6 Facilitator’s Handbook for Permaculture Workshops
About women’s participation
At least half the participants should be female.A top priority of Permaculture workshops is to prompt the creation of lasting improvements
in people’s daily lives. This process works best when all parts of a community are
represented in equal and balanced cooperation.If women are excluded, the community is less likely to benefit
from innovations in the crucial areas where women work,
such as health, nutrition, and household enterprises.Unfortunately, women are typically overlooked in
training projects, due to:Less mobility and time constraints: Given their primary role in childcare and
household management, women are unlikely to be able to travel to attend training
outside their immediate areas. Women tend to have less free time than men because of
their dual roles working at home and in the fields. Cooking, for example, is a major daily
commitment that many women recognize as their sole responsibility. They may feel that
the course would only add to their already heavy workloads.Lower levels of education: On average, women tend to have fewer years of schooling
and lower levels of literacy than men. As a result, rural people commonly believe that
technical information is too complicated for women to understand, new skills too difficult
for them to learn; thus, they are much less likely to be selected for training than men.Give special attention to women’s needs and make the arrangements necessary to
enable their participation. An alternative solution is to run “women-only trainings” –
especially tailored to women’s schedules and focused on ways to lighten their workloads.
Such trainings can significantly boost women’s confidence.See Section 2 for ideas about how to encourage the participation of women
at every step in the process of designing and implementing Permaculture
workshops.Permaculture Facilitator’s Handbook -
Designing an Effective Permaculture Workshop
INTRODUCTION
Designing an
Effective Permaculture
Workshop