When government policies are unable to resolve longstanding economic and agricultural issues, rural women are hit the hardest. Women, who already earn less relative to their male counterparts, are the ones to confront the doubled, or even tripled, cost of living.

Cathy Estavillo, a peasant woman from Cagayan, said the main role of women in rural areas is to ensure that there is food on the table, that their children and spouses have eaten their breakfast and have packed lunch when they go to school or out in the fields. So, when the cost of food—along with other necessities–rises, peasant women are the first to adjust and make sacrifices.

“Dahil sa napakababang presyo ng kanilang palay, kagutuman ang inaabot ng pamilyang magsasaka at patuloy pa rin yung kultura na palaging kapag kulang yung pagkain sa mesa nahuhuli ang nanay na kumain,” said Nanay Cathy, who is also the secretary general of Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women and spokesperson for the Bantay Bigas alliance.

When female farmers like Nanay Cathy rally for women's rights, they do so in recognition that their subjugation stems from their state of landlessness. Provided the political and economic attitudes that surround peasant women, it is not enough to merely forward gender equality in the rural areas but to also push for their struggle over productive resources.

More Than the Domestic

Born to a peasant family, Nanay Cathy has had her share of struggles as a peasant woman. “Hindi ako nakatapos ng pag-aaral, kinailangan kong huminto dahil hindi sapat yung kapasidad ng mga magulang ko na patuluyin ako sa kolehiyo,” she recalled. Like most farmers, her father was merely a tenant, which required him to give half of his harvests to his landlord. To make up for lost income, children and women had to find ways to help with the family's finances.

Female peasants typically help in the fields, but while they are still waiting for the harvest season, Nanay Cathy recalled taking on several jobs to earn a little extra money. Often menial, these tasks included laundering their neighbor’s clothes, taking care of farm animals, and partaking in other household labor to make ends meet.

But work outside the farm is not any better as women suffer maltreatment and are paid lower wages. Currently, the minimum monthly pay domestic workers receive in the regions range from P3,500 to P5,500, according to the Department of Labor and Employment. Still, rural women go to great lengths for their family's survival. “Maraming mga nanay ang pumapasok sa iba’t ibang trabaho na labag sa kanilang kalooban, iiwan mo yung pamilya mo para mag-katulong o para mamasukan. "Mahirap sa kanila iyon dahil wala sila sa tabi ng mga anak nila,” said Nanay Cathy. 

Indeed, women do double the work in rural areas—taking care of the household means also working in the fields, or even bearing maltreatment and wage inequality in the cities.

“Sa pagkalugi ng ating mga magsasaka, ang mga kababaihan ang talagang naghahanap ng mga paraan para mayroong alternatibong mapagkakakitaan,” said Nanay Cathy. Left without any other choices to earn, peasant women, in their desperation to provide for their families, are further subjected to vulnerabilities.

Land and Liberation

Amid the perennial poverty experienced by peasant farmers, government inaction remains to be apparent. According to Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas, a national farmers’ organization for land reform, the government has failed to concretize promises to ensure food security and boost the production of local farmers.

Without government support, farmers turn to loans to fund the costs of farming. On average, palay production cost P47,000 per hectare in 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. But since lending institutions and rural banks turn their backs on those who cannot provide collateral, most of the farmers are forced to borrow money from usurers or landlords. Nanay Cathy shared that since women are perceived to have a sense of duty to repay debts regardless of circumstances, they are primarily in charge of taking out loans.

"Madalas ang mga kababaihan nga ang nangungutang dahil sa palabra de honor na babayaran namin at gagawan namin ng paraan so [mayroon] talagang tiwala,” she said.

But farmers are usually unable to pay their debt. A season's harvests and income from other side jobs are hardly enough to cover the needs of the family, much less pay for the principal and interest of their loans, because farmers are forced to lower the farmgate prices of their produce to compete with imported agricultural goods. Owing to the passage of the Rice Liberalization Law, which allowed for unabated palay imports, the average farmgate price in 2019 plummeted to P15.63 per kilogram from 2018's P20.14. Some provinces even reported selling palay at P7 to P10 per kilogram.

When this happens, farmers are forced to pay their debt in the form of harvests or worse, give up ownership of their land to landlords. This is how farmers lose control of their lands and suffer further under the current feudal system.

Without control of their land and, consequently, production, farmers are forced to bear measly wages imposed by their landlords. Since 2019, a peasant's net income remained at P236.93 with a prejudiced wage difference of P30 for women.

The suffering and inequality peasant women experience are primarily founded on their economic status. Becoming liberated women, therefore, requires that they first break free from the chains of landlessness. “Hanggang ang ating productive resources ay hawak ng mga panginoong maylupa, iilan, at mga dayuhan, di kailanman lalaya ang kababaihang magsasaka,” Nanay Cathy lamented. 

Shared Struggle

Nanay Cathy firmly believes that so long as land is not held by the farmers, the subordination of women will continue to engender their exploitation in rural communities. Genuine agrarian reform and rural development will provide for the necessary social protections that women are unable to secure for themselves under the current system, where land is controlled by local elite and corporate business interests. 

As Nanay Cathy said, the primary barrier to women’s liberation in the countryside is effectively eliminated once productive resources are controlled by farmers. “Unti-unting papawi ang pananamantala sa kababaihan dahil talagang kalahok na sila sa produksyon. Mapapaunlad na nila ang kanilang sarili at matutulungan pa nilang mamulat ang mga kasama nila.” 

Dismantling land monopoly is the foremost struggle that both genders must wage—the fight for women's rights is also forwarded by male farmers in rallying for genuine agrarian reform. When peasants can control their production, they receive full compensation for their labor, they are freed from the exploitation and violence of landlords.

Without the need to work extra hours outside their communities, mothers can spend time with their families, have more time for personal development, and raise their political consciousness. When women earn in proportion to their work, mothers need not worry about how to buy their family’s next meal, nor will they be troubled about taking risky deals to borrow money. 

Ultimately, land redistribution and food security are the prerequisites in addressing the suffering of being a woman in farmlands, while effectively putting an end to the chronic cycle of poverty, debt, and displacement experienced by peasant families. ●