Chapter 2: Women's entry to productive sectors in a rural environment
2.1 The "invisible work" of rural women
2.2 Different types of feminine insertion to the economy in rural areas
Latin America and the Caribbean, as mentioned previously, is characterized by a heterogeneous productive structure. Women are involved socially and economically in this structure in different manners, areas and productive and reproductive roles within the family. For this reason, it seems more appropriate rather than referring to "rural women" as an abstract identity, to talk about "women in rural areas" who are farm owners, paid workers, in varying degrees of dependency, whether they are lessees, seasonal workers or employed in the agricultural industry as artisans, business women and, of course, mothers of their family.
Now, Regionally there still is a problem which was detected many years ago by those interested in gender studies. This is related to the difference between the environments assigned to women in their social role: their private environment, comprising their labor related to production and family reproduction; and the public, which is related to the environment through wages and social and political institutions. The first case frequently disregards or simply discriminates the productive contribution from women. In rural areas, the problem is much more complex due to the diversity of the tasks women perform, to the difficulty in differentiating daily productive activities, and to the bias generated in attaining truthful information (interviewer interviewee relationship). This information could influence criteria which later guides policy making which would be discriminatory and under estimates important records.
According to the IDB report (1990), generally speaking, in Latin America and the Caribbean, women are involved in almost all agricultural and livestock activities and there is also evidence that the rural E.A.P of the Region is becoming increasingly more feminine. To evidence this fact, it has been mentioned that a) the feminine, rural E.A.P. is underestimated by more than 50%; b) some estimates indicate that nearly 50% of the income in rural areas originates from activities performed by women thereby assisting many families in alleviating their poverty; and c) the results of diverse study cases evidence the different roles assumed by women in agricultural production.
However, the involvement of women in agricultural production in Latin America and the Caribbean has been, in general, underestimated, both for its scope as well as for the diverse forms in which it is manifested. It is common that statistics reflect only those productive activities responding to modern economic standards, whose basic indicator is compensation. The lack of statistics related to feminine work both within the home and farm, and for paid employment's in farming, traditional and modern agriculture, is a problem existing in all of the Regional countries. This phenomenon has been denominated by the '80's literature as the "invisible work" or the "invisibility of women."
The consideration of feminine labor is a topic of discussion in the quantification of unpaid family work. Rurally, the discussion is posed related to the duties of the housewife which are not limited to the biological reproductive and social roles of the workforce, rather she performs productive duties, that measurable or quantified within the agricultural economy product.
The registration of inferior levels of the productive economic activities of rural women is related as much to the criteria, instruments and measuring methods employed, as it is to the women'. perception of their own work.
Regarding the measuring instruments, in the case of the census and home surveys, due to the methods used in conducting them and general lack of adequate preparation of the interviewers and surveyors, information is omitted which would permit the true establishment of the magnitude and diversity of the economic involvement of women. For example, Karremans (1993), upon analyzing the feminine employment as a percentage of the total rural EAP for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua between 1970 and 1985, states that feminine agricultural EAP has remained constant in the Region throughout the entire period with the exception of Honduras. According to the author, this situation can only be explained by the use of inadequate instruments used to detect and represent the reality of rural women and men.
In addition to the deficiencies in the measuring tools, different official instruments often produce different figures. In Chile, for example, the feminine, rural EAP in 1982 was 10.8% according to the census of that year. For the same period, according to the National Employment Survey, it was 17.4% (Aranda, 1992:24).
By some methodology, the questions and answers are coded and both the interviewer and the interviewee omit the multiple activities which do not correspond to the traditional role of women; for example, the care of children and domestic duties. Therefore, the questions formulated for the census, home or employment surveys, geared to establishing the so-called "activities" of the woman (such as, what is your main activity?) lead to the answer of "housewife, "housework", "taking care of the home", etc. which ultimately classifies them as women in the ''economically inactive" category.
In an effort to approach this problem, a census conducted among indigenous groups in four rural districts in the south of Chile incorporated the question "What activity did you do last week?" the answer category ''took care of the house and worked", thus differentiating it from the "housewife" category. However, the analysis of the results revealed that women exclude activities such as taking care of fowl and smaller animals, agricultural activities and handicrafts that they perform and, in more than a few cases, these activities tend to be the exclusive responsibility of women (URFO/INE/FII/PAESMI/CELADE, 1990). The above indicates that it is not a simple matter of modifying information gathering tools, but suggests that research methods require fine tuning. In this regard, what Lanz and Valdivia (1990) proposed gains more relevance regarding the studies conducted with small farmers in Yaracuy (Venezuela): "...scientifically speaking, one of the greatest lessons we have learned from the relationship with small farmers is that the traditional methods for research provide several limitations in attaining the truth ... the technical tools should be modified and more emphasis should be placed on observation techniques and on defining indicators that could be supplementary to the surveys given the wide range of errors which these introduce in the apprehension of knowledge."
