Women of Influence: Exploring the Potential and Impact of Indigenous Female Community Participation and Leadership in Peru

Women play a fundamental role in food security, the preservation of biodiversity and ancestral knowledge, and the management and defence of Amazonian land and water, but these contributions often go unrecognised. This participatory project will highlight the importance for indigenous, rural women to participate actively in their communities to exercise control over resources. Working alongside a group of indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon, this project asks why women are still excluded from community decision-making, revealing the cultural and societal determinants that block them from roles of leadership and influence and seeking new forms of empowerment. The research will analyse the work that women undertake as community members and leaders, their ambitions, networks and spheres of influence in the context of conflict, risk and disaster. The co-designed activities will result in research outputs and policy recommendations to be presented to local/regional/national stakeholders, including government, civil and corporate representatives.

Professor Sarah Barrow, University of East Anglia; Professor Eylem Atakav, University of East Anglia; Dr Maria Eugenia Ulfe Young, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru