From a gender perspective, a livestock breeding program needs to respond to the identified gendered needs and priorities. This requires program (1) to conduct a gender-sensitive study to identify gendered capabilities, preferences, and needs in animal rearing. In this regard, questions for step 1 should include: who in the households and communities are the ‘doers’ and decision-makers in animal rearing, what are their needs and preferences, and what constraints and opportunities do they face. The program then needs to (2) develop strategies and actions to respond to the gender issues the initial research has identified as they move towards program development and implementation (steps 2 and 3). Following this, the program should (3) conduct gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation to learn what works on the ground to facilitate improvement in the project’s ability to deliver gender-equitable benefits (necessary for step 4).

Gender analysis involves moving beyond disaggregation of data by gender (e.g., the number of women and men involved in rearing the animals or marketing them) to an analysis of the gender dynamics and norms behind such numbers (e.g., why women mostly rear and men mostly sell livestock in a particular community). For example, gender dynamics reveal whether the roles of women and men in livestock management are complementary, overlapping, or conflicting in a household or community. Studying gender dynamics sheds light on the reasons behind gendered patterns and helps to better shape interventions.

The term gender norms designates the informal rules and shared social expectations that shape and assign the roles, behaviors, responsibilities, and expectations that women and men are expected to adopt in a particular community (Cialdini and Melanie, 1998). Gender norms are affected by intersectional characteristics such as caste, age, marital status, ethnicity, religion, race, educational level, income class, and previous experience of keeping livestock, producing a multilayered disadvantage in livestock systems (Cialdini and Melanie, 1998; Farnworth et al., 2023b; Galiè et al., 2022). In livestock breeding, gender norms influence the perceptions of key actors—livestock extension services, business partners, community-level decision-makers, etc.—around who they consider to be livestock keepers. Gender norms further shape the perceptions of who owns livestock, who makes key decisions about livestock and livestock products, and whether these roles are combined (Bryan et al., 2018; Padmaja et al., 2020).

Gender norms held by actors developing policies and providing services in the livestock sector can strongly influence the outcomes of livestock breeding programs. A comparative study examining data from 13 countries found that although women in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Rajasthan in India, Uzbekistan, Morocco, and Ethiopia are widely recognized in their community as livestock keepers, this recognition is much less common among external institutions in their environment, including researchers, rural advisory services (RAS), livestock breeders, private sector players, and policy makers. These actors fail to sufficiently recognize women as livestock keepers or involve them in breeding projects, and they do not address women’s needs and preferences (Galiè et al., 2022).

A core strategic question for gender-responsive breeding programs is whether to work within the existing situation, where normative structures may provide a specific but limited range of opportunities for women (and men) to engage with and benefit from breeding innovations, or to create situations that additionally support women to move into new areas of livestock engagement. This might involve women moving away from merely providing inputs, such as food and water, to livestock, marketing livestock and their products, and deciding how to spend their income.

Gender-accommodative programs work in the first situation. An example of a gender-accommodative program is one that works with a livestock species or breed that women manage and control with the goal of increasing and improving the efficacy of women’s participation. An example could be a small-scale poultry project that introduces chicken breeds that respond to the existing gender preferences of both women and men. In a situation where women rear chickens for household consumption only and therefore do not engage in marketing, while men are engaged in marketing the chicken, a gender-accommodative approach could involve the provision of indigenous, disease-resistant chickens to women and the provision of improved highly productive exotic chickens for men. Indicators for success might include the numbers of indigenous/improved chickens provided to women and men, or evidence of women’s improved participation in intrahousehold decision-making.

Gender-accommodative programs run the risk of reproducing and potentially exacerbating existing gender disparities, for example, by locking women into subsistence production and men into a cash economy. This may result in women lacking the money they need to achieve their goals (Galiè et al., 2022). However, in some situations, gender-accommodative programs may be the best way forward because they leverage the existing situation and are readily accepted by the community.

Gender-transformative programs aim to shift gender norms to create new operational spaces for women (and men) livestock keepers and provide them with a larger range of potential livestock enterprise(s) to engage with. A gender-transformative program may encourage women livestock keepers to own a new species of livestock or develop new livestock products and services if they wish to do so. An example is a poultry project that introduces more productive breeds for both women and men and then supports the involvement of women alongside men in chicken marketing. Such a program would need to engage the community in questioning the local gender norm that only men market for livestock. This was the case in the ‘Women in Business’ project implemented by ILRI in Tanzania (https://www.ilri.org/research/projects/women-business-chicken-seed-dissemination-ethiopia-and-tanzania). The project supported women veterinary service providers to sell improved chickens to women farmers, alongside animal health and marketing services. Using social media, the project challenged gender norms that discouraged women from engaging in business as vets or as chicken farmers (Galiè et al., 2025; Farnworth et al., 2024). Another example is the ‘Women Rear’ project (https://www.ilri.org/research/projects/transforming-vaccine-delivery-system-ghana-identifying-approaches-benefit-women) in northern Ghana, which addressed gender norms that hampered women from rearing and selling livestock. Both women and men appreciate the benefits of women contributing to household expenses and building their asset base by rearing livestock and controlling the income generated (Njiru et al., 2024). Thus, gender-transformative programs need to make strategic decisions around when and how to engage livestock keepers and managers, and the best ways to create avenues for women and men to move into new roles and responsibilities. Indicators for success might include the number of people who believe it is acceptable for women in their community to own a new species of livestock; increases in the number of women selling chicken in, and beyond, the community; women signing up for business training courses.

In livestock keeping societies in LMIC, women, men, and youth generally undertake different roles depending on the species. Women are more likely to manage smaller and less valuable species such as goats, sheep, and poultry, whereas men are more likely to manage larger species, although this association is not universal (Kristjanson et al., 2010; Saghir et al., 2012; Njuki and Sanginga, 2013; Galiè et al., 2015; Kariuki et al., 2022). Occasionally, men own smaller livestock, but if so, usually in larger numbers than women (Njuki et al., 2011). Across the species divide, women are often involved in looking after young and sick animals within their homesteads. Women typically ensure that animal enclosures or sheds are clean and provide food and water for animals reared within the vicinity of the homestead (Njuki and Sanginga, 2013; Jumba et al., 2020). A study in Burkina Faso reported that men generally dominate livestock-related interactions beyond the farm (purchase, sale, and veterinary services), whereas women are responsible for livestock care (Zoma-Traoré et al., 2021). However, this is not universally true. In the Maasai pastoral systems in Kenya, sheep are a key livestock asset over which women have strong control. They provide important input in the selection and mating of sheep to ensure that sufficient ewes are in milk at any one time, which is necessary to ensure that a regular supply of milk is available for household use. Only women milk ewes, as traditionally men do not milk sheep (Audho et al., 2015). Women manage poultry widely in village poultry production systems across Africa. Their roles include providing housing, feeding, and health care, making decisions on reproduction within flocks, and marketing different poultry products, although the precise blend of roles varies by location (Alemayehu et al., 2018).

Livestock keepers raise livestock for food security, as a savings and insurance mechanism, to provide a regular or irregular source of income, and for use in civil and religious ceremonies, such as draught animals, for manure, among other reasons (Aronson et al., 2019). Achieving a pre-defined objective may rely on raising a specific species, for instance, sheep, in relation to Ramadan events and celebrations.

In some cases, livestock assets belong to the household head, with other household members having access rights to livestock or to particular products (Zoma-Traoré et al., 2021). Women and men may use different parts of an animal, have rights over specific parts, or keep livestock for various purposes. For example, for Somaliland pastoralists, women considered the use of camels to draw water as more important, whereas men considered keeping camels for meat consumption as more important. This reflects the gender division of roles and labor for camels in the study location, with women mainly responsible for fetching water and men who slaughter and eat camels (Marshall et al., 2014; Marshall, 2016). In Nigeria, women place higher emphasis on mutton than men for cultural and religious reasons (Yakubu et al., 2020). Wodajo et al. (2020) show that Ethiopian women own sheep and goats to provide animal source foods for the household and for sale.

Turning to milk, women and men may share or have different interests relating to beliefs about the efficacy of milk for medication, nutrition, and marketing. For instance, in Somaliland, both genders believe that camel and goat milk have medicinal properties when these animals graze on specific shrubs, although women place more value on this property (Marshall, 2016). In Rajasthan, women and men believed that goat milk can combat diabetes and dengue fever. Providing goat milk in cases of illness is a woman’s responsibility (Galiè et al., 2022). In Rwanda, many parents know that milk is nutritious for their young children. However, some parents only provide cow milk when their children are ill, as they consider milk to provide energy to fight disease (Farnworth et al., 2023a). With the expansion of smallholder dairy production systems, an increasing numberof women are raising dairy cows. Teat and udder size and condition, milk yield, fertility, temperament, and body condition are key considerations for women when buying dairy cows (Janssen-Tapken, 2009).

Cattle and buffaloes are used for traction in many farm systems. Frequently, plowing is a man’s task in the local gender division of labor, although women plow in some locations. Consequently, male household heads in Kenya and Ethiopia are more likely than female household heads to prioritize bulls with good traction potential (Ouma, 2007; Janssen-Tapken, 2009).

