The reality for many women living on farms is that gender-based violence (GBV) and harassment has been normalised in rural communities, with victims often forced to accept their fate in close-knit communities and without adequate support structures for them to seek help.
This point was made by a panel of gender-based violence experts and activists who contributed to Food For Mzansi’s weekly Gather To Grow interactive discussion on Twitter this week. In the final days of the annual 16 days of activism against GBV, the panel and audience discussed violence against women and girls in rural and farming communities.
Led by the publication’s editor for audience and engagement, Dawn Noemdoe, the panel included Lebogang Sethusha, a labour specialist from Agri SA Labour, Micealah Ford, programme coordinator for Women on Farms Projects and Bronwyn Litkie, founder of the lobbyist group SA Women Fight Back.
Gender-based violence has many forms
According to Ford, GBV takes on many forms. She added that Women on Farms Projects wanted to shed light on the fact that poverty is in itself a form of violence.
In the discussion Ford pointed out that, “The structural causes of violence against farm women are economic systems that create dependency, landlessness, insecure tenure, patriarchal gender norms and unresponsive and unavailable government institutions.”
She also stated that gender-based violence amongst farm workers and women in South Africa was in fact normalised. This was echoed by audience member and farmer Gugulethu Mahlangu, who added that experiencing sexual harassment is a fact of everyday life for many rural women.
In 2020, research done by Women on Farms Projects among 51 farm women in the Wellington farm area in the Western Cape brought to light that domestic violence and abuse continued or worsened during the Covid-19 lockdown.
On farms male workers are more likely to be placed in a higher earning position. On the other hand, farm women are seasonally and casually employed. This creates female job insecurity and makes farm women economically reliant on their partners, Ford said.
“The economic reliance on their partner makes it difficult for female farm workers to leave their partners should gender-based violence arise,” she said.
Effective policy change
Labour specialist Sethusha said Agri SA works on a policy level. They investigate which policies can help change social ills that affect the women in the agricultural sector.
“What we have noted on a policy level is that female agricultural workers are a vulnerable part of society. From a labour perspective we also see this from the gender pay gaps. We see it from the quality of employment that female agricultural workers get on farms. We also see it in times of retrenchment.
“When the going gets tough for most companies the female agriculture workers are the ones that are first laid off,” she said.
Sethusha went on to explain that these issues exacerbate the social ills within farming communities. It leaves female workers economically vulnerable and often financially dependent on their abusers.
She emphasised that female workers make up as much as 28% of the labour in the agricultural sector. “We need polices that will address the 28% because they are the most vulnerable 28%.”
What support structures are there for GBV victims?
Meanwhile Litike asked what support structures were available to women in rural communities and agriculture.
She said that one of the main forms of gender-based violence within South Africa is intimate partner violence. This manifests in the form of domestic violence and can often lead to murder.
Litkie also highlighted the lack of adequate support systems for victims of gender-based violence. For these women finding a safe home can be one of the most difficult challenges when leaving an abusive home.
“It comes back to education, you know. From a young age, getting rid of the patriarchy in society, respecting women more and also doing your part.
“There are so many organisations out there of women who are fighting gender-based violence and we are starting to see more and more men’s organisations pop up. It’s fantastic,” said Litkie.
Ford said that there were little to no shelters in rural communities.
“Women on Farm Projects work with shelters that are in other areas and refer the women to those shelters. We also provide court support if needed and go with victims to police stations to take out orders of protection.”
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