Different contexts, shared struggles: Unpacking the mechanisms reproducing gender inequalities in agriculture across the global North and South

Women are essential contributors to agriculture globally, yet persistent gendered inequalities constrain their opportunities and agency within the sector. This study examines how gendered inequalities in agriculture are experienced and reproduced across two contrasting contexts: the Scottish Islands (Global North) and Southeast Nigeria (Global South). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with women farmers and analysed using thematic analysis. Results show that women experience both shared and context-specific gendered inequalities relating to land, participation in agricultural spaces, resource access, time poverty, and the labour demands of agriculture. These inequalities are reproduced through four mechanisms that operate differently across contexts: gendered entitlement to land/agricultural authority, gendered valuation of agricultural capability, gendered organisation of time, and the interaction between embodied differences and agricultural systems (only in Southeast Nigeria). In Southeast Nigeria, gendered entitlement shapes women's insecure land access, while perceptions of women as less productive or creditworthy restrict their access to land and finance. In the Scottish Islands, gendered entitlement manifests through patriarchal succession and land-rental practices, while assumptions about women's capabilities and belonging shape participation in agricultural spaces. Across contexts, unequal care responsibilities constrain women's time. Embodied differences are economically consequential in Southeast Nigeria, where physical strength is central to productivity. We argue that gendered inequalities are neither wholly context-specific nor uniformly experienced; shared gender norms produce different forms of disadvantage through the institutional, cultural, and material conditions of agricultural systems. Findings inform gender-responsive agricultural policy by identifying the mechanisms that interventions should target to address gendered inequalities in agriculture.