An animal’s appearance is important. For instance, in Ethiopia, women are more likely to value their appearance than men. They take pride in beautiful birds and emphasize the cultural and spiritual qualities of their poultry. Both women and men prefer red chickens and double combs, because black chickens and single combs are considered undesirable for sale and consumption. However, men are more likely to value how the appearance of a chicken relates to saleability (Ramasawmy et al., 2018). In South Africa, women prize specific coat colors of Nguni cattle more than men. Women use cattle hides to make carpets, seat covers, harness ropes, and hats for spirit mediums (Tada et al., 2013). In Eastern Africa, Ankole cattle are valued for their coat color and horn shape by both men and women (Wurzinger et al., 2006, 2008; Dessie and Mwai, 2019). Somali men tend to favor sheep with a black head or a black head with a black tongue and goats with a white coat color, believing that these colors indicate animals better adapted to the local environment. In contrast, women ascribe little importance to coat color (Marshall et al., 2016). In Saudi Arabia, women, who tend sheep as do men, use their wool for various crafts, whereas men sell mutton (Aldosari, 2018).

Behavioral traits are important considerations because they relate to the manageability of livestock. For example, women in Ethiopia, who care primarily for chickens, are more often concerned about the potential for aggression among exotic poultry as exotic birds need to be confined to avoid theft. They also value hens with good mothering skills (Ramasawmy et al., 2018). Overall, in different communities, the preferences of women and men for different traits in their livestock may differ entirely or overlap (McDougall et al., 2022). Do women aspire to change their current roles and activities in livestock enterprises/businesses in ways that can be supported by genetic intervention?

Through gender analysis and a gender transformative lens, the Women Rear project (Njiru et al., 2024) identified a strong interest among respondent women farmers to engage in livestock rearing and controlling the income generated through the livestock; and of women vet graduates to practice their profession. This is in a context where women are strongly discouraged from engaging with livestock altogether (Omondi et al., 2022; Njiru et al., 2024).

Two case studies conducted in Rajastan, India, showed that women have a strong interest in improving their livestock. Women in low-income households are primarily, though not exclusively, responsible for selecting goats, including improved breeds, while women in middle-income households select improved goats, cattle, and buffalo. Surprisingly, however, case studies show that women do not obtain support from rural advisory services in relation to any aspect of livestock management, including breeding, though they are recognized as livestock keepers at the community level (Galiè et al., 2022).

Maasai women interviewed in a study in Tanzania envisaged empowerment as a future in which they owned and made decisions on cattle and were able to use the revenues generated to send their children to school (Price et al., 2018). In Ethiopia, women livestock keepers desire more input in decisions about livestock management (Kinati et al., 2021). In Syria women farmers were interviewed about their wishes associated with barley cultivation for sheep fodder. They aspired to sell their barley seeds and to access agricultural information and training. These aspirations were articulated in a context in which women were not recognized as farmers and were not given such opportunities (Galiè et al., 2017). In Ethiopia, widowed women livestock keepers were asked if they wished to have more cattle and, if so, which breed. They stated that they did not wish for more or more improved cattle. Rather, they wanted to negotiate gender norms to be able to use oxen for activities locally considered appropriate for men only, such as plowing and taking produce to markets. These activities require oxen to draw plows and carts. Without the ability to use oxen, widowed women found it difficult to keep their farms running (Galiè et al., 2015).

Animal breeders working on the genetic improvement of dairy cattle in sub-Saharan Africa were interviewed. The results show that the authors who were interested in integrating a gender lens into their work faced challenges at four stages of research, which prevented them from conducting effective gender-sensitive studies. These stages included respondent selection criteria, data collection, data analysis, and discussion of findings. Most scientists interviewed breeders and social scientists but did not manage to interview women in the field because of the respondent selection criteria adopted by the studies. In some cases, teams adopted standard approaches to identify respondents such as ‘head of the household’ or ‘livestock owner.’ Attempts to change selection criteria to be more gender-responsive were rarely accepted by team members who did not see the value of gender analysis and reverted to ‘the usual’ selection criteria based on their belief that breeding is “gender neutral.” In attempting to explain how the data generated is typically biased towards men and excludes women’s gender interests, one woman scientist explained that nearly all scientists she worked with on the ground were men. This leads, she argued, almost inevitably to program biases towards engaging with other men stakeholders in implementing and evaluating breeding programs. Local gender norms frequently discourage male scientists from interacting with women farmers. These gender assumptions and norms in research, have resulted in a missed opportunity to obtain data on potential gender-based differences in task distribution, knowledge, and benefits within households.

