-of-home Nonregistered Registered Registered Registered BA 8th grade 8th grade None None SAWA out-of-home out-of-home out-of-home Registered Registered Nonregistered NGO NGO NGO NGO NGO jewllery selling Gemici, K., 2008. Karl Polanyi and the antinomies of embeddedness. Socio-Economic Rev. 6, 5–33. Girón, A., 2014. Microfinance and its discontents: women in debt in Bangladesh. Fem. Econ. 20 (2), 150–153. Heilbrunn, S., Abu-Asbah, K.M., 2011. Disadvantaged and embedded: Arab women entreprenuers in Israel. Int. J. Bus. Soc. Sci. 2 (11), 45–55. Heilbrunn, S., Abu-Asbeh, K., Abu Nasra, M., 2014. Difficulties facing women entrepreneurs in Israel: a social stratification approach. Int. J. Gend. Entrepreneursh. 6 (2), 142–162. Henry, C., Foss, L., Ahl, H., 2016. Gender and entrepreneurship research: a review of methodological approaches. Int. Small Bus. J. 34 (3), 217–241. Jakubowska, L., 2000. Finding ways to make a living. Nomadic Peoples 4 (2), 94–105. Jamali, D., 2009. Constraints and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs in developing countries. A relational perspective. Gend. Manag. An Int. J. 24 (4), 232–251. Joseph, S., 1994. Brother/sister relationships: connectivity, love, and power in the reproduction of patriarchy in Lebanon. Am. Ethnol. 21 (1), 50–73. Joseph, S., 1999. Intimate Selving in Arab Families. Gender, Self and Identity. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse. Kantor, P., 2005. Determinants of women's microenterprise success in Ahmedabad. India: empowerment and economics. Fem. Econ. 11, 63–83. Kressel, G.M., 1992. Descent through males: an anthropological investigation into the patterns underlying social hierarchy, kinship, and marriage among former Bedouin in the ramla-lod area (Israel). Mediterr. Lang. Cult. Monogr. Ser. 8 Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. Kressel, G.M., 2006. Manners and climates of marchandising; the Bedouin market of Be’er Sheva. In: Buzakova, T.G. (Ed.), The Culture of Arabia in the Asian Context. Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Lewando-Hundt, G., 1984. The exercise of power by Bedouin women in the Negev. In: Marx, E., Shmueli, A. (Eds.), The Changing Bedouin. Transaction Books, New Brunswick. Medzini, A., 2012. Beoduin settlement policy in Israel: success or failure? Horizons Geogr. 79/80, 37–48 (Themes in Israeli Geography). Meir, A., Baskind, A., 2006. Ethnic business entrepreneurship among urbanizing Bedouin in the Negev. Nomadic Peoples 10 (1), 71–100. Meir, A., Gekker, M., 2011. Gendered space, power relationships and domestic planning and design among displaced Israeli Bedouin. Women’s Stud. Int. Forum 34, 232–241. Nikina, A., Shelton, M.L., LeLoarne, S., 2015. An examination of how husbands, as key stakeholders, impact the success of women entrepreneurs. J. Small Bus. Enterp. Dev. 22 (1), 38–62. Özkazanç-Pan, B., 2015. Secular and Islamic feminist entrepreneurship in Turkey. Int. J. Gend. Entrepreneursh. 7 (1), 45–65. Pio, E., 2007. Ethnic entrepreneurship among indian women in New Zealand: a bittersweet process. Gend. Work Organ. 14 (5), 409–432. Roig, M., Susaeta, L., Suarez, E., Pin, J.R., 2016. Arab Women Entrepreneurs in Spain: like Cedars beside the Stream. IESE Business School. University of Navarra Working Paper WP-1136-E, February, 2016. Shelton, L., 2006. Female entrepreneurs, work–family conflict, and venture performance: new insights into the work–family interface. J. Small Bus. Manag. 44 (2), 285–297. Schnell, I., Shdema, I., 2016. The role of peripheriality and ethnic segregation in arabs' integration into the Israeli labor market. In: In Socioeconomic Inequality in Israel. Palgrave Macmillan US. Schnell, I., Sofer, M., 2002. Unbalanced embeddedness of ethnic entrepreneurship: the Israeli Arab case. Int. J. Entrepreneurial Behav. Res. 8 (1/2), 54–68. Singh, S., Mordi, C., Okafor, C., Simpson, R., 2010. Challenges in female entrepreneurial development – a case analysis of Nigerian entrepreneurs. J. Enterprising Cult. 18, 435–460. Siu, W., Siu-chung Lo, E., 2011. Cultural contingency in the cognitive model of entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneursh. Theory Pract. 1–27. Smith-Hunter, A.E., 2006. Women Entrepreneurs across Racial Lines. Issues of Human Capital, Financial Capital and Network Structures. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Tlaiss, H.A., 2015. How islamic business ethics impact women entrepreneurs: insights from four Arab Middle eastern countries. J. Bus. Ethics 129, 859–877. Welsh, D., 2006. Family business in the Middle East: an exploratory study of retail management in Kuwait and Lebanon. Fam. Bus. Rev. 19 (1), 29–48. References Abu-Bader, S., Gottlieb, D., 2009. Poverty, education and employment among the ArabBeoduin Society: a comparative view. ECINEQ Soc. Study Econ. Enequality Working Papers. http://www.geog.bgu.ac.il/fastSite/coursesFiles/bedouins/bader-article.pdf [accessed 13 Aug 2010]. Abu-Rabia, A., 1994. The Negev Beoduin and Livestock Rearing: Social, Economic and Political Aspects. Oxford, Berg. Abu-Rabia-Queder, S., 2007. The activisim of Bedouin women: social and political resistance. HAGAR Stud. Cult. Policy Identities 7 (2), 67–84. Abu-Rabia-Queder, S., 2008. Excluded and Loved: Educated Bedouin Women's Life Stories. Eshkolot and Magnes (in Hebrew), Jerusalem. Abu-Rabia-Queder, S., 2016. The paradox of professional marginality among arab-bedouin women. Sociology 1–17. Ahmad, S.Z., 2011. Evidence of the characteristics of women entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: an empirical investigation. Int. J. Gend. Entrepreneursh. 3 (2), 123–143. Allasad Alhuzail, N., 2013. I earn therefore I exist. Impoverished Bedouin mothers who become entrepreneurs. Isr. Stud. Rev. 28 (2), 174–191. Al-Dajani, H., Marlow, S., 2010. Impact of women's home-based enterprise on family dynamics: evidence from Jordan. Int. Small Bus. J. 28 (5), 470–486. Al-Dajani, H., Marlow, S., 2013. Empowerment and entrepreneurship: a theoretical framework international. J. Entrepreneurial Behav. Res. 19 (5), 503–524. Aldrich, H.E., Cliff, J.E., 2003. The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: toward a family embeddedness perspective. J. Bus. Ventur. 18, 573–596. Anthias, F., Mehta, N., 2003. The intersection between gender, the family and self-employment: the family as a resource. Int. Rev. Sociol. 13 (1), 105–116. Bedouin Statistical Yearbook 2010, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Robert Arnow Centre for the Study of Negev Bedouin Society. Berkowitz, A., 2013. Navigating the Path from Planning Paradigm to Plan Implementation: the Case of a New Bedouin Locality in Israel. (Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of “Master of Arts”.Ben-Gurion University). Bernard, H.R., 1988. Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology. Sage Publications, Newbury Park. Berry-Chikhaoui, I., 1998. The invisible economy at the edges of the medina of tunis. In: Lobban Jr.R.A. (Ed.), Middle Eastern Women and the Invisible Economy. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. Brush, C.G., de Bruin, A., Welter, F., 2014. Advancing theory development in venture creation: signposts for understanding gender. In: Lewis, K., Henry, C., Gatewood, E.J., Watson, J. (Eds.), Women's Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century. An International Multi-level Research Analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 11–29. www. elgaronline.com/view/9781782544609.xml. Castelles, M., Portes, A., 1986. The world underneath: the origins, dynamics and effects of the informal economy. In: Portes, A., Castelles, M., Benton, L.A. (Eds.), The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London. Crowell, L.F., 2004. Weak ties: a mechanism for helping women expand their social networks and increase their capital. Soc. Sci. J. 41 (1), 15–28. Cruz, C., Justo, R., De Castro, J., 2012. Does family employment enhance the MSEs Performance? Integrating socioemotional wealth and family embeddedness perspectives. J. Bus. Ventur. 27, 62–76. De Vita, L., Mari, M., Poggesi, S., 2014. Women entrepreneurs in and from developing countries: evidences from the literature. 2013. Eur. Manag. J. 32, 451–460. Dinero, S.C., 1997. Female role change and male response in the post-nomadic urban environment: the case of the Israeli Negev Bedouin. J. Comp. Fam. Stud. 28, 248–261. Erdoganaras, F., Yuksel, U.D., Tamer, N.G., 2013. Job search and occupational gender segregation in the informal labourmarket: the case Oo Beypazari, Turkey. Gazi Univ. J. Sci. Part B Art, Humanit. Des. Plan. 1 (2), 31–47. Essers, C., Benschop, Y., 2009. Muslim businesswomen doing boundary work: the negotiation of Islam, gender and ethnicity within entrepreneurial contexts. Hum. Relat. 62 (3), 403–423. Fenster, T., 1999. Space for gender: cultural roles of the forbidden and the permitted. Environ. Plan. D Soc. Space 17, 227–246. 72 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv The suburbanization of rural life in an arid and rocky village in western Turkey Kimberly Hart SUNY Buffalo State, United States a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 19 April 2016 Accepted 20 March 2017 Available online 1 April 2017 In this longitudinal and qualitative study of rural life in western Turkey, I argue that ecological conditions, state policies, and villagers’ agency play a significant role in the suburbanization of villages. This paper
north of Manisa, an arid and rocky region, used traces the history of how villagers in the Yuntdag nomadic heritage and Islamic culture as economic resources. I argue that villagers have gone from being cultural heritage entrepreneurs to wage laborers, incorporating and identifying with the ethno-national identity of the nation while adjusting their lives to the state. In so doing and with the bureaucratic redefinition of the villages in the region as urban neighborhoods, the meaning and definition of rural life gradually is erased. Based on over fifteen years of ethnographic fieldwork, 2000e2015, this paper considers the suburbanization of rural life and the highly gendered economic decisions villagers make. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Anthropology Ethnography Turkey Rural Village 1. Introduction Rather than a story about the dissolution of villages due to migration, this paper traces the ecological and cultural foundations of villagers' integration into an urbanizing region as they shift focus from sustaining rural life through heritage-based entrepreneurship to becoming wage laborers. As this existential, economic, and material transformation takes place, the definition of the village begins to vanish until the very nature of villages is erased through a bureaucratic redefinition of these spaces as urban neighborhoods. Through an historically attentive analysis of villagers' lives over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this paper considers the move to more closely integrate psychically, economically and culturally into urban-oriented state structures and national ideologies. I argue that ecological conditions, state policies, and villagers’ agency play a significant role in the transformation of rural life in
, the arid and rocky region of western Turkey called the Yuntdag north of Manisa. In the past, a residual nomadic economy kept village households alive. In this area, heritage and culture, carpet weaving and religion, as well as herding and cheese making have been economic resources, while agriculture has not been a significant source of income generation. Due to the aridity of the region, villagers can only cultivate vegetable gardens and small fields of wheat. For this E-mail address: hartkl@buffalostate.edu. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.03.011 0140-1963/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. reason, like many other ecologically and politically marginal places, villagers in Kayalarca turned to culture as an economic resource (Cohen, 1999; Milgram, 2000). Through savvy entrepreneurial activities, villagers created employment in carpet weaving by founding a cooperative with the assistance of foreigners, Harald €hmer and Josephine Powell who were knowledgeable about Bo dyeing and export markets in textiles. Islamic education has also been an important source of employment as men have a tradition of aspiring to become imams. 2. Method This piece is based on approximately twenty-eight months of ethnographic research spanning from 2000 to 2015. As an ethnographic and qualitative study, I strove to understand village life from many dimensions. While I initially began with a study of the women's carpet weaving cooperative in 2000, due to tension in the village resulting from suspicion about the cooperative director, I diverted this work to consider marriage practices. I then connected the two by studying household economy and the economics of marriage. This became my dissertation. Typically working in blocks of three weeks to a month, I visited the ninety-plus households with questions I used as a guide for conversation. I interviewed the women, although I also made an effort to interview men when I turned to studying household economy and later, Islamic practice (2008e2010). After gathering material based on these questions, allowing my informants to elaborate or change the direction of the 74 K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 discussion, I would return to Istanbul to consider my findings and formulate a new set of questions for another round of research. In addition, I participated in events such as weddings, funerals, and special prayer events, as well as lent my labor to the many tasks of rural life, such as baking bread, cooking, preparing feasts, collecting firewood, harvesting olives and so on. Because this is a small village with about one hundred households, I easily met and interviewed every household several times, though I formed closer relationships with some. To understand the shifting nature of rural life, I visited villagers who had moved to the city. Later, as I began to study Islam (2008e2010), I studied two imams from the region and their communities in two mosques in Germany, as well as saint veneration, the legacy of Islamic education and contemporary Koran schools in nearby villages (Hart, 2013). 2.1. A nomadic heritage: history and ecology This longitudinal research uncovers an interesting case of women's agency in making illiberal choices, much as Mahmood argues (2005:5e10). To understand why women weavers who were once engaged in an internationally famous carpet-weaving cooperative would aspire to become urban housewives, it is important to consider the ecological and cultural foundations of rural life in this region and their critical assessment of life in such a place. The
