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A dominant discourse in Myanmar characterises men with ‘farmer’ identities while women, who also undertake farm work, are seen as farm ‘helpers’ and ‘labourers’. We investigated the factors underlying this discourse, exploring gender norms underpinning gender roles, patterns of gendered decision-making, and women's perceptions of gender disadvantage as one component of a study of farmer participatory crop benchmarking (FPCB) in Myanmar's Central Dry Zone. FPCB takes a group-based approach to learning, and in our case, we encouraged mixed-gender groups with the aim of improving women's access to technical learning. Our study identified unconscious bias and adverse gender norms that perpetuate strict gender roles in our study sites and act as a structural barrier to women's access to technical learning, and in turn shape agricultural decision-making and the allocation of household financial …