Peru

While women have always been crucial to coffee production in Peru, men traditionally held the economic power. In 2004, 464 female coffee producers in Peru united to change this dynamic and take a step toward empowerment. Since then, the Café Femenino movement now includes thousands of women farmers from nine countries across the world.

Since their first meeting in 2004, the women of the Café Femenino Peru Program have marshaled widespread social change into their communities. By overcoming a variety of barriers— including inferior societal status due to gender prejudice, adverse living conditions, and lack of self-esteem stemming from insecurities about their lack of formal education—the women have successfully stood up against generations of gender inequity.