Gender on the farm - Migrant workers’ health in the Agricultural sector

Objectives   This paper reviews research writings on migrant farm workers’ occupational health with a focused gender-analysis intended to identify knowledge gaps in the literature and outline guidelines to ensure gender-sensitive approaches in future disciplinary research.  

Methods   The review draws from peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2010 and indexed in either PubMed or SCOPUS. The employed search criteria were tailored to identify publications relating to migrant agricultural workers and occupational health and including both men and women in their samples and differentiating gender in their analysis. Articles were analyzed for their approach towards addressing task and gender differentiation in methodology, data analysis, and their discussions of farm workers’ health.  

Results   Most published articles failed to incorporate gender-sensitive study designs or analytical methods that would be able to differentiate the role that sex and gender play in the expression of occupational health outcomes. The most frequent shortcoming in this literature was the failure to account for physiological and biological differences in work tasks -task differentiation- between male and female workers.  

Conclusion   Renewed attention must be paid to the methodological and topical issues guiding research on agricultural workers. Developing methodologies, study designs, and analysis that are gender-sensitive will improve the quality of research in this field and help tailor future interventions and policies so as to meet the health needs of a diverse workforce.