Traditional gender dynamics are changing in Guatemala and migration is an important driver of this process. Migration alters family structures and incomes sources, creating the potential to reshape gender dynamics and gender roles in agriculture. Researchers have shown how gender underlies both the causes and consequences of migration, but often conclude in paradoxical or unexplained findings.
In Guatemala, male-migration driven by socioeconomic reasons has accelerated in recent decades. Roughly seventy-percent of migrants from Guatemala are young males. Qualitative studies done in Guatemala have found countervailing evidence to suggest that gender roles can be either reinforced or reversed in men’s absence. Less is known still about the relationship between migration, gender and agriculture leaving scholars to call for more attention to this important nexus. The clarity of this relationship is paramount in places like the Western Highlands of Guatemala, where the gender gap is wide and food security fragile.
In rural areas of Guatemala male out migration has contributed to the so called feminization of agriculture, the expansion of women’s roles in agriculture into domains that were traditionally controlled by men (Deere 2005). The effects of this transformation, however, are complex and contested. Furthermore, the expansion of women’s roles in agriculture is not tantamount to women’s empowerment in agriculture, a domain the literature suggest may be important for gender role transformation and positive outcomes related to this process )
This study explores the relationship between male migration and gender roles in Guatemala, focusing specifically on women’s empowerment in agriculture. Utilizing DHS data, collected in 2014-2015, this study examines male absence as a condition that may facilitate women’s empowerment in agriculture. Results have specific implications for practice and policy, suggesting where development actors should focus their efforts to respond to this changing environment, in Guatemala and places where similar dynamics are playing out.
While this nexus is particularly understudied, several studies suggest the ways in which migration can effect women’s relative power within the household. Building on this literature and applying the sustainable livelihoods framework and bargaining theory to women’s empowerment in agriculture, I hypothesize that i) female headed households will demonstrate higher participation in agricultural activities than women in male-headed households, ii) female headed households will have higher composite scores of women's empowerment than women in male-headed households but that iii) female headed household will not have access to the same assets that male-headed household do which may contribute to a lower score on certain domains of women's empowerment.