is a strikingly arid place with rough southern end of the Yuntdag volcanic rock and little vegetation. The region has recently been the subject of work by the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations (http://www.fao.org/forestry/18491-0837d2 fa2485fed48fef42843053ebf80.pdf). The project was designed to assist people living in marginal mountainous regions, including the
to decrease their tendency to migrate out. Describing this Yuntdag region, Ceci and Hofer write, “Economic conditions are poor there, and livelihoods depend mainly on crop production, livestock and forest resources. The
i Mountains are affected by problems that include soil Yuntdag and forest degradation, limited agricultural productivity, lack of access to markets, low living standards, unemployment, and out-migration (2009:95).” While it is admirable that a project to assist villagers was developed, one should consider the fragility of the environment € and past mistakes in development (Ozden et al., 2004). This development scheme fails to note that agriculture has not been the primary means of economic survival for the obvious reason that the land is too arid and rocky for intensive farming. The villagers are former nomads who survive on the basis of a residual nomadic economy based on herding, cheese making, and carpet weaving. Considering the many efforts villagers have made to create businesses, such as weaving cooperatives, minibus cooperatives and cheese-making workshops, it is clear that culture and heritage have been economic resources for generations. While it is true that weaving requires water (for dyeing wool and washing finished carpets) and cheese-making needs water for raising animals and cleaning the equipment, neither of these businesses is as dependent on water as is agriculture, especially in the cultivation of delicate plants like strawberries. As well as working to create businesses based on a residual nomadic economy, religion is another resource of economic survival. As I learned, religious education with the goal to becoming an imam, has been an aspiration of men for over a hundred years (Hart, 2013). In other words, the villagers are well aware of the challenges of survival in their arid and rocky environment and they have made efforts to maintain village life over the decades using the cultural resources available. Yet, as I argue in this paper, the outcome of these efforts has lead many to conclude that migration is a good solution to trying to eek out an existence in villages. This is the same conclusion millions have arrived at in Turkey but my point is that there are multiple reasons why rural people migrate to the cities (Kirişçi, 2008). Aside from those fleeing war, in most cases, it is the failure of the government to address the lack of services to rural regions, which pushes people to move. But the choice to move is also based in the agency of rural people who carefully consider their options. The fact that regional economic development has improved some aspects of life without the government catching up to provide health and educational services, demonstrates that villagers consider the accessibility of state services when they balance out the equation. In short, development projects, such as the one undertaken by the UN, need to be accompanied by state resources and infrastructure in order to assist in the reduction of outmigration. During my last visit to the region in 2015, I learned that the Manisa government was adjusting to the reality of a shifting nature of rural and urban spaces. As of 2016, the government changed the
region to become neighborstatus of the villages in the Yuntdag hoods (mahalle). Therefore, in the future when villagers choose to move to the city, they will simply be changing neighborhood and not “migrating.” Redefining villages thereby eliminates them and bureaucratically erases the visibility of migration. From an economic standpoint, this redefinition will have an immediate consequence on one entrepreneurial effort. During my visit in 2015, I learned that the minibus cooperative would most likely close because urban bus services would extent into the mountainous
region. This much cheaper means of public transportation Yuntdag to the city, villagers speculated, would assist many in commuting to job and to schools. Thus, in recent years, the municipal government is working to improve living standards for rural residents and is increasingly more involved in creating projects to help villagers sustain their lives, yet there is more work to do, such as garbage collection and indoor plumbing. To contextualize life in this area, I will step back a few generations and answer the question as to why people live here from an historical standpoint. The answer to this question addresses the nature of regional cultural resources. This history demonstrates how rural people accept national ideologies of ethnic identification and work to integrate themselves into the narrative of national identity. Therefore, I am making the argument that national ideologies and state structures do not merely penetrate into rural regions and force people to integrate into their narratives of identity and culture but that rural people can chose to accept these identities and ideologies, structures and services. While my village informants assert a Turkish identity because they identify with the ethno-national and sectarian identity of the state, that of being a Turkish Sunni Muslim (White, 2013:19), upon € rük (Yürük) or closer inquiry, some are willing to include being Yo Türkmen. While the term Türkmen refers to an ethnic group, €rük, in a confusing manner, refers to nomadism (though TürkYo men were also nomadic) but also gestures towards ethnicity (Bent, € 1891; Geray and Ozden, 2003). This means that at some point in the past, the people who now populate the small villages of the
region were nomadic, regardless of how they choose to Yuntdag identify themselves ethnically. It would be good to know exactly when and under what conditions they settled, but clues to these questions are buried in the Ottoman archives, beyond my ability to access. It is safe to say, however, that the villagers in this region most likely are part of the people who migrated with flocks of domesticated animals to pastures in tune with the land's seasonal variations during the Ottoman Empire (Kasaba, 2009). € rük identity, there is evidence of Though there is a denial of a Yo a former nomadic life in the geography of the place. Many names K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 of villages reflect a nomadic heritage. The term for winter pasture, Kışla, for instance, is a name of a village, as is Yayla, summer pasture. And many villages are named after their lineage, with the ancestral man of the group now the village name, such as Uzunlar (the tall ones) or Karaahmetli (the ones with black Ahmet). Villagers from the neighboring village were able to describe where their groups once pastured in the landscape, though villagers in Kayalarca could not. I learned from amateur historians in Manisa that this village was one of the first settled in the region, based on archival documents now in Ankara (Hart, 2013:18). There are a number of reasons why groups may have settled including being forced to by the state or for economic reasons, as Inalcik notes (1994:159). Though settlement established the villages, their borders, and created land holdings, nomadism was a useful means of survival in an ecologically marginal area. As ethnographers describe, nomads exploit the ecological resources without stressing the environment beyond its capacity to support populations grazing their animals or planting when there is little rain (Lees and Bates, 1974). In short, pastoral nomads are able to survive on what to an agriculturalist would be a harsh landscape (Chatty, 1996; Cole, 1975; Espinosa, 2009; Shahrani, 2002). Nomadic economic survival includes trade. Nomads traded with settled people, supplementing their livelihoods. Textiles, cheese, and animals would have been products coming out of the mountains, as well as herbs, nuts, acorns, and fruit, and as I describe later, charcoal. The location of the village and its architecture are further clues to a past nomadic existence. The village was built on the side of a mountain and composed of one-room stone houses. The elderly generation's house interiors are spatially organized in a manner imitating a nomadic tent. Thus, one can surmise that the time from settlement might not be significant. No doubt the villagers' ancestors needed this strategically defensible and ecologically useful position, as did people to the south as Luke and Cobb discuss in their ethnographically astute archaeological study (2013:162). In addition to being able to see strangers approaching, living in the windiest, rockiest, and driest location, freed up the fields slopping below the mountain for cultivation and pasture. As Inalcik describes, “peasants frequently chose to have their main settlement sites on the hillsides and maintained a mezraa (cultivated property) down the flatland as a satellite exploitation” (1994:159). Though the land today is mostly deforested, the elderly describe a different landscape in their youths. Estimating this era to be in the 1930s and 40s, it seems the region was forested during the early twentieth century. Before his death in about 2013, I had the opportunity to frequently interview the eldest man in the village who went by the nickname “Deveci” or camel herder. As one of the richest men in the village, he drove his camel caravan to the city trading goods. He carried out charcoal and brought back salt, cloth, and other useful goods, such as lamps and knives. Asking how it was possible that they traded charcoal in a place with few trees, he described how the land had once been heavily forested. I am assuming that the trees cut down were the same that grow more sparsely on the mountains today, mainly oak. The oak tree in this region is Quercus macrolepis or Velonia. According to Atalay and Efe (2010:68), these trees grow in the Mediterranean transitional region. Interestingly, the acorn of this tree has a large cap high in tannins and is used in dyeing black. Even now, villagers collect them for the cooperative. In the past, as the Deveci described, men cut down the sturdy oak trees and converted them to charcoal, deforesting the region. They sold the charcoal in the city as fuel for heating homes. In 2010, in a wetter, forested village to the north, I learned this activity continues even though the government owns all the land outside villages and the trees are supposed to be pro€ tected (Geray and Ozden, 2003). 75 2.2. The importance of water Though villagers deforested the land in an effort to participate in urban markets, it would not be surprising if this location were the summer pasture of formerly nomadic groups. Now settled, the village divided the land south of the village over the generations with their neighbors in the abutting village. Between these two places, there are kinship ties and issues over land rights. In these carefully divided fields, surrounded by stonewalls and topped with unpleasant thorny branches to dissuade grazing animals from climbing into gardens, are wells. These wells help villagers maintain the almond, quince, and çitlembik (Celtis)–now grafted with pistachio, and fig trees, grape vines, and small garden plots. The water is rarely drunk because it is bitter to the taste. It is useful to note that there is not enough water to irrigate fields, rather villagers use old canisters as buckets and simply water their small gardens with the well water. At first, when I saw these piles of stones around a deep hole, I did not realize that more than practical access to water was being signified. Providing access to water fits into a spiritual system of performing good deeds or hayır. Wells are dug upon the inheritance of land as a good deed, an act of hayır, to give thanks for the gain in property and to memorialize the parent, whose death prompted the redistribution of wealth. Creating a water source is a spiritual gesture of goodwill towards the community, to the parent, and to God (Hart, 2013:74e89). In addition to digging wells, villagers traditionally have dug small watering holes for animals as hayır as well. Rural practice regarding the use of water parallels that in cities. During the Ottoman era, the wealthy provided water to urban neighborhoods by constructing a çeşme (fountain) (KaraPilehvarian et al., 2004; Singer, 2008:108) or a sebil (Kumbaracilar, 2008). A çeşme had spigots for water and sibil were small booths from which water and fruit juice were distributed for free to the community. Though some new çeşme are constructed in provincial cities as charity, sibil to my knowledge are not. In the rural regions and provincial cities, these practices of hayır expressed through access to water continue. There is a recently constructed çeşme, for example, outside Kayalarca, which was built by the parents of a young man who was killed in a car accident. The family is not related to anyone in the village. They constructed the çeşme in memoriam as a good deed to assist villagers. Though the villagers struggled with very limited water for generations, in 2008 I was pleased to learn that a new water system was in place. Before as I wrote in my field notes, “we rushed around filling up buckets and containers for the very brief time water flowed, about 40 min per week.” With the old system, there were pipes connecting water to houses but it was only turned on once a week. Women frantically ran home when it came on. Not surprisingly, an even older system involved hauling water from wells. Though a chore, many elderly women recounted how visiting the wells provided women and girls with the opportunity to socialize. With the decade-long effort at creating an easier system, the men dug canals for pipes. But these pipes needed a pump house and a connection, from which water could be drawn continuously. The government assisted in the cost of the pump house, which connected all the houses and provided them with running water, though a few remained outside the system because they were unable to pay water bills. Villagers refer to their water source as the “koca dere” (big stream) but on maps it is called Koca Çayı, also meaning big stream. This water originates at the Aegean Sea just north of a harbor at the
a. At this point, the source is referred to as the town of Aliag Güzelhisar Deresi (beautiful castle stream). After passing through an
a Organize Sanayi Bo €lgesi (Aliaga industrial zone, the Aliag 76 K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 Organized Industry District), the name changes to Koca Çayı and it soon reaches a dam where there is a large reservoir, the Güzelhisar Baraji (beautiful castle dam). At the point of origin at the Aegean Sea until passing the industrial zone, the stream is in the Province of Izmir. After passing into the Manisa province, it enters the dam.