The perception women have towards their productive work depends much on how and where they live. Their performance as an unpaid family worker or assistant without compensation is not usually acknowledged in their family or society thus making it very difficult that they acknowledge themselves. This is to say, we find ourselves faced with a vicious circle in which society does not define women as workers and neither do the women themselves. The way to break this circle assumes, before anything else, an awareness of the aforementioned: that women themselves be the first ones to assume and acknowledge their productivity.
In addition to the self-esteem that women have regarding their productive role and the deficiencies of the official measuring tools as factors related to the inferior registration of the productive activity of women in the Regional rural areas, a third factor must be added: when women work as paid employees - a matter which could be considered as an indicator for the EAP women employed temporarily per season tend to be considered employed, even if they were not working at the time of the survey. This also obstructs the measuring and acknowledgment of their own economic activity (Aranda 1992, Errázuriz 1987). FAO indicated an example of this: according to the most conservative statistics of the agricultural census, 19% of the women are involved in the agricultural work force in Latin America and 54% in the Caribbean. The differences do bear a relationship due to data collection methods: in the Caribbean, questions were asked for a six-month to one-year period while in the rest of the Region, general speaking, questions were asked for the preceding week. ("Paraguay, Case Studies on Ojopoi: a country cooperative and repatriation: an area of an old decomposing settlement, 1983, CEPAL 1986).
Another factor to be considered in this explanation is that domestic and productive activities performed by women within rural societies have been historically developed without a clear, defined delimitation. The orientation towards self-consumption hinders even more the separation of economic activities from those that are truly domestic. An a result, rural women, a. the reproduction and survival foundation of the family, is divided between both types of tasks, attempting in any event to achieve optimum well being for their families.
In this framework, Errázuriz (1987) indicates that the work in the productive sector does not provoke conflicts between roles among women regarding how much or how well it is performed within the same physical space, meaning, without leaving her home. If she works away from her home as a temporary paid worker, she would tend, in many cases to accommodate her work periods, using the diverse options open to her that are still possible in the rural environment (due to the existence of certain family and community integration) such as leaving her children with other family members, older siblings or neighbors, when she cannot take them to her job. "The absence of conflict in the performance of her roles, gives way to less social consideration from the domestic and economic contribution of women along with the natural manner in which they are carried out which also diminishes its true meaning for the family" (pg. 219).
Now, this family and community integration tends to decrease as a result of economic and social dynamics (migrations to cities, lack of land for young couples, among others), and immediately the effect of this such conflicts appears in the domestic and productive role of the rural woman. In fact, one of the complaints indicated by a group of temporary assistant. in "rural women's schools" in Chile was to have nurseries for children at the work place (companies, fruit packing and vineyards) since many women are involved in these activities and the existing laws are not enforced or respected. Such law states that a work place should provide day care if 20 women or more are employed at the work site (Valdés 1992).
Errázuriz adds, however, another important element to understand the "invisibility" of productive activities within the home. She states that women favor their domestic role because it grants them identity and social position that does not depend on the economic power as a criteria for social differentiation. The role of the mother constitutes the only position in which she is irreplaceable. In effect, the author says that "...the domestic activities pertaining to women constitute a semi-autonomous system centered on family well-being which is controlled by women and constitutes a unique domain where women may exercise decision making powers legitimately and with greater self-determination" (p.222). According to the author, this explains why when a woman acquires new tasks thereby prolonging her work schedule, she does not stop doing her duties which are traditionally linked to her female role. It should be considered, though, that the addition to rural women's work shifts usually stems from an economic decision and not a social one. The fact that she also executes the tasks socially assigned to her traditional feminine role does not always originate from the reason that she assumes those tasks because of her femininity, rather as a consequence of a matter of necessity.
There is a pending task in the majority of the Regional countries: the refinement of the instruments employed in economic activity measuring, generally census or national employment surveys, for which numerous studies in the gender area have produced recommendations. What is most needed is the political will to change the measuring tools and to familiarize the surveying team with the new procedures.
Refinement of measuring tools employed is a pending challenge in the majority of the Regional countries. Among the possible alternatives two deserve special attention: a) the incorporation into current employment or home surveys of specific items to be used in measuring women's productive activities in rural areas; and b) the carrying out of periodic studies particularly geared towards this goal. Of course, information provided from said studies would be fundamental in forming strategies destined to strengthening the entry of rural women to the productive, economic sectors of the Region.
The economic role assumed by women in rural areas is generally related to the family's survival strategies, either her own or the family she forms. A large number of women assume the role of an unpaid, uncompensated family worker or helper linked to the family farming production or her work in rural communities. In many cases, she is active in temporary or permanent paid employment in the fields dedicated to internal consumption or exports. Additionally, she may enter the informal economy as a salesperson or artisan.
According to the IDB report (1990) already mentioned, in Latin America and the Caribbean there generally exist evidences that the rural E.A.P. of the Region is becoming more feminine and that women assume different roles in agricultural production.
