Significant progresses in agricultural technology development have remained persistently blind to social and gender inequalities. Creating agricultural research ecosystems and institutions that address gender inequality require structural and systemic analysis. One of the major areas of investment in agricultural innovation is plant breeding. Integrating social welfare objectives in plant breeding is a good starting point to catalyze progress towards gender equality objectives in research for development at a global scale, yet devoid of structural change these efforts risk falling short of expectations. Intentionally addressing gender in plant breeding research can re-shape the technical options, goals and intended impact of breeding programs. Improving the benefits delivered to rural women through plant breeding can be achieved through new methods and learning, critically analyzing systematic barriers to equitable plant breeding research, and documenting case studies that demonstrate positive change.

There is a wide diversity of global experiences where gender research has analyzed how gender differences influence needs, preferences and potential benefits from crop varieties and crop specific traits. Some of these experiences were able to successfully integrate results and learning from gender research into breeding processes and decisions, while some have failed to demonstrate concrete actionable results in breeding programs.

The overall goal of this collection is to promote the documentation of cases and experiences across crops, geographies and institutional frameworks to provide a comprehensive overview of factors that influence how, when and why results from gender research can trigger changes in breeding priorities, processes or decisions, and how to better design structural innovations across different regional and institutional contexts.

In particular, this collection seeks to bring together studies that focus on:

• Case studies on integration of gender in breeding processes or decisions.

• Documentation of methodological innovations in gender in plant breeding research

• Critical analysis of strategies used to integrate multidisciplinary work into defining breeding objectives, and the challenges addressed.

• Critical analysis of institutional arrangements and partner strategies that foster gender equitable plant breeding research systems

• Historical perspectives of the integration of gender in plant breeding programs

• Evolution of breeding priorities in specific programs

• Power dynamics in interdisciplinary plant breeding teams

• Intrahousehold analysis of trait and varietal preferences

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Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

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