are in the province of The villages under question in the Yuntdag Manisa and more specifically in the municipality of Yununs Emre. Kayalarca is at the tail end of this water source. Having crossed the stream on foot, I can attest to the fact that it is not very deep, but having swum in a beautiful eddy, the stream has points of depth. Village men love to fish and swim in this spot, families picnic, and many young people post picturesque photographs of this place on their Facebook feeds. The koca dere is a source of life, beauty, and admiration for villagers of all ages. The government's interest in creating water systems for villages is an important aspect of villagers' struggle to obtain water. Luke and Cobb describe how villages in the Gediz basin, further south of
, in the province of Manisa, were developed for agrithe Yuntdag culture during the 1960s with assistance from the US Marshall Plan
villages were ignored because (2013:167). In contrast, the Yuntdag agriculture is not profitable in this mountainous and rocky environment. During the last decade the municipality has begun to help. But village men, as I described, did most of the work to create the village water system. This was accomplished through a traditional practice called imece, collective labor (Delaney, 1991:151; White, 2002:70e1) or more specifically salma, referring to the fact that households could pay to be released from the work. Under this system, the imam would announce that the village headman was recruiting male members of households to work from the mosque loudspeaker system. For those who could not perform this labor, the household would pay a fee. Otherwise, men would work together each day until the project was completed. In this manner, all the pipes for the village water system were laid by hand. According to my correspondence with the village headman in 2015, the new water system includes a well dug near the stream. Of course, when water became available in houses through the flick of the wrist, life became much easier. Women no longer lingered at home, hoping the water would not run out by the time it reached their houses. They no longer collected water in bottles, buckets, and tanks. It became possible to build solar hot water heaters on rooftops, to construct bathrooms with showers, to make indoor toilets, and to cultivate small gardens. However, with the ease of using water, for which each household has a meter and thereby a monthly bill, many notice how easy it is to waste it. In addition to having a house-to-house water system, in recent years the municipal government has created a large reservoir with a pump house for gardens. It is interesting that the villagers refer to this act as “hayır” a good deed, rather than regarding it as a normal infrastructural service from the government. This interpretation means that they do not fully recognize their full integration into the state bureaucracy in which the state should render services to tax paying citizens in exchange. Rather, they see themselves as separate and self-sufficient, grateful for the charitable acts of the state on their behalf. This reservoir naturally fills over the winter and because it is open, it also is accessible to animals. After the construction of the water system linking all the houses and this small reservoir, villagers began to cultivate their land more systematically. Some village families even drive to their fields, hook up a long hose at the pump house, and water their gardens. These are small plots of land, producing less than what a family of four consumes in a year. Yet, with greater resources, a few families now cultivate enough vegetables to freeze. This food is often sent to the city for adult children and their families. Though many villagers have begun to migrate from the village, they maintain important eco€ nomic ties after settling in urban apartments, as Ozturk et al. argue is the case for many (2014a, 2014b). Thus, water access in rural areas helps sustain urban families, as well as rural ones. 2.3. An entrepreneurial impulse Life in an arid deforested place meant that villagers devised entrepreneurial strategies for survival. The villagers’ strategies similarly parallel ethnographies describing how people manage to live in marginal environments drawing from animals rather than agriculture (Chatty, 1996; Espinosa, 2009; Shahrani, 2002), often turning to the commercialization of handicrafts (Cohen, 1999) or a profession gained through education, such as being an imam (Meeker, 2002). The most recent development, as Oztürk et al. (2014b) and Zeybek (2014) argue, rather than being in a clear dialectic with urban life, villages and the city change form. Considering the twentieth century from the 1930s up to the present, one can divide these transitions in Kayalarca into three stages. In the first phase from the 1980 era, villagers worked to expand their markets for products, carpets or religious knowledge but lived in the village. In the second phase beginning in the 1980s, they began to extend their interests beyond the village and toward Manisa, the city to the south, and abroad. Unlike many other rural Anatolian villagers, few joined the migration to western Europe as guest worker (Soysal, 2008). One family, however, migrated to France. Interestingly, after growing up in France, the married first cousins of this family moved back to the village after they returned to Turkey because they could not survive economically in the city. In this era, families moved to the city or high school students found a place to live with relatives or in a student dorm so that they could attend school. Middle-aged people began to think about the city as a place where they could retire in comfort. The last stage begins around 2010 when in the final step, the notion of the village as a coherent place shifts. The village becomes a neighborhood of the city, a suburb, a place to escape from the pressures of employment, or a place for summer vacations, for picnicking and for gardening before returning to an apartment in the city. I discussed the first era through the Deveci's account of life in a forested region from which rural products came out via camel caravan and basic supplies entered. In the second phase, the carpet cooperative is the most obvious example of entrepreneurial effort. This, however, was built on earlier schemes to commercialize weaving. Some of these efforts involved a government project while others were more straightforward cooperatives that failed when the urban managers mishandled the funds. The most successful effort is the current cooperative, DOBAG, the story of which €hmer, a German chemist who studied plants begins with Harald Bo used for dyeing wool through experimentation and the testing of old carpet fibers during the late 1970s and early 1980s (Anderson, €hmer, 2002; Işık, 2007). This knowledge was lost 1998; Bo throughout Anatolia after the introduction of chemical dyes during the early twentieth century. After some years of teaching villagers throughout Anatolia how to dye using plants, he founded the DOBAG project in the early 1980s in the town of Ayvacık. In this cooperative, village women brought their carpets to the cooperative building in the town, as they once brought them to market. Their husbands were paid for the piece because the head of €hmer helped devise a household was the cooperative member. Bo management structure, assisted in registering the cooperative under Turkish law, and offered leadership in creating a manager, a local and well-respected man. €hmer wanted to expand the cooperative After a few years, Bo
as a good region for the project because and chose the Yuntdag there were many skilled weavers. Unlike Ayvacık, a provincial
was more isolated. Bergama, to the market town, the Yuntdag north, and Manisa to the south were market centers but accessing K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 these towns was difficult. Villagers did not take their textiles to the weekly market for sale. This was due in part to a lack of infrastructure. In the late 1970s, there was no paved road leading out of the villages to Manisa or Bergama. There was no bridge over the stream on the road to the south on the way to Manisa. The villages were also farther away from these market towns than villages in the Ayvacik region. Isolation and relative poverty meant that village weavers were highly skilled in making carpets, kilims, sacks, and bags but not skilled in marketing them. They produced for dowries, as furnishings for their homes, which had no built furniture. They participated in development schemes based on weaving, sometimes wove as piecework, or exchanged old pieces for commercial goods when itinerant traders visited the villages. Weaving, therefore, was a source of income, but it yielded little. It was not commercialized and labor was not rationalized. It was episodic, built into the life cycle of the household. Josephine Powell, an American photographer who had been living in Istanbul since 1975, was friends with Harald and his wife, Renata (Hart, 2009). Powell had also experimented with plants and dyeing wool and she had spent many decades traveling and photographing in Turkey. Powell supported the first cooperative but as Harald began to work towards creating a new one, she intervened and made a deal. She would provide the seed money for the new cooperative if it were founded as a women's cooperative. She was motivated by liberal feminist ideals of gender emancipation. After introducing the idea for the cooperative structure to the villagers,
but not the full import of its philosophical intent, the Yuntdag cooperative was established as a women's cooperative. Though this cooperative is a women's cooperative, meaning that women are the members, there is a male director and two male dyers. Once established, Harald took a backseat to administering the project and allowed the director, a man from the village, to run the cooperative. The cooperative, however, was always subject to Marmara University's administration and quality control through the expert analysis of a professor of Fine Arts. During the 1980s, the village opened up through the cooperative but also because the government began to take an interest in creating infrastructure. A paved road was constructed. A bridge was built over the stream making Manisa more accessible. The villages were electrified. Now one could see at night and watch television, drive a truck to the city, shop in the urban markets, reach the hospital, and send children to middle and high school. All these developments also made tourism possible. The cooperative sold directly to a handful of foreign dealers, some of whom began to create tours for their customers. In this way, an early form of ecotourism developed. All these expansions in the local economy required assistance from the government's infrastructural improvements but they also needed the entrepreneurial efforts of the villagers to manage the cooperative. While the carpet weaving cooperative improved women's wage-earning capacities, especially as they note, by providing them with a source of employment better than hoeing and harvesting under the hot sun, many men were frustrated by the enterprise. Not only were only three men employed by the cooperative, but only one, the director achieved real wealth. He funneled his profits, the origin of which was under intense speculation, into investments in cows, and the dye house and depot, which he rented to the cooperative. He was able to buy properties in the city for his sons' future marriages and speculated in feed and other goods in the market. Due to the very high rate of inflation at the time, many surmised that he profited by amassing goods, such as animal feed, storing it until the price increased, and then releasing it for sale. He also began to advance goods, such as animal feed, clothing, and dry goods (sugar, flour) on the basis of future earnings. While this practice seemed to help the weavers by eliminating the need to 77 travel to Manisa to shop, he profited by the constant increase in prices. Not surprisingly, his success, as well as obvious profiteering led many to become jealous and resentful. While men chaffed under his charisma and wealth, cooperative members also began to express frustration. They pointed out that unlike the dyers and director, their membership in the cooperative did not include retirement or health care insurance, sigorta (bundled into one unit in Turkey). They earned wages calculated on the number of knots in a finished piece, and potential profits if the piece sold. The amount of profits they might earn was determined by the assessed quality of their carpet. The professor of Fine Arts at Marmara University visited the cooperatives periodically to judge this quality. As one can imagine, this was a difficult task, considering it affected the weaver's earnings. While critical assessments and resentment simmered under the surface during my doctoral fieldwork, it was the director's tragic death from cancer in 2003, which changed villagers' orientation to rural life, business, and potential enterprises. This marks the second phase in Kayalarca's rural economy. By 2008, I learned that about twenty-five families had decided to migrate to Manisa. As many described, they wanted access to higher education for their children, health care, and employment. Some grumbled that the director had prevented women from finding employment outside the village and others that he worked to prevent families from leaving. Whether this is true to not, it was clear that the cooperative suffered a blow with his death and changed the villagers' interest in entrepreneurship. Many women who once wove carpets all day, cared for the family cow and the children, and tended small gardens were now urban housewives living in apartments. Men who once eked out a living through occasional wage labor now worked fulltime in factories. The tendency towards migration was not only evident among established families with children, many young unmarried women were strategizing on how they might marry and migrate. They looked either for a young man with village origins already settled and employed in the city or a fellow villager who might want to make the leap to urban life upon marriage (Hart, 2011). Thus, interestingly, women's agency was directed toward emancipation from rural drudgery and the choice of a seemingly more confining gendered role of urban housewife, who has limited mobility in the city. Looking only at the cooperative to consider the gendered strategies for survival creates the impression that men stood on the sidelines as women stepped forward as weavers. Indeed this is the view of village life promoted by cooperative dealers,1 but it is not accurate. As I have described the two male dyers and director are important figures in the enterprise, but the elected female president is powerful and charismatic in her own right. Yet, one needs to include the efforts of husbands in giving their wives permission to participate. In this context, women need to ask for their husband's permission to work. So with this reality in view, the willingness of village husbands is an essential component of the enterprise's success. 2.4. Men's work While women and a few men, with support from foreigners, commercialized craftwork for survival, men drew on Islam as a source for employment (Hart, 2013). In Kayalarca and the neighboring village, the professionalization of religion began with the migration of men from the Black Sea region of Of during the nineteenth century. Like the carpet weaving cooperative, therefore, the impetus to professionalization and commercialization came from the outside. Meeker, who studied the region of Of described it 1 http://www.themagiccarpet.biz/oriental-rugs-d2/dobag-project-c43/, www.dobag-teppiche.de/english/Production/. http:// 78 K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 as a remote mountainous area (but not arid) (2002), from which many religious professionals emerged. They worked as quasimissionaries during the Ottoman era spreading religious training, establishing schools, and working as imams. The stories of a group of three men, a father and his two sons, who settled in the neighboring village and established a culture of Islamic scholarship, play an important role in the villagers’ self-identification as pious Sunni Muslims (Hart, 2013). One can argue, as Meeker did for the region of Of that the professionalization of religious practice is a type of regional cottage industry. Sunni Islam is part of the state bureaucracy of the Republic of Turkey. Imams are state employees and mosques are run by the government. Becoming an imam, therefore, is a path to the desirably secure position of civil servant. This official status of Sunni Islam merged in the minds of villagers with all forms of knowledge and study until about fifteen years ago. Up until that time, the sole purpose for study, as I learned, was Islam. Village parents sent their sons to study the Koran at the mosque with local imams and at government-run religious high schools (Imam Hatip Okulları). As the government's standards for achieving this position shifted over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the number of men who succeeded in passing the exams required to gain a post fell. In the present day, a university education in a Faculty of Theology is a requirement for becoming an imam. Many men in Kayalarca found these standards difficult to meet, although a few men succeeded and gained a post. Given that becoming an imam was the only imaginable profession for men, those who could not pass the necessary requirements were often stuck with a half-finished education and no other qualifications. These men fell back on cobbling together a number of different strategies in the village. They tended a few animals, cultivated wheat and other crops on small plots of land, hunted and fished, and occasionally found wage employment. These households, not surprisingly, were the poorest in the village. Given the lack of water and therefore few grazing lands, only a few households could sustain a large herd of sheep. A profitable size was at least one hundred. Only two or three men cared for a herd of this size. In keeping with the residual nomadic economy, working in a mandıra, or cheese workshop, was an option. There are two such enterprises in the village. They make feta cheese from local milk, bought from households. Since most households have a cow, the milk is an easy source of cash. These two businesses employ family members and occasionally a few young men. Men from households, which do not own a workshop or do not have enough resources for keeping a herd, often leave the village for a few months to work in a workshop elsewhere. This job requires living on site for about four months during the milk-producing season. In a village of about ninety households, one can easily see that the number of jobs for men is low. Aside from these strategies, there is one man who has been the minibus driver for decades. He is turning his job over to his son who migrated to the city when he married and works doing the same job, driving people to and from the village. Leaving out the number of elderly men who stay at home, sit at a tea house, or in the courtyard of the mosque all day, there only are a handful of jobs: one imam, a director of the cooperative, two dyers, two shopkeepers, and two cheese workshop owners. The lack of employment options pushes more families to leave the village. The picture I have painted is from village life as I understood it during the majority of my fieldwork, from 2000 to 2008. For the youngest generation, as they come of age, their futures both in the city and the village look very different. 