Do Gendered Social Roles Drive Knowledge Variation in Local Medical Systems?

Social roles have fostered discussions on gender-related differences in medicinal plant knowledge. However, this variable has not been analyzed in many studies, and investigations often claim that belonging to a specific gender will determine a social role that will, in turn, direct the variation of local ecological knowledge. Therefore, we test whether the influence of gender on medicinal plant knowledge and use is mediated by people’s social roles. We conducted Structural Equation Modeling to assess the direct effects of gender and the indirect effects through social roles on (1) the number of cited species, (2) the prevalent area for resource collection (natural areas × homegardens), and (3) the exclusiveness of plant use (only plants versus plants and industrialized medicines or only industrialized medicines). We observed that gender impacted all metrics of knowledge and use of medicinal species. All social roles influenced knowledge of medicinal species to some extent. However, not all of them had a gender-related indirect effect. Thus, we conclude that both gender and social roles directly and indirectly influence knowledge of medicinal species.