In Maragoli, women are predominantly the farmers and carry out their roles and responsibilities in increasingly stressful circumstances — circumstances in which their labour burdens have intensified over time and they do not always control the proceeds of their labour. While women continue to carry out the bulk of the day-to-day activities in farming and soil management, they have taken on additional roles and responsibilities that were 'traditionally' considered those of men.

Although some men still carry out 'traditional' roles and responsibilities, these activities are not consistently or uniformly carried out, and men's labour input into the shamba has generally been on the decline. Hence, while women have taken on more on-farm labour responsibilities, they have not always been able to gain more rights for themselves in terms of decision-making and power within the household and with respect to certain practices. More>>>

Tea farming is major smallholder cash cow in Maragoli since colonial times