2.5. Migration and the end of rural life During the final years of my research, from 2010 to 2015, I learned that village life was in transition. Having worked since the early 1980s in an internationally recognized cooperative, one would expect the village weavers to be ambitious and excited about the possibilities of craft production and entrepreneurship. Instead, I found many women were disappointed and tired of the struggle. Upon assessing the benefits of weaving, most decided that becoming an urban or suburban housewife would be better. “The men,” they often remarked, “can work and we can rest.” Some moved to the city for marriage, others waited until their children were nearing middle school age to make the move, and a few decided that the best solution was having the husband commute to the city for work. Men had been disappointed by the constantly changing standards set by the government, which left them unprepared to complete their qualifying exams as imam. As a result, both men and women, when they made the decision to migrate to the city, turned to reliable and stable work as wage laborers. Of course at this juncture in their lives, they have to pay rent and raise children. While women aspired to become housewives, many had to supplement the shared household income with occasional wage labor in factories. Yet, the model of the family became one in which men were expected to become the primary breadwinners, working in factories. Village men often expressed their displeasure at the changing expectations of women and the shift in their gendered role as husbands expected to carry the burden of earning the household income. They praised the freedom of rural life, the lower cost of living, and the more relaxed atmosphere. Women, on the other hand, pointed to the fact that they worked hard in the villages while the men were freer. Aside from the dispute over the transforming gendered expectations of work, both mothers and fathers recognized the need to have their children educated. No longer would life in the village with its relaxed attitude towards earning money and investing in the future be possible. Now, as all adults understood, children would need to study, achieve a university degree, and enter into a profession. In fact during the past five years, many children from the village are now attending university, which was not the case during my early years of research. Thus, parents' concern for their children's education has driven the move to the city. Around 2010, it seemed that the village would rapidly hollow out as young people moved away and the village became a space where the infirm and the elderly survived on the edge of poverty. € Instead, in the village's most recent iteration, as Oztürk et al. also argue, the village has become a transitional space. As villages become city neighborhoods, the village becomes a suburb for commuters, including students. Transportation and better roads are obvious keys to this transition. Though few village homes have the material comforts of city apartments, due to the lack of indoor bathrooms, a village home is rent-free, spacious, and affordable. In other words, the villagers need a sewage system to fully make the transition to suburbia, a task for which they need municipal assistance. This final step will be dependent on water resources. 3. Conclusion Water, its lack, its accessibility, and its cost has profoundly shaped the nature of rural life, influencing economic life, shaping spiritual practice, and contributing to the agency of men and women to make choices about their futures. While village life is shaped by an arid environment, almost a hundred years ago, humans, by deforesting the area, contributed to the worsening of life in this ecologically marginal region. As Josephine Powell remarked, “it was men with axes,” not grazing animals who € deforested the mountains. As Geray and Ozden argue for a region €rüks further to the south, along the Mediterranean, inhabited by Yo who raise goats, marginal rural areas could become places where K. Hart / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 73e79 formerly nomadic peoples could profit from raising organic meats (2003:130). But the government has worked to demote herding, especially that involving goats, because it is blamed as the cause of € deforestation (Geray and Ozden, 2003:131). If raising animals is undervalued then the cultural heritage of nomadic peoples becomes impossible to sustain. As a result, the tendency has been for people to migrate to cities, and in this manner, the villagers in the
are no different from the vast majority of the people in Yuntdag Turkey, millions of whom now crowd into cities. Yet, as I have argued, villagers are willing to remain in the village when they have services they want, such as transportation and access to water. It is easy to imagine that more would choose to remain if there were high schools for their children and a hospital nearby. It seems the city's government administration is realizing that providing services and infrastructure will help maintain a vital rural life. As I have argued and demonstrated through the discussion of empirical evidence, villagers in this region of western Turkey have been motivated to integrate themselves into the state structures and national ideologies for a couple hundred years. Early in this history they settled and created villages near their former grazing pastures. Nomadic heritage and culture remained vital to village life and identity for at least a hundred and fifty years. Drawing from these cultural resources, they tailored economic survival as traders, cheese-makers, and weavers. As they moved more closely to integrate themselves into urban life, the city began to meet them with much needed infrastructure and services: electricity, a road, a bridge and a public school. As they learned about the additional advantages of urban life, many chose to leave. Now we see the conceptual border between rural and urban life dissolve. The nature of cultural heritage and identity fades and the coherency and integrity of village life vanishes. Villages become urban neighborhoods and villagers are poised to fully merge with state ideologies of national identity. The next step, as I witness in the virtual space of social media, is a nostalgic reflection on rural life, one constructed on the home pages of Facebook profiles by children who do not intend to inhabit rural spaces or those lives in the future. In this regard, the stream makes a frequent appearance as a place villagers and former villagers turn to when they imaginatively return home. Acknowledgements This research was supported by numerous short-term grants from the SUNY Research Foundation (2014, 2008), the Institute of Turkish Studies (2010, 2008, 2001), the American Research Institute in Turkey (2009, 2008), and Indiana University's Department of Anthropology (1998). Doctoral fieldwork was supported by the U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays (1999). References Atalay, Ibrahim, Efe, Recep, 2010. Structural and distributional evaluation of forest ecosystems in Turkey. J. Environ. Biol. 31, 61e70. Anderson, June, 1998. Return to Tradition. University of Washington Press, California Academy of Sciences and Seattle. Bent, Theodore, 1891. The yourouks of asia minor. J. Anthropol. Inst. G. B. Irel. 20, 79 269e276. € Verlag, €hmer, Harald, 2002. Koek Boya: Natural Dyes and Textiles. REMHOB Bo Gandersee. Ceci, Paolo, Hofer, Thomas, 2009. Local to global-level sustainable mountain development. Mt. Res. Dev. 29 (1), 93e96. Chatty, Dawn, 1996. Mobile Pastoralists. Columbia University Press, New York. Cohen, Jeffrey, 1999. Cooperation and Community, Economy and Society in Oaxaca. University of Texas Press, Austin. Cole, Donald Powell, 1975. Nomads of the Nomads. Harlan Davidson, Illinois. Delaney, Carol, 1991. The Seed and the Soil. University of California Press, Berkeley. Espinosa, Cristina M., 2009. Negotiation landscapes, survival, and modernity: goats, migration, and gender in the arid lands of northern Peru. Cult. Agric. 31 (1), 39e48. € Geray, Uçun, Ozden, Sezgin, 2003. Silvopastoralism in Turkey's mountainous mediterranean region. Mt. Res. Dev. 23 (2), 128e131. Hart, Kimberly, 2013. And Then We Work for God. Stanford University Press, Stanford. Hart, Kimberly, 2011. Modernist desires among recent migrants in western Turkey. Nordic J. Migr. Res. 2 (2), 34e41. Hart, Kimberly, 2009. Conflicts and conundrums in a Women's cooperative in western Turkey. Hagar Autumn 9 (1), 25e42. Inalcik, Halil, 1994. The ottoman state: economy and society, 1300e1600. In: Inalcik, Halil, Quataert, Donald (Eds.), An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Işık, Damla, 2007. Woven Assemblages: Globalization, Gender, Labor, and Authenticity in Turkey's Carpet Industry. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Arizona.
lu, Nur, Yazıcıog
lu, Lütfi, 2004. Fountains in Kara-Pilehvarian, Nuran, Urfaliog Ottoman Istanbul. Yapı Yayın. Kasaba, Reşat, 2009. A Moveable Empire: Ottoman Nomads, Migrants and Refugees. University of Washington Press, Seattle. Kirişçi, Kemal, 2008. Migration and Turkey: the dynamics of state, society and politics. In: Kasaba, Reşat (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol. 4. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kumbaracılar, Izzet, 2008. Istanbul Sibelleri. Kapı Yayınları, Istanbul. Lees, Susan, Bates, Daniel, 1974. The origins of specialized nomadic pastorialism. A Syst. Model 39 (2), 187e193. Luke, Christina, Cobb, Elvan, 2013. Dwelling in hacievliler: social-engineering policies in the context of space, place and landscape in rural, western Turkey. Anatol. Stud. 63, 155e173. Mahmood, Saba, 2005. Politics of Piety. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Meeker, Michael, 2002. A Nation of Empire: the Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity. University of California Press, Berkeley. Milgram, Lynne, 2000. Reorganizing textile production for the global market. In: Grimes, Kimberly, Milgram, Lynne (Eds.), Artisans and Cooperatives. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 107e128. € Ozden, Sezgin, Atmis, Erdogan, Menemencioglu, Kayhan, 2004. Negative effects of recent unplanned expansion on highland ecosystems in Turkey. Mt. Res. Dev. 24 (4), 303e306. € Oztürk, Murat, Jongerden, Joost, Hilton, Andy, 2014a. Commodification and the social commons. Agrar. South J. Political Econ. 3 (3), 337e367. € Oztürk, Murat, Hilton, Andy, Jongerden, Joost, 2014b. Migration as Movement and Multiplace Life: some recent developments in rural living structures in Turkey. Popul. Space, Place 20, 370e388. Shahrani, Nazif, 2002. The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan. University of Washington Press, Seattle. Singer, Amy, 2008. Charity in Islamic Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Soysal, Levent, 2008. The migration story of turks in Germany. In: Kasaba, Reşat (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol. 4. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. White, Jenny, 2013. Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks. Princeton University Press, Princeton. White, Jenny, 2002. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey. University of Washington Press, Seattle. _ €pekler ve NesnZeybek, Ozan Sezai, 2014. Istanbul'un yuttukları ve Kustukları: Ko _ eler Üzerinden Istanbul Tahlili (Istanbul Mouthfuls and Vomit: An Istanbul € Analysis of Dogs and Other Subjects). In: Ozbay, Ayfer Bartu ve Cenk (Ed.), Yeni _ Istanbul Çalışmaları (New Studies on Istanbul). Metis Kitap, Istanbul, pp. 263e282. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv The economy of survival: Bedouin women in unrecognized villages Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder a, *, Avigail Morris b, Heather Ryan a a b Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University, Sedeh Boker Campus, 84990, Israel Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Ben-Gurion University, Kibbutz Ketura, Hevel Eilot, 88840, Israel a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 10 February 2016 Received in revised form 14 June 2017 Accepted 20 July 2017 Available online 9 August 2017 This paper problematizes the binary division between substantivist vs formalist approaches, and suggests instead that in the case at Bedouin women living in unrecognized villages, within a settler context, deprived from the equal rights for developing an appropriate “rational” economic systems, people turn to their limited local economic systems aiming to produce economic safety net for their economic survival. However, lacking the conditions for their maintenance, these sociocultural institutions do not provide a sufficient base to maintain their economic systems, thus they recreate their “economy of survival” systems. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Bedouin women Economic anthropology Feminist anthropology 1. Introduction Economic anthropological literature has shown that the shift from dependence on subsistence economies to market economies has changed women's roles. In rural settings, women who were active participants in the group's economic life had to alter their traditional roles or considerably decrease their productive activity. With the introduction of a modern cash, modernity advanced technology or colonialism, some women lost their productive role within the family altogether (Brockington, 2001; Feinberg and Helleiner, 1986; Morvaridi, 1992). While men usually found jobs in the public work force, women, who were unable to leave the domestic sphere, found novel ways of modifying their traditional roles in order to maintain their contribution to the group's economy. This paper examines how women in the unique setting of unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel, which involves land confiscation, deprivation of housing rights and proper infrastructure within the village setting, and reduction in subsistence resources, have transformed their economic roles within the family and community. This paper, addresses the implications of this transformation for the employment of women's traditional skills as significant for the economic survival. In doing so, the article challenges the binary of both substantive * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sarab@bgu.ac.il (S. Abu-Rabia-Queder), avigailmorris55@ gmail.com (A. Morris), heather@nkok.org (H. Ryan). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.07.008 0140-1963/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. and formalist anthropological approaches within the studied context. 