Empowering Rural Women for Resilient Food Systems: Strengthening Rights and Resources for Climate Resilience

Rural women are indispensable to global food systems, acting as farmers, custodians of forest and natural resources, income providers, and primary caregivers. They make a significant contribution to agricultural productivity, household nutrition, and community resilience. Their everyday dependence on land, water, and forests directly connects them with food security, energy access, and environmental sustainability. However, their efforts are restricted by insecure tenure, unequal forest rights, low decision-making capacity, and poor access to credit, technology, and inputs. These restrictions both diminish food security and undermine sustainable development. Evidence from various places around the world—Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mexico, India—is that women's land and forest rights, and their decision-making power, are secured through comprehensive gains in food security, dietary diversity, and management of ecosystems. By examining these dynamics, particularly through the lens of gender equity and sustainable resource management, we can better understand and harness the potential of rural women to drive transformative changes in food systems.

Despite increasing recognition of rural women’s pivotal roles in food security and livelihood enhancement, there is a critical research gap in understanding how integrated interventions—spanning forest and land access, sustainable resource use, and economic empowerment—can foster equitable and resilient food systems. Recent studies highlight the importance of dismantling systemic barriers in land governance, ensuring equitable resource distribution, and developing holistic, gender-responsive agricultural policies. The lack of comprehensive analyses on how innovations in policy, technology, and community engagement can address both structural and environmental challenges further underscores this gap. The primary goal of this collection is to assemble interdisciplinary research and case studies that forward the complex linkages and trade-offs necessary to enhance women's access to land, control over resources, and leadership roles. These insights aim to inform effective policy interventions, support sustainable livelihoods, and advance food security aligned with sustainable development goals.

This Research Topic seeks original research, case studies, reviews, policy analyses, and perspectives that investigate the role of rural women in transforming land use, livelihoods, and food security within sustainability frameworks. We particularly encourage contributions that explore how gender-responsive interventions can improve agricultural efficiency and resilience across diverse contexts.

To deepen understanding, we welcome papers that explore (but are not limited to) the following themes:

• Gender equity in land and forest rights, tenure, and natural resource management

• Women's leadership and empowerment in improving household dietary diversity, resilience, and food security

• Gender-responsive policies and innovations in agriculture and forestry, including digital and resource-efficient technologies

• Interactions between climate change impacts and women’s roles in sustainable agriculture, forest and food systems

• Economic empowerment through equitable market access, inclusive finance, and value chain participation

• Community-based strategies for agency in natural resource governance and participatory decision making

• The influence of rural-urban connectivity on women’s economic and social empowerment in agriculture and forestry

• Policy frameworks that effectively integrate gender considerations within sustainable food system development

Keywords: rural women, food security, gender equity, land and forest rights, sustainable livelihoods, resource governance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.