CARE and our partners help empower women to strengthen food security, livelihoods, and nutrition for their families and communities.
Women play a vital role in feeding the world. They are farmers, caregivers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and food producers. Yet they continue to face greater barriers than men when it comes to accessing land, credit, tools, and information that could improve their income, health, and nutrition.
Women earn nearly 20 percent less than men as agricultural workers, even though they make up more than one quarter of the global agricultural workforce. In Africa, women represent the majority of workers in the food and beverage sector.
The result is clear: women, their families, and entire communities are missing out on enormous potential to reduce hunger worldwide. Closing gaps in wages and access to resources could grow the global economy by nearly one trillion dollars and help an additional 45 million people access food.
CARE and our partners work to address these unfair imbalances. By supporting women to access credit, grow stronger businesses, and gain greater independence at home and in their communities, we help strengthen food security and nutrition for entire communities.
Why women lack access to food and resources
In many societies, women and girls are not treated as equal to men and boys. Harmful social norms and unequal power dynamics limit their rights and opportunities. In the context of food security, this often means:
- Women and girls eat last and least during food shortages.
- During water shortages, women and girls are more likely to leave school or work to collect water.
- Women carry most unpaid care work, leaving little time for paid employment.
- Even when women work, they often lack access to land, finance, seeds, and tools.
- Women have limited decision-making power at home and in public spaces, reducing their ability to influence food security decisions for themselves and their communities.
These barriers reduce food production, limit income, and undermine long-term opportunities for entire communities.
How CARE and partners empower women to fight hunger
Preventing hunger over the long term requires a holistic approach that addresses inequality at multiple levels. CARE and our partners focus on three interdependent areas.
Building agency: confidence, skills, and access
After generations of being told what they cannot do, many women lack not only resources, but also the confidence to work, lead, or speak out. CARE and our partners support women by expanding access to machinery, seeds, training, and business skills, from sustainable farming techniques to negotiation and financial management.
Community groups are central to this work. One key approach is Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which help women save money, access small loans, and build financial independence. These groups also create spaces for sharing knowledge, building leadership skills, and strengthening social networks.
Changing relations: enabling more equal relationships
Unequal relationships between women and men, and between girls and boys, have significant impacts on food security and rights. CARE and our partners work with women, men, girls, and boys to raise awareness of these inequalities and reflect together on how they can be addressed.
CARE’s Social Analysis and Action approach is a key tool in this work.
It facilitates dialogue that helps participants identify how personal beliefs, social norms, and everyday behaviors contribute to unequal wages, unpaid care work, and violence against women and girls. Through this process, communities better understand how norms affect access to food and resources and develop collective solutions.
Transforming structures: influencing formal and informal institutions
Beyond harmful norms and behaviors, formal and informal systems often continue to limit women’s rights. Only 52 countries fully guarantee women’s rights to access, own, and control land in practice.
CARE works with communities to identify these structural barriers and advocate for change. We support local and national leaders to develop fair laws and policies, and to be held accountable for their implementation.
Tools such as the Community Score Card enable women to demand better public services, while Community Action Planning helps communities come together to shape decisions that affect their lives.
Diversifying livelihoods
Even the strongest resilience efforts cannot fully protect agricultural workers from unexpected shocks. Extreme weather, pests, and economic disruptions can quickly reduce harvests and income.
Diversifying livelihoods helps reduce this risk. When one source of income is affected, families can rely on others.
CARE and our partners support agricultural workers, especially women, to expand income opportunities. We help them build skills and improve access to assets, markets, and financial services.
Our work focuses on three key areas:
- On-farm: Strengthening production through sustainable practices, such as growing a wider range of crops.
- Off-farm: Supporting engagement in agrifood activities, including food processing and value addition.
- Non-farm: Expanding opportunities in other sectors such as construction, tourism, and manufacturing.
We place particular emphasis on rural women who produce food on a small scale. They play a critical role in global agrifood systems and make up more than 40% of the agricultural workforce worldwide.