2. Understanding local economic systems: a review of economic anthropology Assessment of structural economic transformations among the Bedouins requires an understanding of how local economic structures undergo change and how this affects women's roles. The paradigms of economic anthropology have attempted to capture the meanings that local people assign to their economic activities and the motivations behind their economic decisions (Chibnik, 2011). Furthermore, patterns of economic activity are understood in terms of the conditions under which they developed. The formalist school of thought (e.g., Herskovits, 1952; Schneider, 1974), which borrowed from microeconomic models, claimed that, cross-culturally, individual economic activity is dominated by rationally chosen transactions motivated exclusively by self-interest and maximum gain, in market and non-market economies alike. For Herskovits (1952), the only variables were cultural circumstances within which economic behavior occurs. Substantivists (e.g., Polanyi, 1968) have challenged some of these assumptions, focusing on how cultural, social and political relations frame the economic decision-making process. According to this view, common even in some economic circles (Wilk, 1996), the human economy is submerged in non-economic relationships and institutions. Polanyi (1968; see also Polanyi and Pearson, 1977) notes that, whereas in modern capitalism the economy is S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 embedded in the marketplace, economic systems in other cultures are embedded in other social institutions and operate according to different norms. One economy may be based on kinship relations, while another may be embedded in religious institutions or a combination of social and cultural institutions. As such, the concept of work (including labor for production and distribution) is understood and practiced differently by diverse societies. People relate to work differently, depending on whether they function in a subsistence mode or in a market economy. Polanyi distinguished between three types of economic exchange: reciprocity, redistribution and market exchange (Polanyi, 1957). Accordingly, the substantivists view is based on social relations and role obligations identified through reciprocity of goods and services between individuals and social groups who share some common identity (kin, tribal affiliation). Substantivists have been interested in how people's economic decisions are influenced by their cultural perceptions, based on their values, beliefs and world views, as well as social relations and obligations. Although the formalist/substantivist debate has disappeared from anthropological discourse, the ideas that emerged from it provide valuable theoretical insights for analysis of economic behavior. Under the examined context, framed within deprived political rights, Bedouin women's economic behaviors and choices cannot be understood as a result of free choice. 2.1. Feminist perspectives of economic anthropology In pre-industrial societies, men and women shared responsibility for family subsistence production and distribution. Women not only contributed substantially to the family and household economy, but also played a vital role as primary caregivers for children, who were considered a significant part of family production (Brown, 1970; Hurtado et al., 1985; Pahl, 1981; Stoler, 1975). The growth of trade and industry, modernization, colonialism and globalization separated the economy from the household in both Western and non-Western societies. More wealth was generated outside of the family sphere, thereby differentiating between public and private domains, with the former at the foreground of economic productivity. With few exceptions (Stoler, 1977), this resulted in a dichotomy between gender roles, “taking women out of social production and leaving them in home-based subsistence production only” (Undeland, 2008:123). From society's viewpoint, home-based subsistence assigned women to the “non-productive sphere” of housework, reproduction and consumption (Wilk, 1996). Their work was not included in GNP calculations. Considered outside the realm of economic paid activity, women's subsistence production, informal paid work and domestic production have been underestimated (Beneria, 1992; Boserup, 1970; Ember, 1983). This has not only labeled home-based subsistence as “unnecessary” in economic terms, but has also decreased women's access to economic resources and the means of production (Bahramitash and Salehi-Esfahani, 2011; Boserup, 1970). Rebelling against the dichotomy between private and public spheres, feminists tried to refocus economic anthropologists’ attention on household issues to prove that domestic affairs are economic in nature and should not be excluded. They examined how women combined public and private spheres in their economic pursuits; how they bridged gaps between economic and domestic production; and the nature of relations among work, family and other social spheres (see White, 1994; Wolf, 1992). The literature cited argues that the transformation of traditional economic systems leads to a steady narrowing of women's social roles and income-generating capacity. Moreover, the rigid division 81 between productive and reproductive work fosters the illusion of a decline in women's contribution to the reproductive household economy (Bose et al., 2009; Ember, 1983). Society loses the household as an adaptive, low-cost productive center that can shield its members from the vicissitudes of the market economy (Elliot, 1977). These criticisms imply that analysis of gender roles and relations in a particular society demands knowledge of the cultural and historical processes in which they take shape, as well as the cultural and symbolic meanings that the society ascribes to them mainly in times of economic crises. 3. Understanding the Negev Bedouin economy in Israel e a historical review The Negev Bedouin are part of the Palestinian Arab people who remained in Israel after 1948. Today they form part of an indigenous minority, numbering 201,900 people (Noach, 2011b). Their economic status within Israel is framed within their political history as shaped in a settler context (Amara, et al., 2013). Before the 1948 war, about 95,000 Bedouin lived upon approximately 12,000 sq. km in the Negev, using this land for cultivation and pasturing flocks. In ensuing years, a large number left or were evicted, and the 1960 census reported that 11,000 Bedouin from 19 tribes remained, concentrated in the Sayig, a closed area of about 1000 sq. km in the northeastern Negev. Between 1948 and 1966, they were placed under Israeli military rule restricted from access to education or employment. While some of the Bedouin had lived in this area before, tribes that had resided elsewhere were resettled on “abandoned” lands (Noach, 2011a; Abu-Saad, 2008). With the removal of the military administration in 1966 Bedouin men entered unskilled, low paying jobs such as truck drivers, farm workers, builders, and factory workers. Many households continued to raise sheep as an economic safety net (Degan et, al. 1987; Marx, 1977). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Israeli government built seven villages with the aim of resettling the Negev Bedouin under the false guise of modernization (see Dinero, 2010). However, these towns lacked the essential characteristics of urbanization, such as telephone lines, sewage systems, cultural centers, public libraries, public transportation, banks or post offices and thus they rank at the lowest socio-economic status. By the early 1990s, these permanent villages had been populated by about 50% of the community. The other half (today, about 93,000 people) remained on their ancestral lands, in settlements the Israeli government defined as illegal “unrecognized villages.” In a territory designated as a “restricted area” for the Bedouin in the 1950's (Abu-Saad, 2008; Yiftachel, 2009) This new definition invalidated every activity in these villages (Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, 2012). Today these villages have no official status, are excluded from state planning and government maps. As such, most are denied a basic infrastructure, such as running water, proper electricity, sewage, access roads, adequate schools and sufficient medical clinics. In addition, penalties are periodically enforced which involve the demolition of homes considered to be built illegally, the uprooting of trees, crop destruction and the confiscation of herds (Gotlieb, 2008; Human Rights Watch, 2001, 2017). As a result, residents typically live in shacks or tents without regular electricity or plumbing. Many households have generators that run 1e2 h a day. One quarter of the Bedouin in unrecognized villages lack toilets, showers or kitchens, and 42% have no garbage collection (Rudnitzky, 2012). In 2009, 24% of the Negev Bedouin (about 45,500 people) lived in 46 unrecognized villages (Abu-Ras, 2006; Rudnitzky, 2012). Of these, only 10 have since become “quasi” recognized (Berkowitz, 2013). The remaining 36 villages are absent from government 82 S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 surveys and statistics, and their needs are generally not addressed by government policy (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009). Residents of unrecognized towns exist in an illegal no-man's land. Not only can they not build permanent dwellings, they cannot list their addresses on their identity cards (Zaher, 2006). In 1997, residents organized the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages (RCUV) in response to the need for representation before the Israeli government. The RCUV has petitioned the Supreme Court for basic services in the villages and has been working to improve basic infrastructure and recognition. Compared to Bedouin in government-planned towns, residents of unrecognized villages have the least access to education (Negev Coexistence forum for civil equality, 2014), and employment. About 80% are below poverty level (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2009), while 90% of those employed earn less than minimum wage (Rudnitzky, 2012). Schools in unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev are severely overcrowded and poorly equipped. To attend high school, most children must travel 12e15 km, without adequate public transportation, to the nearest recognized village (Adalah, 2011:33). Thus, young girls interested in acquiring education and eventual work, find it difficult to find access to them. This is because in conditions of lack of transportation and paved roads, they have to depend only on gender and tribal mixed buses that fear their families from risking their honor by traveling alone in mixed buses with boys from other tribes (Abu-Saad, 2001). Before the move to villages, the livelihood of the Bedouin was rooted in agriculture and livestock. Every member of the family helped tend to flocks, and the traditional economy symbolized the solidarity of the household. Generally, the men watered and fed the flocks, helped by the children, while the women tended to lambs, milked livestock, maintained the tents made of hair, gathered wood, prepared food and spun yarn. Women and children replaced men when they were absent. Wealthier families with large flocks (ranging from tens of sheep to hundreds of sheep) hired shepherds Number of women interviewed Average age Marital status Average number of children/per woman Educational level Salaried/not Engage in livestock raising Run a business from home þ embroidery vis economic cooperation. 4. Background and methodology 4.1. Villages studied The study focuses on four unrecognized Bedouin villages1 in the Negev (population of each village lies between 1000 and 4000), All four villages lacked paved roads, adequate electricity (limited supply of generators) and sewage systems. Two of them were recognized in 2009, nevertheless they have not received an infrastructure or services nor permission to build permanent housing. Only two had an elementary school and clinic. In all four, most women were unemployed, illiterate and poor. Even in the villages with schools, few local women worked as teachers, health workers or secretaries. Those who succeeded in acquiring higher education work outside of the village in the Jewish labor market. The families we interviewed worked in the “tourist” business trying as much as they could to make a living out of their traditional way of life. Within these families most of the men performed contract work as tractor or truck drivers. Men's monthly pay, which is below the minimum wage (approximately $1, 300 NIS), was immediately spent on household items such as food, clothing, baby products and school supplies. 4.2. Women's profile Most of the women interviewed in this study were in their midthirties to mid-forties; a few were aged 55e60 and only one was in her early twenties. Nearly all had at least five children (some had as many as eight), ranging in age from three to sixteen. Most had a minimal education (5e6 years of primary school). Some of the women were separated from their husbands, involved in polygamous marriages or widowed. Village A Village B Village C Village D 14 28e38 Mostly divorced\widowed 7 80%: 0e9 years 20%: 13 years 80%- not 20%-yes 2 12 22 28e38 married 9 80%: 0e9 years 20%: 13 years 80%- not 20%-yes 1 21 15 30e55 married 9 80%: 0e9 years 20%: 13 years 80%- not 20%-yes 3 12 12 40e50 married 8 80%: 0e9 years 20%: 13 years 80%- not 20%-yes 5 7 whose daily meals were prepared by the women and girls. The contribution women made to the family economy gave women and girls, a certain measure of power, including participation in decision-making about such issues as relations with neighbors and the marriage of their daughters (Meir, 1997). Sheep and goats were crucial to the economic sustainability of all the members of the Bedouin family that served as a source of food, status and income. Forced urbanization limited livestock-rearing options, compelling Bedouin men to seek external sources of income, primarily in the Jewish market, where they obtain low-paying jobs (for details, see Abu-Rabia-Queder, 2016; Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2008). This also led to changes in family roles, especially among women, who were gradually left without productive roles and without economic alternatives in the urban setting, weakening family solidarity vis-a- 4.3. Methods The four village studied were selected because they represent the three main geographical locations of all unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev which lie in a triangle between Beer Sheva and three Jewish settlements (Dimona, Arad and Ramat Hovav). Semi-structured interviews were held over a period of three years with women from 10 households in each village (40 households) and when necessary return visits were made. Focus groups as well as informal meetings were held with women at local clinics, 1 Locations and geographical descriptions of villages are omitted to maintain their anonymity. S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 neighborhood gatherings, social events such as weddings, and at the market place. The first author conducted interviews within two villages with whom she was familiar, while the third author conducted interviews in two other villages as part of her master degree studies that was supervised by the first two authors. At the end of the three years, a workshop was held with female representatives of the four villages in order to present the findings and obtain feedback from the participants. All interviews were conducted in Arabic language. 5.1. Liminal/survival subsistence economy 4.4. Accessing the field 5.2. Survival subsistence as an alternative to unrecognition and poverty We discovered that the best time to reach most of the women was during the mid-morning hours (9:00e10:00 a.m.), when inlaws, neighbors and acquaintances would gather in one woman's house to sit and gossip after their children left for school. During these group interviews, these women freely related their experiences and difficulties. During our stay, some of the women invited other neighbors or relatives to join in. These women would come to one of the homes ‘to be interviewed.’ When given the opportunity we would also interview the women individually. On such occasions we would sit and talk to one of them in private or hear her talk and gossip about marital and intimate issues at a wedding. To protect the women's confidentiality and privacy, we refrain from divulging the names of the women or their respective village. At one of the meetings recorded by the first author, it was discovered that the women were familiar with each other's situations and sorrows and sometimes would even retell and analyze each other's stories. Their morning group encounters, attended by relatives and close acquaintances, facilitated emotional support and allowed their voices to be heard. In their interviews, the women would sometimes say, ‘X is familiar with my story’ or ‘Y knows what I'm talking about.’ Such full disclosure was possible, the author assumed, because they were members of the same family or extended family circle and shared the same troubles, sometimes even facing them together. Acting as a moderator, the author conducted the interviews in a manner which allowed each woman to have ample opportunity to express herself. Each women was given time to speak without interference from others. This type of management was a little harsh on the women, as they often tended to interrupt each other to stress a point. Some of the younger women came with their babies, ranging in age from a few months to over a year old, sometimes obliging the interviewer to ask women to repeat themselves. 4.5. Data analysis Data analysis followed Strauss and Corbin's (1990) grounded theory procedure that calls for open, axial and selective coding of the raw data. Each coding procedure adds a new dimension to the data, leading to the discovery of new patterns of economic behavior framed within a specific context. 5. Findings The findings point to two parallel economic systems: which are both liminal and serve as a mechanism for survival. As a result both systems can be referred to as “economies of survival”. The first involves preservation of enduring subsistence patterns, based on reciprocal relations within the family and reliance on traditional feminine roles and skills. The second addresses a transformation of the traditional subsistence, noncash economy to a limited villagebased market cash economy that fosters temporarily traditional female skills and livelihoods. 