The focus on women in agriculture has been a starting point for gender and development studies. The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) programmes on women in rural areas have included groundbreaking research, the recognition of women’s unpaid and paid work, and support for women’s empowerment in grass-roots organisations.

After having disappeared to the margins, rural women are back at the centre of the ILO’s discussion on rural economies in recent years. The approach is now guided by the Decent Work agenda, which prevails globally in the ILO. In this article, the author explores how the ILO’s programmes on rural economies and gender have evolved since the Organization’s inception. She also considers how the ILO’s analysis and programmes directed at the work of the most excluded women in agriculture could contribute to informing the Decent Work Agenda and changing the organisation of social reproduction and livelihoods.

Verschuur, Christine. 2019. From the Centre to the Margins and Back Again: Women in Agriculture at the ILO. International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement. DOI : 10.4000/poldev.3068