Women’s Work Or Farm Never Done

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 2

Women’s Work Or Farm Never Done

(N^PJt.-Router— Copyright)

NEW YORK, February 14.

In a report yesterday, the United Nations showed farm women as being among the world’s hardest toilers, labouring 16 hours a day, even in developed countries such as France and Sweden.

The greater part of the farm woman’s life was spent in long hours of toil without rest or relaxation, and her contribution in every nation was of great importance, while in Africa it was “indispensable,” the report said. Prepared by the International Labour Office, the 69-page detailed report was submitted by the SecretaryGeneral, U Thant, for consideration by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The percentage of women in the farm labour force varied considerably from country to country, from hardly 2 per cent in Britain to 96 per cent, and more in Algeria and Turkey. Russia, Japan, West Germany and Austria were among countries reporting more than 50 per cent. According to a survey in France, farm women there worked 16 or 17 hours a day, while in Sweden a 14-hour 'day was reported on the biggest farms and 16 hours on the small holdings. A 16-hour day for women was reported for Austrian and Jugoslav farms and up to 15 hours a day in those of West Germany. An investigation in Japan revealed that the burden of work carried by the women was greater than that carried by men and that they had less time for leisure and cultural activities, the report said. In America also, farm women "almost invariably” had longer total hours of work than men. Farm work in the underdeveloped regions was

extremely hard and physically arduous, and weightcarrying was a common feature for women. In Africa, women cleared land, sowed, weeded the plot, harvested the crop and far too often transported it. European farm women fetched water, gathered and chopped firewood, raised poultry, tilled vegetable gardens, milked cows and made butter and cheese, cared for the cattle and cleaned the byres, while the number of women tractor-drivers was steadily increasing with the development of mechanisation. Statistics from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, West Germany, Norway, Sweden and Britain indicated that in general women were paid

less in agriculture than in industry, , and in Latin America, where men’s wages were low, women’s earnings were "insignficant.” Summing up, the report said: "Economically it would appear that the main question is how to level standards in rural areas so that they approximate more closely those prevailing in urban areas. Socially, the main problems seem to centre on education in the widest sense, aimed at developing more practical social recognition of the needs of women in rural areas and more social initiative, particularly on the part of the women concerned, in meeting the needs within the community.”