83 Lack of land and external resources, poverty and the high cost of living drive women to preserve their remaining traditional subsistence roles as active producers in the poor domestic economic unit. This situation is paradoxical in that women's unpaid roles become more relevant within this reality and consequently strengthen their productive roles and the cohesion of their kin group, but not for the long term. The findings show that, within the unrecognized villages, women's traditional productive roles are significantly needed, but partially preserved. Land loss has reduced grazing areas and eliminated some traditional female roles, as one participant explains: There is no grazing land, so traditional women's work in the field is only partial and very limited. They took the lands, so that women's traditional work connected with the land has been totally constrained. As a result, women's domestic roles became more necessary as an alternative source of income. Because there are no permanent local sources that supply dairy or meat products, nor storage facilities for such products, women who can afford it bear responsibility for food production e raising small flocks,2 milking a few goats and sheep, and producing some dairy and wheat products. Traditional roles are further needed by women to bake saaj bread on a daily basis, as well as shear sheep and spin yarn (mainly among the old women over 50). This is in addition to shopping at the market to supplement their basic provisions. Carrying out these subsistence roles constitutes a burden, particularly because of the unfavorable physical conditions in unrecognized villages. As one woman reports: We lack stable and solid houses that would enable us to leave home without concern. For example, there are many hazards around our house, such as half-built walls, posing great danger to our children. I'm always worried about my children because the surroundings are not physically sound. That's why it's hard for me to leave the house and leave the children to go to work. I also feel a sense of burden. Those who work in [recognized] villages, for example, are not like us. They eat breakfast and go out to work. Among us, it's understood that women do the washing; you're at the stove in the morning; you prepare everything. We do not have adequate electricity for refrigerators in which we could keep our food. At times, I even laugh when I hear women on television say that they cook for the whole week and put it in the freezer.3 Because of the high cost of purchased items, women prefer to produce homemade items whenever possible. A woman in her sixties, who raises a few chickens, pigeons and a few goats in a size of two square meters, to support her household, reserves the eggs for her family. When it was suggested that she sell eggs in the 2 Not all families can afford to raise flocks, because of lack of space, land for grazing and high costs. Thus we refer here to two square meters close to the house, which also causes poor conditions of hygiene. 3 Since there is no electricity in these villages, the generator that serve a few households at the same time, cannot supply sufficient power for all electric machines in each household, especially refrigerators that work only few hours a day, and not at night. Thus, women cannot use them to freeze food. 84 S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 village, she replied: “What do I need money for? With the eggs, I feed my family, my sons, my daughters. From the goats, we produce milk and yogurt and cheese, and we eat.” Women's liminal/restrained subsistence roles help them regain their productive identity and constitute a temporarily economic shield against the uncertainties of poverty and governmental neglect. However, although women's subsistence work is a partial economic alternative to unrecognition, it is carried out under difficult structural constraints. 5.3. Maintaining subsistence through minimal cash Subsistence has been redefined in Bedouin society under deprived economic resources. This transition has introduced new expenses to settled communities, including school fees, transportation costs, the purchase of commercially-manufactured food, and building materials for houses.4 As one women remarked, We built this house five years ago. We are living in it, but the kitchen isn't finished. We live inside, but the kitchen is outside … Little by little, when we have work, we will finish the kitchen. A significant expense, added by this reality of deprivation, is purchased feed for livestock. Due to the villages’ unrecognized status, Bedouin land has been confiscated, causing a reduction of grazing land. Given that a substantial part of their subsistence economy was based on these flocks, Bedouin in unrecognized villages consider it a priority to purchase feed for them. Ethnographic observations revealed that families who owned flocks breed their livestock with the goal of selling the offspring for cash; the cash is then used to purchase supplementary feed for their flocks. When one woman who had produced milk products from her flocks was asked whether she felt the profits sufficed for her family, she replied: No, no, not at all. It was barely enough to feed them all! The yogurt we sold was barely enough to buy food for them. We couldn't save any money at all. We made the yogurt and ghee … We'd sell it, and buy grain and straw. This finding supports claims made by Stavi et al. (2006) which state that due to political and climate limitations only 8% of the Bedouin in unrecognized villages raise flocks which provide a very small economic profit. Despite the high costs of maintaining livestock, in recognized villages these animals are kept not only as an economic safety net, but also as added social security (Aref Abu-Rabia, 1994:2). For the Bedouin in unrecognized villages, the flock provides a security base for times of need. Poorer families who cannot afford to raise sheep or goats turn to less costly animals. As one woman explains, “With the little money I have, I buy a few chicks, roosters and young hens, raise them and live off of them.” 5.4. Subsistence as a potential for enhancement of reciprocal relations Each unrecognized village constitutes one community belonging to one extended tribe; and this collective structure provides for reciprocal economic interaction in times of crises, 4 Building stone roofs in unrecognized villages is considered illegal, thus houses are not finished and are more vulnerable to weather damage in both summer and winter. This becomes another economic burden that calls for ongoing house maintenance. such as mutual aid and shared responsibility for the family and community. In time of deprivation, understanding the interrelatedness of the economic and social structure among Negev Bedouin in terms of raising livestock is crucial for understanding how social relations frame economic decision-making. As the subsistence economy based on raising livestock is embedded within family and kin relations, livestock are not only a source of subsistence, but also “an infrastructure for social relationships” (Abu-Rabia, 1994:20) that strengthens group cohesion. But, since these subsistence resources are scarce, women's productive roles within family and community have also been reduced. The limited subsistence economy can be perceived as both helpful in time of deprived resources, but also as a double burden on educated women, as the bellow stories show: The first author visited a family of ten in unrecognized village in which the husband worked in an unstable low income job. With the little money he had, he bought a flock of ten sheep and goats. Tending to the animals demanded the involvement of every family member, and whenever the author visited the family, she witnessed cooperation. When the husband delivered the young lamb, the uneducated wife5 held down and cleaned the birthing mother. The children cleaned the pen, and the wife milked the goats and produced dairy products for her nuclear and extended families. At times, the children (aged from 9 to 15) also tended to the young lambs and kids, grazing them at a nearby ravine or close to the neighboring houses. In this case, this subsistence-limited system, is helpful both as a crucial extra income and accorded significant subsistence roles to both women and the husband. In another case, this informal crucial system was a burden on educated women who had to work in both formal and informal jobs to provide adequate income for her family. One respondent, a teacher whose husband was unemployed, noted that her salary was insufficient to support her family of twelve. In addition to baking saaj bread and tending to their small home, she had to pay for generator fuel, car maintenance, schooling costs and other household expenses. She bought some sheep and goats for her husband, but crowded conditions in the village and lack of grazing land led her husband, together with two older sons and his mother, to move temporarily to an open field nearby. Although, the chores entailed by this move were shared by all family members, it entailed an extra burden for the educated wife; She had to prepare food daily and send it to her family. On weekends, she went to the field to help tend the flock. Her husband and children would graze the flock, while her mother-in-law would milk, produce dairy products and shear the wool for spinning in the spring. As Stavi et al. (2006:60) claims, this case shows that “the domestic consumption of products of the flock reduces subsistence costs”, more than, for example, profits from embroidery. Although this cooperation, sometimes carried out from a distance, it was a burden for the educated teacher who had to maintain both formal and informal work. Reinvestment of profit for the reestablishment of a subsistence economy could be a guaranteed path towards continuity of the existential security that these people lack as residents of unrecognized villages, if they would have had the land on which they raise flocks, mainly for uneducated women who lack the economic security held in formal jobs. Despite limitations and the cost for maintaining flocks, they hold a crucial significance in maintaining a limited rural way of life for those who need it. 5 In this family, the wife never attended school. S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 5.5. Minimal cash economy Two types of minimal cash economies were found in the villages under study: informal businesses within the living space and the implementation of traditional feminine skills. Both types are part of the informal/survival market economy in which goods and services are exchanged for minimal cash. 5.6. Home/village-based cash economy: blurring public-private boundaries The literature points to several factors that prevent Bedouin (and other Arab) women from equal access to employment outside the village. These include lack of adequate educational and economic resources in their villages; lack of appropriate choices of workplaces that would allow women access to both their jobs and homes (to fulfill domestic obligations); and lack of adequate public transportation to get to work. Additionally, these women suffer from discrimination in public institutions and private companies in the Jewish-Israeli sector, causing a scarcity in job opportunities even for those with a higher education (Khattab, 2002; Abu-RabiaQueder, 2016). For women from unrecognized villages, scarcity of employment opportunities is aggravated by lack of infrastructure, paved roads and transportation (Abu-Bader and Gottlieb, 2008). Kayan Feminist Organization's (2007) latest report indicates that absence of transportation in Arab villages, including unrecognized Bedouin villages, is the key factor preventing women from accessing the public sphere. As a result, Bedouin women are forced to seek employment within a village already deficient in workplace choices. Some scholars (Yonai and Krauss, 2010) suggest that lack of suitable transportation might reinforce patriarchal codes relating to restrictions on women, who are not allowed to leave the village without a male escort and are limited in their working hours outside the village. One woman indicated that her husband objects to her working outside the village because she would be in contact with men who would ask: “What is she doing here?” As another woman explained: Perhaps if we did ask to work outside the village they would not allow us to because it involves travel. The only options remaining are to work at home or elsewhere in the village. For example, the Bedouin home is often converted into a source of minimal income by converting it into a tourist attraction. One tribe that had lived in caves until the 1950s converted them into a community-run, ethnic tourist site by hosting social events, serving ethnic food, and producing and selling ethnic women's products, such as thobs (traditional hand-embroidered caftans), jewelry, handmade bags, carpets and wall decorations in a traditional “authentic” Bedouin atmosphere. In another example, traditional tents built on “unrecognized” ancestral lands serve as a tourist site. The women, who use these tents as both a home and a source of livelihood, serve traditional food they prepare themselves, such as afig (dried milk), mansaf (cooked rice on saaj bread topped with a mixture of chicken or lamb, nuts and yogurt) and Bedouin herbal tea and coffee. However, despite the hard work and effort put in producing these items, customers do not visit on a regular base. Since the tents are located on 'unrecognized' territory, only tourists who are familiar with these sites visit them. Still another type of survival business is home-based shops run by women, who are usually divorced, abandoned or widowed. They often live on their own or in single-parent households and lack economic support from their husbands. To cope, these women provide themselves with a limited viable livelihood by converting a 85 room in their small homes into a shop that contains simple basic products. Examples include a dry goods shop, a gift shop and a shop of school supplies for the local community. Some women use a room in their home to develop jewelrymaking skills. The idea was conceived by an Israeli entrepreneur who trained women to make the jewelry. Nevertheless, the women were not provided with the skills needed to market their products. A teacher in her thirties who works in the village school initiated the establishment of the jewelry “factory,” which, for a while, became a source of livelihood for those who succeeded in marketing their products to tourists at neighboring tourists site. The factory did not last, however, as the village's lack of basic infrastructure such as access to the village via paved roads, public transportation, and internet hindered access to the Israeli market and international clients. In addition, located on unrecognized territory, the factory was unable to become registered as an official business and therefore formal loans, as opposed to informal credit (through friends and relatives), were unavailable to the female workers. Meir and Baskind (2006) who studied ethnic business entrepreneurship among the urbanized Bedouin explain that the lack of success of these businesses can be explained within the wider context of the political relations between the Bedouin and the state. They claim that most Bedouin entrepreneurs do not trust the state institutions, in particular the “Administration for the Advancement of the Bedouin”. This was a government body established in the early 1980s to handle the evacuation of 6000 Bedouin who occupied a space designated for a military airbase following the evacuation from the Sinai as a result of the Camp David Accords. This body currently regulates all aspects of Bedouin life e education, economy, and lands. Moreover, Meir and Baskind also found that “Banks in general consider financing Bedouin enterprises as highly risky investments in terms of returns” (2006:85). However, despite those obstacles, we witnessed that throughout the duration of the factory, working within the confines of their homes allowed women to combine domestic duties and child care with work. This strengthened their cultural identity as a “good mother/wife” (Sharp et al., 2003) by enabling them to maintain their traditional domestic roles. The above mentioned young teacher defined the advantages of blurring the publicprivate domains: The idea was that we have women who cannot work outside of the village, so they started to search for jobs inside the villages, within their homes. Instead of leaving the family for a long period of time, a woman works for 2 h. If someone needs her at home, she can go back. Similarly, a woman who runs a home shop described her day: I wake up at 5:00 in the morning, bake the saaj, prepare my husband's and children's morning meal and after they go to work and school, I clean the house, cook their lunch, and sit down. If I have customers, I'm free to sell. All these activities occur in the feminine sphere e in the women's homes or within the female community; customers are usually women. This keeps women close to their reproductive roles and enables them to perform productive work while protected from patriarchal male criticism concerning gender mingling (see also Bahramitash & Kazemipour, 2011). A further advantage of this potential village-based economy is the expansion of the permissible private sphere into the community and among one's own kin, thus obscuring the boundaries 86 S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 between public and private space. Homes become the public market and one's neighbors and kin become clients. One woman remarked: “It is not like you are working; it is like you are sitting at home.” Another stated: “My customers are my neighbors. My neighbors bring me customers.” Women feel safer working within the complex of the village, which also conforms to their husbands' expectations, as one woman noted: What led them [our husbands] to allow us to work, what helped us is that we are with our own people and with those close to us in our village, within the close environment of our community, with no strangers. If the appropriate conditions were available, there would be the potential for the integration of the private and public domains by creating a shared community-kin space, in which all members constitute one community of buyers and sellers. This revised public-private space could provide a framework within which semi-educated women could negotiate their active roles within society. 