In two cases, scientists managed to collect sex-disaggregated data. However, they did not conduct gender analysis of the data. One study reported gender-disaggregated data; however, the authors did not discuss the implications of their findings for gender-responsive breeding (Wurzinger et al., 2006). Other scientists cited a broader lack of interest in addressing gender considerations in livestock breeding to explain why gender analyses were not conducted. Some of the scientists interviewed claimed that they lacked a gender expert in their teams, which contributed to the lack of consideration of gender components in their breeding programs and projects. They added that they personally lacked the expertise of mainstream gender in their project, including the identification of needs and data analysis from a gender lens.

The literature reported below indicates that men frequently make key decisions associated with breeding at the household level. A small-sample study conducted in Nepal on buffalo farming showed that decisions regarding buffalo breeding were mainly made by men (Devkota et al., 2015). In Somaliland, men dominate reproductive management decisions for camels (Marshall et al., 2016). Similarly, a small sample study conducted in Pakistan showed that women experience low participation in decisions about reproductive management (of any type of livestock), with men being key decision-makers (Arshad et al., 2010). A study conducted among livestock keepers in Assam showed that decisions about cattle breeding activities, such as the use of Artificial Insemination (AI) and bull selection, were mainly made by men. The authors suggest that this may be related to women’s low mobility, as they have strong decision-making power in other domains related to cattle (Sarma and Payeng, 2012).

A study conducted in Nicaragua showed that although women, due to their strong role in caring for livestock, know when a cow is on heat, breeding decisions, including the selection of bulls and how many seasons to use a bull, were primarily made by men (Benard et al., 2016). Insemination often fails because men react too slowly to the window of opportunity and fail to inform inseminators on time (Benard et al., 2016). Due to women’s silence around their knowledge, the authors recommend intentionally reaching out to and including women in breeding programs (Benard et al., 2016). In Vietnam, men make key decisions regarding pigs, particularly with respect to breed selection. This is attributed to the centrality of the decision for households because it affects livestock quality and productivity (Ninh et al., 2019). Selection is considered to require “decisiveness,” an attribute culturally attributed to men. Even so, women participate in discussions on breed selection, with more engagement likely in younger couples (Ninh et al., 2019).

A study conducted in Telangana and Bihar states of India found that men dominate decisions around breeding because of gender and cultural norms that restrict women’s mobility beyond their home and which frown upon women meeting and communicating with unknown and non-family men, coupled with the perception that breeding is a man’s business (Ravichandran et al., 2021). This results in women’s lack of awareness and motivation for matters associated with the breeding of dairy cattle (Ravichandran et al., 2021). However, a case study conducted in Rajastan found that women selected improved goat breeds and requested that their husbands buy them on their behalf (Galiè et al., 2022).

In a small ruminant project in Ethiopia, improvements in women’s social capital through cooperative membership and human capital through livestock training programs enabled them to argue successfully for improved breeds and greater support from rural advisory services. Male out-migration in some locations in Nepal strengthens women’s ability to manage livestock. For instance, young women in Ramnagar reported buffalo raising as a critical innovation. These are zero-grazed, and women can decide upon veterinary care and AI. Young women expressed strong agency and attributed this to their mothers, who participated in agricultural training courses and encouraged their daughters to do so (Galiè et al., 2022).

More productive breeds frequently require higher financial investments than do local breeds. This may have excluded poor farmers from participating in the study. However, there are global variations. A Vietnamese study indicated that men directly provide 5% of financial investments in smallholder pig businesses, while 95% of all investments in pig businesses were jointly agreed between women and men (Ninh et al., 2019). In Kenya, the increased adoption of improved dairy cattle has resulted in an increase in women’s workload (time and labor investment) while simultaneously causing them to lose control over the increased income from milk sales to men (Jumba et al., 2020). Labor investment by women in livestock management has been shown to increase in almost all livestock interventions included in a scoping study of livestock and women’s empowerment, particularly in the case of improved breeds that need more input (Baltenweck et al., 2024). In Kenya, women consider their investment in livestock labor to be the largest in the household (Dumas et al., 2018).

The existing knowledge can be strengthened through gender-responsive interventions. In Kenya, CCAFS, World Neighbors, Vi Agroforestry, and Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries implemented climate change adaptation, mitigation and risk management interventions for smallholders grouped into “Climate Smart Villages” in the Nyando Basin. Improved sheep and goat breeds were introduced, with women and men being trained in community groups, including women-headed households. Women took a lead in implementing planned rotational mating of the improved animals, monitoring their performance by recording details on their performance over time, and influencing the pricing and marketing of the improved animals. Improved productivity and market access for sheep and goats were evident, along with better management of the ecosystem. The demand for improved animals with performance records and the average selling price for sheep more than doubled (Ojango et al., 2018).

