By MARIDOL RANOA-BISMARK

Do you know that there’s a big difference between the meaning of magsasaka and magbubukid?  It’s not just about the kind of work these people do.  It’s about gender.

Interviews conducted among women farmers in San Jose city,  Nueva Ecija and discussed in the study “Women and Literacy: Exploring the Literacy Experiences and Practices of Women Farmers in the Philippines” by Katrina Ninfa Topacio, shows why.

The study, published in The Journal of International Women’s Studies, found out that magsasaka refers to men farmers who produce rice. Women respondents call themselves magbubukid, meaning planters of vegetables. Magsasaka is more important than magbubukid, because rice remains the staple food of Nueva Ecija since the dawn of time.

And since men are the rice producers, they have the upper hand in the agriculture sector. Women themselves look up to them as farming “experts,” superior to them because they happen to be stronger.

While male farmers go out in the fields to provide for the family, their female counterparts are limited to the secondary role of planting vegetables. Society assigns them the role of family caregivers and nurturers, even if they can learn a lot of things outside the home.

The study also says that this inequality persists even when the marriage is over. Women can’t fight for their right to own the conjugal land because they don’t have money to do so. Land ownership is passed on to a  male family member simply because society thinks he can fulfill the role better because he is physically stronger.

As this writer’s Visayan helper says, “Kahit may lupa ang babae nung dalaga pa siya at nag-asawa siya, ang lalaki ang nagde-desisyon sa lupa.  Yung iba, sa anak na lalaki pinapamana ang lupa (It’s the husband who decides what to do with a piece of land a  woman inherits when she was still single.  Others pass on the  land ownership to their male children).”

Even the government is guilty of perpetuating this double standard. Respondents share that the Department of Agriculture prioritizes land owners when it comes to training sessions.  It is usually the male land owner (the husband) who gets invited. Women are the second choice, since they only attend when the husband is unavailable.

The opportunity loss is great for women, who could pass on the knowledge to their children had the former been allowed to undergo training.

Another study by Robinson-Pant also paints a dismal picture of women’s social status.  The professor and  UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation points out that  literacy training for women don’t address their needs.  Instead, they only hone reading and writing skills so they can level up as mothers and wives.

In other words, women’s literacy trainings hinge on her role as her husband and children’s helper. They don’t address their needs as individuals with dreams beyond the home.  They can’t aim high for themselves.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in agriculture, where women farmers are considered second class citizens. It doesn’t do them justice. It never will.

Given the chance, however, women have so much to give.

As Heritage Homestead Goat Dairy owner Carol Coulter declares, “There’s a quote that really reaches out to me that goes something like, ‘If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the community will eat.’”

Coulter, an empowered woman farmer herself, is a shining example of what she – and others like her - can do.