여성농업인의 역할 변화와 정책과제

Abstract

과거 여성농업인의 역할은 가정주부와 농업보조자로 인식되었다. 하지만 여성농업인은 농업 주종사 인구의 절반 이상을 차지하면서 농업부문의 중요한 노동력으로 성장하였다. 특히 원예, 축산, 낙농, 버섯 등의 생산과 친환경농업에서 여성농업인의 역할이 두드러지고, 농산물 가공업, 관광농원 등의 농외소득 분야에서는 여성농업인 CEO도 등장하고 있다. 여성농업인은 농가경제 내에서는 농업과 농외소득활동에 참여함으로써 농가소득 창출에 기여하는 경제주체이며, 국가경제 전체로 볼 때는 농업에 종사하는 취업자이다. 더 나아가 지역개발과 사회활동 등으로 활동 영역을 확대해가고 있다. 그러나 가치평가 대상에서 제외되어 여성농업인의 역할에 대한 경제적 중요성은 그동안 과소평가되어 왔다. 개방화 확대와 농업·농촌의 여건 변화에 따라 여성농업인의 활동영역은 점점 더 다양해지고 그 역할이 농촌 경제에서 차지하는 비중도 증가할 것이다. 따라서 농업의 핵심 인력으로 부상한 여성농업인의 경영능력과 활동성과에 향후 농업경쟁력과 농촌 발전은 크게 좌우될 것이다. 이 연구보고서는 여성농업인의 경제 및 사회활동의 실태와 수행하는 역할의 가치 평가를 통해서 여성농업인 역할의 경제적 중요성을 밝히는 한편, 경제 및 사회활동 수행에서 부딪히는 제약요인을 분석하여 여성농업인이 경제활동 주체로서의 역할을 효율적으로 수행하는 데 필요한 정책 과제를 도출하려는 것을 목적으로 하고 있다.

The study is designed to understand changes in Korean women farmers' roles in various activity areas such as farm work, off-farm work, and local community work. It also evaluates values of the roles that women farmers have performed and proposes government policies for reinvigorating the women farmers' roles and activities which are anticipated to be a driving force for developing the future of our agriculture and rural areas. The rate of women farmers in the agricultural working population was 28 percent in 1970, but since then it has increased rapidly, rising to 52 percent in 2006. The farming labor hours of women farmers made up 45 percent of the total family farming labor hours in 2005. The rate of women farmers taking charge of a half of total farm work and above made up approximately 44 percent, indicating that women farmers have become a major farming labor force in a farm household. However, women farmers still do not occupy a central position in the agricultural management of a farm household. There is a traditional division of farming labor where men work in rice farming while women farmers are assigned with dry-field farming. The women farmers' participation rates in the decision making of input purchase and at producer organizations are relatively low. The rate of women farmers possessing their own farmland is markedly scare. The women farmers 60 years of age and above made up 62 percent of the agricultural working women population in 2006, while the rate of women farmers 40 years of age and below was approximately 3 percent. This implies that the aging of women farmers and the low inflow of younger women farmers into rural areas are significant problems of Korean agriculture and rural communities. As economic and social conditions have changed, like the decline in farm income and changes in social atmosphere, the number of women farmers participating in economic activities through the commencement of an agricultural enterprise or by entering an off-farm work has been increasing. The activities of women farmers are prominent in making and selling traditional local foods. Such economic activities of women farmers are evaluated to have influence on the reinforcement of women's social and economic position and the realization of women's rights. Local community activities performed by younger women farmers such as caring for local elders and helping local festivals are active. Active participation of women farmers is more required for rural tourism and the exchanges between urban and rural areas that have the salient traits of service industry. Furthermore, some women farmers are recently branching out into playing local community leadership roles. The shadow wages of unpaid “family women farmers” are estimated using farm-level cross-sectional data from 2005. Such measurements are obtained from the duality theorem for cost function and input distance function. The empirical evidence suggests that the average shadow wage of “family women farmers” is significantly higher than the average wage of “hired women farmers” in rural areas. This indicates that it might be under-evaluated if the wage of “hired women farmers” would be applied to evaluate the wage of “family women farmers.” In our survey, the women farmers in their 40s and 50s are asked how much they are willing to pay if they employ alternative labor forces for the each role that they are currently performing. According to the survey results, relatively younger women farmers with higher education express that they are more willing to pay for alternative laborers; that is, they tend to evaluate highly their opportunity costs. The constraints blocking vigorous activities of women farmers in various areas are surveyed. Those are the double burden of farming and housework including childcare, insufficient farming skills and management ability, deficient marketing and information, lacking leadership, and so on. For active women farmers in their 40s and 50s, policy makers should first of all consider how farming and housework can be well-balanced and how professional abilities required in various activity areas are improved. Policy directions should be reorganized to correspond with changes in women farmers' roles. Instead of a uniform policy direction which regards women farmers as welfare recipients, it is required to customize policies for women farmers so that they correspond to women's life-cycles and activity development phases. Accordingly, this study suggests policy tasks for women farmers by considering the activity development phases reflected by woman's life-cycles. For women farmers in the entry phase, policy measures to expand the base for fostering new women farmers should be systematically prepared. For women farmers in the developing phase, this study proposes several policy tasks to build a convenient environment for the active participation of women farmers in farming. These tasks include authorization of joint management of farms by women farmers, efficient operation of assistance programs, and establishment of childcare institutions in rural areas and a farm machinery rent system for women farmers. Also, strengthening of educational programs for improving farm skills and management abilities and supporting of women farmers starting an agricultural enterprise are required. For the women farmers in the retirement phase, the policies expanding the farmers' pension system to women farmers and supporting the living of elder women farmers should be prepared before others.