This year marks the International Year of the Woman Farmer, a timely moment to spotlight the crucial role women play in sustaining agrifood systems, yet their labour remains undervalued, underpaid, and often invisible. Across the world, women are engaged in every part of agrifood systems. They grow crops, raise livestock, process food, trade in markets, and sustain household nutrition. Globally, around 40% of working women are employed in agrifood systems, and in many countries, women make up nearly half (or more) of the agricultural workforce.

For CARE, a co-lead of the coalition, women’s empowerment and gender equality is a central focus of all its programmes. CARE’s work reinforces the reality that women are not only producers, but also entrepreneurs, caregivers, and community leaders who hold food systems together. Yet despite their central role, they face persistent structural barriers. Women farmers  experience unequal  access to land, credit, inputs, and markets, and are often excluded from decision-making spaces that shape agricultural policies and value chains. These inequalities are also reflected in working conditions. Women are disproportionately concentrated in informal, low-paid, and insecure roles, earning significantly less than men while also carrying the majority of unpaid care work. Women in agriculture often work longer hours than men, yet with fewer resources, less recognition, and limited opportunities to advance.

This is a critical entry point for the coalition. Shaped by unequal access to rights, resources, and protections, women’s roles in agrifood systems are fundamentally linked to labour issues. Advancing decent work for women means addressing not only wages and working conditions, but also the structural inequalities that limit their agency and voice across food systems.

CARE’s programmes offer evidence of what works. Through initiatives such as climate-smart agriculture, Farmer Field and Business Schools, and Village Savings and Loan Associations, CARE supports women to improve productivity, access markets, and build financial resilience. At the same time, CARE emphasizes that technical solutions alone are not enough. Transforming food systems requires shifting power, supporting women’s leadership, strengthening collective action, and addressing the social norms that constrain women’s participation.

As highlighted in CARE’s International Year of the Woman Farmer campaign, when women farmers have equal access to land, finance, information, and decision-making, the impacts extend far beyond individual livelihoods. Women invest in their families and communities, strengthen food security, and drive more sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices.

The International Year of the Woman Farmer is more than a moment of recognition, it is a call to action. For coalition members, it presents an opportunity to align efforts around a shared priority: ensuring that women’s work in agrifood systems is not only visible, but valued, protected, and fairly rewarded, because when women farmers thrive, food systems become more equitable, resilient, and sustainable for all.