7.1 Gender inequities in animal health

The pathways of antimicrobial exposure, the burden of resistant infections and the comprehension of AMR within animal health systems are significantly gendered. This results in distinct experiences for different genders across the animal health sector.

Women farmers may face significant hurdles in accessing vital livestock services. Research in Kenya found that livestock service providers held negative attitudes towards women farmers that meant that, despite women acknowledging the benefits of livestock vaccination, they were less likely to use vaccines due to sexist perceptions and economic gender inequalities (Kyotos et al., 2022).

A study of rural female smallholder farmers in Rwanda and Uganda found that women preferred to care for chickens and goats rather than cattle (Mutua et al., 2019; Mukamana et al., 2022). However, because government vaccination programmes often focus on vaccinating larger livestock for diseases such as Rift Valley fever (Acosta et al., 2022; Mukamana et al., 2022; Tukahirwa et al., 2023), these programmes – which often subsidise cost and remove physical barriers to vaccinations – are less available to women.

Other research found that women had to seek permission from their husbands before purchasing vaccines or accessing resources in general (Mukamana et al., 2022). Additionally, women may lack the required transportation to travel to vaccination places, and doing so may involve a higher personal risk for women than for men farmers due to gender-based violence (Enahoro et al., 2021; Acosta et al., 2022). Despite this, women were active in self-help groups that aided raising funds and providing physical labour and improved their access to livestock vaccinations (Jumba et al., 2020).

In many societies, including pastoralist communities, men may be more likely to carry out animal slaughter work, which brings significant risk of exposure to resistant infections (Barasa, 2019).

Having explored gender and inequity in AMR drivers, you are now going to look at how data disaggregation in AMR surveillance systems has value in understanding inequitable trends in AMR.