Introducing Gender Awareness to Elementary School Teachers in Rural Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

In rural Brazil, where illiteracy rates still run rampant, school teachers tend to be regarded highly and should be engaged in the fostering of women’s empowerment. In addition to their direct participation in instilling new values to children in classrooms— and thus to the future generations of local producers—they often are also persons who hold leadership positions in their communities. ‘Educating’ rural teachers on gender issues, therefore, should be regarded as an important strategy in working towards gender equity in rural development projects. In this paper, I will discuss these issues further while sharing my experience as part of a group of external consultants on gender issues in a major rural development project in Bahia-- the first one in the state to incorporate a gender perspective.2 Funded by IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) and implemented by CAR, an agency linked to the Planning Bureau of the State of Bahia, this project is a very ambitious development effort; it aims to improve the quality of life in rural communities of 13 counties covering an area of approximately 4,580 square miles in one of the most deprived, driest, and poorest regions of the state. Project plans call for a series of actions within three major components: production development, community development, and rural credit services. They include the construction of dams and irrigation systems, provision of special credit and agricultural extension services to small producers, devising more effective means of marketing products, and strengthening local producers associations and their management skills.