5.7. Reproducing female cultural identity through a minimal cashbased economy Lacking formal employment opportunities, women turn to their traditional skills and turn them into temporal viable commodities. A group of women over 45, who are semi-illiterate and belong to the generation that mostly lived a traditional lifestyle, offers spinning services to younger women who lack the time or skills mainly in the wedding season (conducted in the summer). Some young Bedouin women are abandoning traditional sewing, instead seeking opportunities through modern education; yet, they are still expected to possess traditional sewn items when their sons or daughters marry. The older women reproduce their cultural knowledge by producing for their daughters. As one woman said: All my daughter's generation say: “No, we don't want to sew; we don't want to sew.” But when they get married, the first thing they say is: “We want sewn pillows.” Or, as another old woman remarked: “The woman who wants to sew brings me the fabric and threads and I make it for her. She pays a few shekels for it and then she takes it.” This very small income is generated from traditional household items based on traditional female skills, such as sewing and weaving, raising sheep, and processing and selling their byproducts, producing cheese and yogurt and using the wool to make thobs, mattresses, rugs, pillows and bags. The need to preserve cultural products, rooted in cultural expectations for women's roles, is significant for younger and older villagers alike in events such as weddings. As one woman explains: “If a woman gets married and does not sew mattresses, people will tell her husband that his wife is maila [incomplete] and not shatrah [productive].” Lacking sources to formal employment within the village, older women maintain their traditional roles by asserting them as cultural needs. Creating cultural products maintains women's traditional female identity. Using the skills of sewing and weaving as a contemporary source of income symbolizes reproduction of the women's traditional productive roles, embodying sentimental and cultural value. These are among the significant traditional occupations that had been crucial to surviving life in the desert. Consequently, it is difficult for women to transform their products into commodities and accord them monetary value. One woman demonstrates this tension when she describes her dilemma with her husband's desire to sell her thobs: My husband used to take my traditional thobs to the tourist shop for whoever wants to buy them. Sell my thobs? So that I can see them on other women passing by? I couldn't stand seeing one on another woman. These cultural materials play a significant role in seeking to maintain women's productive feminine identity, as well as contributing to the reproduction of culture. As one woman said, “This is … something that makes you proud of your culture,” or, as another remarked: “This is a kind of haneen [yearning] for the past when women used to sew the tent.” Sewing, as Fabietti (1991) points out, is associated with the traditional act of building the home as the principal unit of family production and is the last stronghold of Bedouin identity, that has been reduced in the reality of nonrecognition. 6. Discussion Economic anthropology aims to understand how people engage with networks of economic systems and social relationships, and how economic changes and social relations influence each other. It asks what kinds of economic systems are created and how they are understood. This knowledge helps researchers recognize the unique conditions within which people operate and reveal the mechanisms people adopt under unequal political and economic conditions. The two leading theoretical approaches to the understanding of economic choices and behaviors within a cultural context range from choices based on rational, individual considerations (formalism) to choices embedded in social-cultural institutions (substantivism). The case of the unrecognized Bedouin villages shows that, in a settler reality of political unrecognition, lack of educational and economic resources, limited mobility, economic insecurity and poverty, women's economic choices are mainly limited to systems that are embedded within social and cultural institutions inside the village and thus provide them with the only alternative for economic survival. Isolated geographically, socially, politically and economically from the dominant labor market, Bedouin women turn inward toward their own familial and communal groups as a “safety net,” as well as a means of addressing their status as poor in their relocated reality. The cost of living forced upon them by displacement, combined with unrecognition, has compelled both educated and semi-educated women to employ their traditional subsistence roles, though these subsistence roles are still insufficient and must be subsidized with cash. Consequently, they have turned their familial and cultural resources into limited commodities, relying on their traditional skills and cultural female roles that have survived which are still strongly embedded within their reciprocal relations and thus still highly needed within society. These skills and cultural roles strengthen the women's identity temporarily as producers for the family, providing additional income to the family, however, with an extra burden for educated women. Despite the advantages of working within a restricted villagebased economy, these women face numerous limitations. First, relying solely on this economy may create a segregated ethnic market, which can restrict economic development. Although, as Khattab et al. (2001:1) point out, “living in ethnically highly segregated areas [does] not necessarily have to result in a negative impact on employment prospects,” but can even “promote job opportunities and facilitate economic success,” this is only true where “alternative economic channels” and conditions which S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 “support the creation of a prosperous enclave economy” exist. Such conditions include protected access to labor and markets, informal sources of credit and business information (Khattab et al., 2010:1), as well as cash flow from both local and foreign capital, advanced technology, potential buyers and sellers, and access to products and services (Khattab, 2002; Souza and Tokman, 1976; Weeks, 1975:3). For Bedouin women living in segregated unrecognized villages lacking the most basic services, these conditions are unfeasible. One exception is the home-based tourist business which, in theory, has the potential to reach a wider clientele. Another potential limitation of a segregated village-based economy is the danger of flooding the local market with overcompetition between small businesses, which could lead to an economic breakdown. Although some informal enterprises are characterized by cooperation as opposed to competition (Tendler, 1987), the United Nations Center (1995:3) report on women and informal incomes in Africa discusses the dangers of “saturating” local markets with informal enterprises. As Long and Richardson (1978:179) argue, the low level of state regulation or interference in segregated village-based economies (or in the case of Bedouin from unrecognized villages, the non-existence of state intervention/investment in their informal economic activity) suggests that there is no formal way to control competition between businesses, and thus no means of providing secure, low-risk conditions for small enterprises in these economic enclaves. Although a subsistence economy supported by cash provides a means of survival for the older generation, which lacks any formal education, this is only a temporary limited solution. Although many of the younger generation, both educated and non - educated women, are not interested in learning traditional skills which would allow them to fall back on a subsistence way of living, there are those who are looking for ways to gain access to a wider range of economic opportunities via NGO's and individual entrepreneurship that offer younger semi-educated women cash employment in return to teaching them embroidery and sewing skills to be used in these NGO's e an act termed by the first Author (Abu-RabiaQueder, 2007) as “reviving tradition”. Since in these villages, 75% of women are illiterate, the only path for paid employment will be more viable if it occurs within their villages. For example, as the findings indicate, it was a young teacher from the village school who established a short-lived jewelry factory that interwove traditional skills with the demands of the local market where most working women lacked formal education. Polanyi and others talk about the formalist/substantivist dichotomy which treats, reciprocal and market exchange as two separate and, in many cases independent types of economic exchange. In anthropological terms, the findings presented here suggest that under the conditions of denial of political and economic rights, Bedouin women try to “rationalize” their substantive systems, in order to survive economically. Therefore the process here is not simply the transition from the pre-modem to the more modern as Meir and Baskind assert (2006:75). Rather, the economic process described here is developing within a scenario which portrays the relationship between an indigenous minority within a settler state that neglected the Bedouin in all spheres of lives and “ left them to pursue their own means of subsistence with virtually no public or institutional support ” (ibid: 71). As Meir and Baskind (2006:75) note Bedouin economy is trapped between a settler “Western-capitalistic economic milieu that is not hospitable to them, and yet denies their return to their traditional pastoral and farming practices.” Recognition of these villages and their agro-pastoral way of life will maintain and upgrade women's traditional roles, render them more profitable and turn them into established livelihoods with long-term financial security. These measures will restore 87 traditional resources such as land for grazing, cultivation and livestock, while providing equal rights such as economic opportunities originating in land recognition, infrastructures, education and contemporary job sources that can ensure formal employment of the younger generations as well. In this way, families within these communities can both maintain the security of a subsistence economy and move towards economic advancement (in the conventional sense) when/if the appropriate conditions are given. This will also enable the cooperation of older and younger generations alike. The older women can continue to use their skills in a subsistence economy and, when feasible, pass them on to the next generation, while the younger generation can expand their education as well as institutionalize their own culture when given the appropriate rights. Governmental neglect and lack of economic opportunities and economic resources in unrecognized Bedouin villages, force its members to turn to the scarce remaining traditional resources that also require formal institutionalization and preservation. Thus, economic choices that Bedouin women adopt in the reality of shortage gives a different meaning to the substantive\formalist approaches. The case presented in this paper provides a new way of reexamining economic systems. It problematizes the binary division between substantivist vs. formalist approaches, and suggests instead that in the case at hand, lacking the equal rights for developing an appropriate “rational” economic systems, people turn to their limited local economic systems aiming to produce economic safety net for their economic survival. However, lacking the conditions for their maintenance, these sociocultural institutions do not provide a sufficient base to maintain their economic systems. Acknowledgments We thank the women who participated in the study as well as the Ministry of Science and Technology in Israel for funding this study for the last three years. References Abu-Bader, Suleiman, Gottlieb, Daniel, 2008. Education, employment and poverty among Arab Bedouins in southern Israel. Hagar 8 (2), 121e136. Abu-Bader, Suleiman, Gottlieb, Daniel, 2009. Poverty, education and employment in the Arab-Bedouin society: a comparative view. In: Working Papers 137. ECINEQ. Society for the Study of Economic Inequality. Abu-Rabia, Aref, 1994. The Negev Bedouin and Livestock Rearing: Social, Economic and Political Aspects. Oxford, Berg. Abu-Rabia-Queder, Sarab, 2007. The activism of Bedouin women: Social and political resistance. HAGAR: Stud. Cult. Polity Ident. 7 (2), 67e84. Abu-Rabia-Queder, Sarab, 2016. The paradox of professional marginality among Arab-Bedouin women. Sociology 1e17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0038038516641621. Abu-Ras, Thabet, 2006. Land Disputes in Israel: The Case of the Bedouin of the Naqab. http://adalah.org/newsletter/eng/apr06/ar2.pdf. Abu-Saad, Ismael, 2008. Spatial transformation and indigenous resistance: the urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in southern Israel. Am. Behav. Sci. 51, 1713e1754. Abu-Saad, Ismael, 2001. Education as a tool of control vs. development among indigenous people: the case of Bedouin Arabs in Israel. HAGAR Int. Soc. Sci. Rev. 2 (2), 241e259. Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, 2011. Inequality Report: the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel. Author, Haifa. Amara, Ahmad, Abu-Saad, Ismael, Yiftachel, Oren (Eds.), 2013. Indigenous (In)Justice: Human Rights Law and Bedouin Arabs in the Naqab/Negev. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Bahramitash, Roksana, Salehi-Esfahani, Hadi, 2011. Veiled Employment: Islamism and the Political Economy of Women's Employment in Iran. In: Syracuse University Press, Syracuse. Bahramitash, Roksana, Kazemipour, Shahla, 2011. Veiled economy: gender and the informal sector. In: Bahramitash, Roksana, Salehi-Esfahani, Hadi (Eds.), Veiled Employment: Islamism and the Political Economy of Women's Employment in 88 S. Abu-Rabia-Queder et al. / Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 80e88 Iran. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, pp. 226e255. Beneria, Lourdes, 1992. Accounting for Women's work: the progress of two decades. World Dev. 20 (11), 1547e1560. Berkowitz, Abra, 2013. Navigating the Path from Planning Paradigm to Plan Implementation: the Case of a New Bedouin Locality in Israel. Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of “Master of Arts”. Ben-Gurion University. Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, 2012. The Alternative Master Plan for Bedouin Villages in the Negev. Author [Hebrew], Jerusalem. Bose, Manik L., Ahmad, Alia, Hossain, Mahabub, 2009. The role of gender in economic activities with special reference to Women's participation and empowerment in rural Bangladesh. Gend. Technol. Dev. 13 (1), 69e102. Boserup, Ester, 1970. Women's Role in Economic Development. Allen & Unwin, London. Brockington, Daniel, 2001. Women's income and the livelihood strategies of dispossessed pastoralists near the mkomazi game reserve, Tanzania. Hum. Ecol. 29 (3), 307e338. Brown, Paula, 1970. Mingge-money: economic change in the new Guinea highlands. Southwest. J. Anthropol. 26 (3), 242e260. Chibnik, Michael, 2011. Anthropology, Economics, and Choice. University of Texas Press, Austin. Degan, et al., 1987. Bedouin households and sheep production in the Negev Desert, Israel. Nomadic Peoples 4 (1), 125e147. De Soto, Hernando. Why Does The Informal Economy Matter?. T. Ennis, trans. http://www.hacer.org/pdf/ Desoto002.pdf. Dinero, Steven, 2010. Settling for Less: Planned Resettlement of Israel's Negev Bedouin. Berghahn Books, New York. Elliot, Carolyn, et al., 1977. Theories of development: an assessment. In: Ximena, Bunster B. (Ed.), Women and National Development: the Complexities of Change. University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London, pp. 1e8. Ember, Carol R., 1983. The relative decline in Women's contribution to agriculture with intensification. Am. Anthropol. New Ser. 85 (2), 285e304. Fabietti, Ugo, 1991. Control of resources and social cohesion. The role of the Bedouin domestic group. Nomadic Peoples 28, 18e27. Feinberg, Richard E., Helleiner, Gerald K., 1986. Between Two Worlds: the World Bank's Next Decade. Transaction, New Brunswick. Gotlieb, Nora, 2008. Reconstruction: the voices of Bedouin-Arab women on the demolition of their homes in the unrecognized villages of the Negev. HAGAR Stud. Cult. Polity Identities 8 (2), 83e108. Herskovits, Melville, 1952. Economic Anthropology: a Study in Comparative Economics. Knopf, New York. Human Rights Watch, 2001. Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools. Author, New York. Human Rights Watch, 2017. World Report. Hurtado, Magdalena, Ana, Hawkes, Kristen, Hill, Kim, Kaplan, Hillard, 1985. Female subsistence strategies among ache hunter-gatherers of eastern Paraguay. Hum. Ecol. 13 (1), 1e28. Kayan Feminist Organization, 2007. Mobility Among Arab Women in Israel. Author, Haifa. Khattab, Nabil, 2002. Ethnicity and female labor market participation: a new look at the palestinian enclave in Israel. Work, Employ. Soc. 16, 91e110. Khattab, Nabil, Johnston, Ron, Sirkeci, Ibrahim, Modood, Tariq, 2010. The impact of spatial segregation on the employment outcomes amongst Bangladeshi men and women in England and Wales. Sociol. Res. Online 15 (1). http://www. socresonline.org.uk/15/1/3.html. Long, Norman, Richardson, Paul, 1978. Informal Sector, Petty Commodity Production, and the Social Relations of Small-scale Enterprise. In: Clammer, John (Ed.), The New Economic Anthropology. Macmillan, London, pp. 176e209. Marx, Emanuel, 1977. The tribe as a unit of subsistence: nomadic pastoralism in the Middle East. Am. Anthropol. 79 (2), 343e363. Meir, Avinoam, 1997. As Nomadism Ends: the Israeli Bedouin of the Negev. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Meir, Avinoam, Baskind, Ayelet, 2006. Ethnic business entrepreneurship among the urbanizing Bedouin in the Negev. Isr. Nomadic People 10 (1), 71e100. Morvaridi, Behrooz, 1992. Gender relations in agriculture: women in Turkey. Econ. Dev. Cult. Change 40 (3), 567e586. Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, 2014. Between Discrimination and Abandoning: Bedouin Villages and the New Jewish Villages in the Negev. A Report on Racism. Beer-Sheva. Noach, Haia, 2011a. The Villages that Are and Are Not: Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev. Tel Aviv: Pardes. Noach, Haia, 2011b. International Human Rights Day 2011 Report on the Demolition of Arab-Bedouin Homes in the Negev. http://www.dukium.org/eng/wpcontent/uploads/2011/06/Demolitions_Report_2011-for-print.pdf. Pahl, Raymond E., 1981. Employment, work and the domestic division of labour. Int. J. Urban Regional Res. 4 (1), 1e19. Polanyi, Karl, 1957. The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press, Boston. Polanyi, Karl, 1968. The economy as instituted process. In: Emil LeClair, Edward, Schneider, Harold K. (Eds.), Economic Anthropology: Readings in Theory and Analysis. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, pp. 122e167. Polanyi, Karl, Pearson, Harry W., 1977. The Livelihood of Man. Academic Press, Cambridge, MA. Rudnitzky, Arik, 2012. The Bedouin Population in the Negev: Social, Demographic and Economic Factors. Abraham Fund Initiatives, Tel Aviv. Sharp, Joanne, Briggs, John, Yacoub, Hoda, Hamed, Nabila, 2003. Doing gender and development: understanding empowerment and local gender relations. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. 28 (3), 281e295. Schneider, Harold, 1974. Economic Man. Free Press, New York. Souza, Paulo R., Tokman, Victor E., 1976. The informal urban sector in Latin America. Int. Labor Rev. 114 (3), 355e365. Stavi, Ilan, Kressel, Gideon, Guterman, Yitshak, Degan, Allan, 2006. Flock use among the Bedouin in 'spontaneous' settlement in the Negev desert, southern Israel. Nomadic Peoples 10 (1), 53e69. Stoler, Ann, 1975. Land, Labor and Female Autonomy in a Javanese Village. Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York. Stoler, Ann, 1977. Class structure and female autonomy in rural java. Signs 3 (1), 74e89. Strauss, Anselm, Corbin, Juliet, 1990. Grounded theory research: procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qual. Sociol. 13 (1), 3e21. Tendler, Judith, 1987. Providing Credit to Small Firms through Private Voluntary Organizations, UNO in Recife, Brazil. In: Rondinelli, Dennis, Shabbir, G. (Eds.), Urban Services in Developing Countries: Public and Private Roles in Urban Development. Macmillan, London, pp. 195e242. Undeland, Asyl, 2008. Women and pastures in the kyrgyz republic: a case study of chong alai valley. In: Paper Presented at IASC Conference, July 14-18. University of Gloucestershire, UK. United Nations Center, 1995. Meeting of Experts on Women in the Informal Sector. Gigiri, Kenya. http://www.unesco.org/most/wom-infs.htm. Weeks, John, 1975. Policies for expanding employment in the informal urban sector of developing economies. Int. Labour Rev. 111 (1), 1e13. White, Jenny, 1994. Money Makes Us Relatives: Women's Labor in Urban Turkey. University of Texas Press, Austin. Wilk, Richard R., 1996. Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology. Westview Press, Boulder, CO. Wolf, Diane, 1992. Factory Daughters: Gender, Household Dynamics, and Rural Industrialization in Java. University of California Press, Berkeley. Yiftachel, Oren, 2009. Critical theory and ‘gray space’: mobilization of the colonized. City 13 (2e3), 240e255. Yonai, Yossi, Krauss, Vered, 2010. Culture or structured opportunities: why do so few palestinian women participate in the labor market? In: Azaiza, Faisal, AbuBaker, Khawla, Hertz-Lazarowitz, Rachel, Ghanem, As’ad (Eds.), Arab Women in Israel: Current Status and Future Trends. Ramot, Tel Aviv, pp. 237e259. Zaher, Sawsan, 2006. The Right of Arab Bedouin Women to Adequate Housing and Accommodation. Adalah Newsletter 23. http://adalah.org/newsletter/eng/ mar06/ar2.pdf. 

Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Arid Environments journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv Editorial Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihood Arid regions are most often characterized as geographical areas which lack environmental resources for a secure livelihood. As a result, many communities living in the arid areas of the world suffer from conditions of poverty and economic crises. Women from poor and less developed countries are those who usually pay the price of unequal access to natural and economic resources. Their inferiority is not only manifested in economic marginality but also intersects with other aspects of inequality such as ethnicity, status, age, patriarchal order and state policies which consequently lead to multiple inequality and marginality in accessing resources for a sufficient livelihood (Figs. 1 and 2). The aim of this special issue is to highlight the livelihoods of women in arid regions focusing on both the social, political, economic and ecological barriers that women encounter and the strategies they use to overcome them. The eight papers presented in this Special Issue of Journal of Arid Environments, offer a variety of case studies from around the globe. Each article relates to different challenges/barriers that women face in providing for their families and offers a descriptive analysis of the strategies women use to adapt to and/or overcome these challenges in a changing society. A major theme which appears throughout all of the papers in this volume has been the variety of ways in which women who live in harsh arid environments rely on their cultural and ecological knowledge in an attempt to sustain both themselves and their families. Many of the barriers that they face are not only due to ecological factors but to social and political interventions such as development projects and state policies. In an attempt to improve the quality of life for women through promoting gender equality these programs and policies often misrepresent these same women and undermine cultural and ecological knowledge essential for maintaining a sustainable lifestyle. These women are frequently perceived in western literature, as culturally oppressed and as victims of patriarchy. As a result their traditional roles within their family and community are often perceived as oppressive rather than empowering. This western prism tends to place these women who practice very different lifestyles as farmers, pastoralists, and past nomads as one homogeneous group. The issue begins with Yadav and Lal’s paper which uses support from a wide range of literature to outline the severe impact of climate change on women in developing countries. Emphasis is placed not only on the hardships women face as a result of climate change but also on the ways in which many of these women are using their traditional knowledge, experience and expertise, to adjust to these ecological changes. Yadav and Lal suggest that NGOs, governments and other development organizations can and do encourage women to create “climate-smart households”, advance “ecoefficiency” through the development of traditional knowledge, reinforce social networking, and manage sustainable systems. Although social and political interventions by NGOs and development projects aim to benefit women by improving their economic, social and political conditions, the papers in this volume by Hove and Gweme (on the Zaka of Zimbabwe), Köhler-Rollefson (on the Raika of Rajasthan) and Jocelyn et al. (the Walpiri of Australia), illustrate how these same interventions can often clash with cultural beliefs and practices and thus serve as barriers for improving living conditions for women. Hove and Gweme describe how NGO initiatives to introduce conservation agriculture (CA) to the Zaka of Zimbabwe were faced with cultural resistance and as a result failed to reach more women due, in part, to the need for increased labor intensive work for women already burdened with a multitude of domestic obligations as well as the fear of jeopardizing their major staple maize crops due to a new need for crop rotation. Both Köhler-Rollefson and Jocelyn et al. add to this dialogue by discussing the gaps in the perception of women’s roles and gender balance which exist between development programs through NGOs and the women whom which they are attempting to advance. When discussing women and sheep pastoralism amongst the Raika of Rajasthan, Köhler-Rollefson gives examples of the ways in which NGO’s overlook the powerful roles Raika women play as the financial managers of the household business and how reliance on western notions of gender equality cause NGOs to often misinterpret gender divisions in public spaces. In doing so, Köhler-Rollefson highlights the central contribution that Raika women make to their families subsistence. Jocelyn et al.’s paper points out the ways in which gender and cultural blindness of non-indigenous government agencies marginalize Warlpiri women by overlooking cultural norms which advocate separate but equal gender domains. Non-indigenous government agencies failed to realize that these gender domains are highly significant in providing the means by which men and women act as partners in managing and conserving the land. Another theme emphasized in this Special Issue is the important productive role women occupy in the attempt to sustain their families particularly among indigenous women in arid regions. As opposed to western feminist viewpoints which often look at domestic/familial roles as oppressive and thus disempowering, the papers presented in this volume suggests a different look at women's domestic roles perceiving them as an essential part of the family’s subsistence way of life. In other words, women’s identity and traditional subsistence roles are not detached from their families or communities, but are inspired from and embedded in family and kin relations. This volume challenges western rigid binary oppositions which divide public and domestic domains in terms of work and instead suggests https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.11.009 0140-1963/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Editorial Fig. 1. Raika shepherd women on migration (photograph courtesy of Ilse Köhler-Rollefson). Fig. 2. Bedouin woman weaving at the Sidreh-Lakiya association. The Lakiya Negev Weaving Initiative was established in 1991 and is a locally based enterprise managed by Bedouin women. It empowers Bedouin women of the Negev on a personal and economic level by applying their specialized weaving skills to produce products for both the local and international markets. (photograph courtesy of the Sidreh-Lakiya association). domesticity as an integral part of sustainable life, which is vital to the cooperative, joint and complementary roles men and women share. In this regard, this volume's vital contribution is to suggest replacing the term 'gender equality', 'empowerment' and 'power' with more culturally suited terms that reflect women's understanding of their own contributions to their family’s economic well-being. The separation between gender roles or gender spaces discussed in these papers, are not understood as hierarchical divisions where one role/space is inferior to the other, but as complementary to each other. Empowerment and power are not seen merely as an individual's goal, but are embedded in family and kin relations, and in some cases also in patriarchal agents. Cooperation, jointness and the complementary roles that men and women share is further examined in Farnworth et al.’s paper which analyzes how household methodologies (HHM) which promote joint decision-making and management of both wives and husbands, emphasizing partnership between the two genders, is seen as a way to foster equal gender relations with the aim of reaching higher agricultural yields when managing their plots of land. Economic endeavors which are embedded in family and kin relations becomes the central theme in Biernacka et al.’s paper which examines urbanized Bedouin women entrepreneurs in Israel and the “patriarchal connective strategies” which they perceive as key factors in their business success which is framed within scarce conditions for economic development. In this context, fathers and sons as patriarchs become protectors and agents for women entrepreneurs. The paper challenges the homogeneous definition of patriarchal society by highlighting the important roles 'patriarchs' have in promoting agency and being at the same time resources for agency. Another topic highlighted in this Special Issue is the negative influence of state policies on the choices (or lack of choices) women have for improving living conditions for themselves and their families. In Hart’s article on rural life in Western Turkey she describes how village women who turn to their nomadic heritage as an economic resource to sustain rural life, found it difficult to maintain businesses such as weaving cooperatives and cheese making workshops due to the failure of the government to provide services to rural regions such as running water, roads and other 2 Journal of Arid Environments 149 (2018) 1–3 Editorial infrastructure. This along with lack of appropriate ecological conditions have over the years driven many women to abandon their cultural economy and migrate to the cities where they preferred to become housewives leaving their husbands to become the breadwinners. The negative impact of state policies on the social and economic welfare of women in minority groups is also discussed in Abu Rabia-Queder et al.‘s paper which focuses on the economic plight of women in unrecognized Bedouin villages in southern Israel. Whereas women and their families in rural western Turkey have been driven by lack of infrastructure to abandon their nomadic heritage and turn ‘outward’ towards urbanized regions in the hopes of finding better economic opportunities for themselves and their children; in unrecognized Bedouin communities, state policies not only fail to provide people with an adequate infrastructure, but also deny them other basic political and economic rights such that women have been left with no choice but to rely on their traditional subsistence roles and look ‘inward’ towards their families and community turning them into a source of informal economy. The authors are careful to point out that although this informal economy, which is inspired from and embedded in family and kin relations, does provides economic, social and cultural benefits for poor families, it only enables a short term sustainable livelihood. Longer term solutions for economic development within unrecognized Bedouin villages are necessary and can only be achieved through changes in state policies towards these communities. In this volume we attempt to “unpack” the homogeneous category given to women in arid regions. We focus on their unique situations in terms of their geographic location, ecological conditions, role within the family unit, political status, subsistence patterns and economic status, educational background and cultural-ecological knowledge and practices in determining intervention among state policies and NGO's agencies. The choice of the Journal of Arid Environments for this Special Issue is also of importance since the topics raised here are generally not dealt with in such publications, whose major focus is the natural environment and ecology. It is hoped that this publication will serve to stimulate interest and scientific investigation by a broader spectrum of researchers, on the status and role of women in arid lands. The guest editors thank Dr. Damian Ravetta - editor in chief, Dr. Liora Kolska Horwitz -associate editor and Mr. Shahid Hussain of the JAE office, for their assistance in seeing the papers through to publication. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder Ben-Gurion University Avigail Morris Science Center for the Dead Sea and Arava & The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies 3