The agricultural sector is economically important for many countries in Africa and Latin America and plays a role in poverty alleviation as well as driving sustainable economic development of rural areas. Governments have faced challenges recruiting young workers into agriculture, and now urgently need an educated and capable young labour force in order to modernize and sustain the industry (FAO, 2014). The reduction of available agricultural labour has been attributed to young people holding a negative perception of agriculture (Addo, 2018; Luke et al., 2019; Consentino et al., 2023); reports show that these potential workers are more interested in pursuing more glamorous white-collar jobs (Badiru et al., 2019), or prefer careers such as medicine, nursing, engineering and law (Ibitoye, 2011; Addo, 2018; Luke et al., 2019; Badiru et al., 2019). Influences on career choice include the need for funded scholarship opportunities, the effect of peer or family pressure upon career choices, the potential for self-employment, and the lack of social prestige associated with an agricultural career (Okiror and Otabong, 2015).

Often students’ choice of an agricultural career has been determined by their gender, with males being more interested in an agricultural career than females (Ilenloh et al., 2012). Women in agriculture represent 20% of the labour force in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to 50% in sub–Saharan Africa (FAO, 2012); however, many of these roles involve manual labour, are low paid, and have low social status. Women face stereotypes and cultural beliefs related to gender roles as highlighted by social role theory (Eagly and Wood, 2012) which results in circumscription in relation to career choices (Gottfredson, 2002). These cultural challenges are amplified by a lack of positive female role models (Biehl et al., 2020).  A reduction of gender inequalities for women in agriculture could increase female participation in the industry and potentially increase yields by 20-30% (FAO, 2012), resulting in improved food security in impoverished regions. Enriched understanding of factors driving these career choices in young women and girls in both Latin America and African regions is critically important in order to encourage more talented women to enter STEM fields, such as, agricultural science careers in the future.

By drawing from the feminist theoretical context of gender inequality and underrepresentation of women in agricultural careers, this study aims to investigate the potential differences and similarities between Africa and Latin American perspectives regarding agricultural science-based career choices where economic, socio-cultural and family pressure or support influence their decision-making process to study a degree at an international university in Costa Rica. This study focused on the following research questions:

RQ 1) What are the similarities and differences between African and Latin American women´s perspectives regarding agricultural career choices by investigating diverse factors such as, personal agency, economic, cultural, and family influences, on their decision-making process.

RQ 2) Do these perspectives differ for students coming from rural or urban backgrounds. 

The theoretical framework of this research, and its subsequent tools of data collection, focused on obtaining personal accounts, experiences, and perspectives of individual voices was grounded within the interpretivism paradigm. This study strives “to understand and interpret the world in terms of its actors” (Cohen et al. 2018, p. 51), and see “a reality that only exists through the way [a collective group of] people believe in it, relate to it and interpret it” (Denscombe, 2021, p. 43). As a result of this viewpoint, there can be multiple realities where different societies, groups and communities perceive the world in different ways. 

This investigation utilized a case study approach focused on female undergraduate student perceptions and lived experiences at an international agricultural university in Costa Rica, EARTH University. A two-step approach utilized both quantitative and qualitative data collection in the form of an online survey tool and subsequent semi-structured interviews to provide more in-depth perspectives. Participants ranged in age between 19-28 years of age and were studying in a four-year Agricultural Science undergraduate program. Recruitment efforts included 13 introductory presentations given in May 2024, introducing the project, the research questions, and ethical considerations. Female students were invited to participate in a web-based questionnaire offered in two formats, Spanish and English, in order to ensure language was not a barrier to participation. Structured closed questions using the Likert scale generated quantitative ordinal data of how often a particular factor influenced career choice and was assembled into frequency tables and proportions. Cross tabulation of these frequency data and ranking of influencing factors on career choices was examined using a comparison of the proportion of positive affirmations (sum of strongly agree and agree responses) for each question, between African and Latin American regions and urban and rural livelihoods. From the pool of questionnaire participants, three interview subjects were randomly selected from both African and Latin American participant groups for a total of 6 face to face semi-structured interviews in September and October 2024. Participation in the interviews was strictly voluntary, and at any time during the interview they were free to leave without explication or prejudice. Interviews were manually transcribed in the language they were based in to ensure fair representation of them. Zoom video files and comparison with secondary audio files permitted accurate transcriptions, with multiple reviews because of strong regional accents. Once the transcripts were completed, multiple reviews familiarized the bilingual researcher with their content and permitted the assignment of codes related to the influences on career choices. Thematic analysis with complete coding was utilized following Braun and Clark, (2013). For the first research question four key thematic areas were identified, the perception of agriculture, social influences, personal agency and traditional gender roles. For the second research question two additional thematic areas were used that included job and educational opportunities for women. These 5 hierarchical thematic areas generated a total of 46 individual codes.

A total of 66 respondents completed the survey with 45% of participants from Africa and 55% from Latin America. Regarding RQ1, the survey data showed that African respondents selected scholarship funds as the strongest influence on career choices and further study in agriculture, followed by opportunities for self-employment, personal agency, gender equality, and career prospects as the top 5 influences. In contrast, Latin American respondents indicated personal agency as the greatest effect on their career choice, followed opportunities for self-employment, scholarship funds, prior agricultural experience, and pay and compensation. Interview data from all African participants revealed negative perceptions of agriculture for women associated with low social status and physical, often unpaid, work. The role of parental control over marriage, where women were seen as “a family resource” due to the potential bride price paid by the future husband was significant. Scholarship funds and personal agency were key influences in avoiding marriage and pursuing higher education, overcoming gender inequality and cultural stereotypes. For Latin American participants, parental, siblings and extended family support for agricultural study along with scholarship funding were important influences for those with prior agricultural experience, family land or a passion for agriculture. The possibility of self-employment for both groups was also highly rated. With respect to the RQ2, the majority of answers presented no differences between the responses of rural and urban based respondents. In interviews, all participants shared perceptions that rural opportunities for women, both in terms of jobs and education, were extremely limited compared to urban environments and attributed this reality to socio-economic limitations in rural areas, persistence in cultural beliefs related to traditional gender roles, and gender inequality. The findings of this case study are generalizable to other universities that seek to recruit international students in STEM and agricultural careers from Africa and Latin America.

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