Abstract
Since their release in the early 1990s, genetically modified (GM) crops have been lauded as a tool to redress stagnating yields and food insecurity among poor farmers. The potential for GM crops to alleviate poverty for farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will likely hinge on their ability to enhance women’s overall well-being, yet there is little research that evaluates if (and how) the technology has such transformative potential. This article reviews the existing scholarship on this topic by grouping it into three strands: (1) the impacts of GM crops on labor processes, (2) gender and patterns of adoption, and (3) the consequences of GM crops for intra-household gender relations. Each area is characterized by contradictory findings, reflecting the diversity and complexity of gender relations in different contexts. Our review suggests that further research should build on mixed-method approaches that involve long-term interactions with households in order to generate robust and gender-disaggregated data that yield nuanced, context-specific analysis.