In Rajasthan, a study of women cattle owners already trained by extension workers in genetic management found that nearly half still felt they lacked sufficient knowledge, crossbred cows and bulls were too expensive, and one-third felt that AI was unnatural. Even so, over 90% of the women adopted some of the recommended practices. The authors found some correlation between caste and other socioeconomic variables, with higher-caste women more likely to adopt recommended practices (Chaudhary et al., 2016).

Gender evidence on whether women access and use improved genetics is sparse; however, anecdotal evidence is striking. An ILRI researcher reported that the national breeding policies in India do not acknowledge women as livestock keepers; therefore, no activities have been undertaken to develop gender-responsive breeding programs (Ravichandran, pers. comm). Furthermore, breeding focuses on developing crossbred cows rather than buffalo to boost the volume of milk in the Indian market, in line with the government’s dairy program Operation Flood. However, many women prefer buffalo because they are easy to handle and less prone to disease, and the fat content of their milk is considerably higher (average 6%) than that of dairy cows (average 3.5%). The high quality of buffalo milk means that it commands 30% more per liter than cow milk when sold. The ILRI researcher experienced several innovation platform meetings in Uttarakhand, where women livestock keepers successfully argued with government staff that they required subsidies or loans to purchase improved buffalo breeds to obtain higher-quality milk, whereas government staff had been trying to promote crossbred dairy cows (Ravichandran, pers. comm).

Evidence from Tanzania and Ghana indicates that it is easier to reach women farmers through women (rather than men) livestock service providers, given that in many places gender norms discourage the interaction between unrelated women and men (Omondi et al., 2022; Farnworth et al., 2024). Supporting women in becoming service providers is also a way to enhance their empowerment through livestock. However, gender norms can discourage women from engaging in livestock businesses, as in the case of Tanzania (Achandi et al., 2023; Farnworth et al., 2024) and livestock and business, as in the case of northern Ghana (Njiru et al., 2024; Omondi et al., 2022). Similar findings were reported in a study conducted in Warangal, Telangana, India, where women’s participation in AI service provision was mainly hindered by insecurity linked to their mobility, especially during late hours. In addition, cultural gender norms have hindered women from discussing cattle breeding-related issues with men (Farnworth et al., 2023b). Transformative approaches can, in these cases, be necessary to address some of these gender-discriminating norms and support the involvement of women in livestock business as a means to support the empowerment of both women service providers and farmers (Njiru et al., 2024).

Gender norms discourage women from engaging in public spaces, including markets, to buy inputs and sell outputs (Tufan et al., 2018). Women in many LMICs tend to purchase and sell in informal markets, whereas men rely more on formal systems (e.g., agro-vet shops and government service providers) (Kramer and Galiè, 2020). However, the informal seed sector (whether for livestock and related products such as forage seeds) is often seen as problematic in terms of safety regulations and licenses and is neglected by many governments that prefer to invest in the formal sector (Alonso et al., 2023).

Targeting women during implementation can be successful, but sustainable gains can be limited by failures of program management to envisage and cater to the scaling requirements of a successful intervention. When FARM Africa introduced dairy goats for smallholder farmers through community groups in Kenya, designated households were selected to be “buck breeders” while other households reared does. Since goats were considered a resource mainly managed by women in the community targeted, women made decisions on when to take their does for mating, and they were taught to select the best sires. With selective breeding and improved management, communities have successfully transformed goat productivity (Ahuya et al., 2009; Peacock et al., 2011). However, the small scale of the project meant that the demand and price offered for the improved goats soon outstripped supply (Ojango et al., 2010; Peacock et al., 2011).

The experience of the ‘Women Rear’ project scaling in north Ghana to provide women farmers with access to animal vaccines for goats and chickens, shows the importance of combining both a gender transformative approach and a technical vaccine approach, and of involving policy makers at higher levels (e.g., regional rather than community only) to be successful. The transformative approach was necessary to create the conditions necessary for a) women farmers to be able to publicly control their animals and consequently purchase vaccines, and b) women vets to work as animal health service providers (mostly men practice the vet profession, although both women and men graduate from vet school) and support women farmers. Strengthening the vaccine cold chain and delivery mechanism is necessary to reach more farmers. Policy makers need to be sensitized about the importance of gender considerations in vaccine delivery for the efficacy of their Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) eradication campaign. This threefold approach was successful in facilitating the access of women farmers to chicken and goat vaccines (Njiru et al., 2024).