The feminization of rural employment would respond to the modernization of the agricultural and livestock activities, the impoverishment of the rural economy or a combination of both. On one hand, the demand for paid, manual labor for the agricultural production of marketable goods is easily obtained from men who respond by leaving the farm to the responsibility of his wife. On the other hand, the income deficit in rural homes motivates men to seek employment away from the family farm6. Some of the main conclusions which are derived from national information and case studies indicated in said IDB report are:
a) that women are actively involved on the farm where the majority of foods for home consumption is produced. Women perform tasks related to seeding, fertilization, weeding, harvesting, threshing, animal care and forage collection.
b) that the decline in the sector's productive level has lead women to increase their participation in economic activities, as a survival means for their families. Their involvement is varied and depends on the family structure, the size of the lot, the type of crop, and the technology employed as well as cultural traditions.
6 In BID's judgement, the non acknowledgment of this fact could explain the permanence of many problems of small farm exploitation. Additionally, it would hinder the design of successful policies: the population which tries to benefit is another, with different characteristics and needs, due to the organisation of the very small farms which has changed.
According to conventional measuring of female participation in the agricultural E.A.P., the number of women dedicated to agricultural activities has decreased: in 1950, 28.2% of the economically active women in the Region were devoted to agriculture; in 1980, 14.9% participated in this sector (IDB, 1990). This coincides with the total E.A.P. behavior and indicates a growing tendency of the population becoming more involved economically to other areas, particularly to the services sector.
Available information for 12 of the Region's countries brings to light diverse situations, the percent of women within the total agriculture E.A.P. and the feminine E.A.P. devoted to agriculture (Table 6) FLACSO-CHILE, 1993.
This same source, with regards to female involvement in total agricultural E.A.P., is relatively important in Brazil - 1988 - at 21.2%; Cuba, 1981 at 14.3%; Ecuador, 1990 at 12.7%; and Peru, 1981 at 15.1%. Women's involvement in the other eight countries stood at 10%.
Regarding the feminine, agricultural E.A.P., it was generally observed that when the manual labor of a country is strongly centered on agriculture, feminine E.A.P. in this field is greater. This is true in Peru, 26.1%, Ecuador, 15.8% and Guatemala 16.0%, where the total agricultural E.A.P. bears a significant weight (exceeding 30%). However, there are exceptions; for example, in Paraguay, almost one half of the total E.A.P. works in the agricultural sector (46.7%) yet only 12% of the feminine E.A.P. dedicates to said sector. Of the total agricultural E.A.P., women comprise only 5.1% (Table 6).
Regarding the type of occupation held by women, according to statistics from the ILO (International Labor Organization) (ILO, "Yearbook of Labor Statistics for 1988." in IDB 1990) the results are as follows: Latin America, 44.5% of women involved in agriculture work as "day workers", 32.5% as family help.. and 20.9% as "self-employed". This is to say, the majority of the Regional registered feminine E.A.P. earns a salary. However, this situation varies per area: in Tropical South America, the majority (53.7%) works helping the family; in Central America, 64.0% is self-employed; and in the Caribbean, 64.5% are day workers. In Temperate South America, the largest percent is observed in self-employed; workers (43.0%) (Table 7).
Regarding paid labor, according to Errázuriz (1987) the changes in the agricultural activity have provoked a reduction in the size of the farms and the value of the rural production, which has obliged the family work force to seek paid employment. Women have played an important role in this process and their proletariation represents the precariousness in which rural dwellers live: the poor, rural families are becoming increasingly dependent upon the woman's income.
To the author, these reasons explain the significance of the presence of paid labor, particularly in those areas requiring intense temporary/seasonal labor and in those areas specialized in agro-industry. Mentioning diverse sources, the author indicated that in Colombia, women now comprise 70% of the flower crop work force; in Mexico, 60% of the strawberry production employment is performed by women; in Honduras, 40% of the work force for tobacco is feminine; in Jamaica, 52% of the workers in the banana fields are women.
In Chile, women make up close to 52% of the seasonal fruit-growing workforce. Basically, the tasks required in this field are manual and, given the belief that women perform this type of work better and are more thorough than men, hiring preference goes to women (Veldés, 1992). However, it has been estimated that women comprise 5% of the permanent fruit-growing staff (Rodríguez and Venegas 1990: "From prairies to vineyards: a study on agrarian structure and the labor market in the Aconcagua Valley, Aranda, 1992).
TABLE N° 6 LATIN AMERICA: FEMININE AGRICULTURAL E.A.P. (%)
Country |
Year |
FEMININE (1) |
TOTAL (2) |
Brazil |
1988 |
14.7 |
21.2 |
Costa Rica |
1992 |
5.5 |
6.8 |
Cube |
1981 |
10.6 |
14.3 |
Chile |
1989 |
5.9 |
9. |
Ecuador |
1990 |
15.8 |
12.7 |
Guatemala |
1989 |
16.0 |
8.9 |
Panama |
1991 |
2.8 |
3.5 |
Paraguay |
1982 |
12.0 |
5.1 |
Peru |
1981 |
26.1 |
15.1 |
Dominican Republic |
1991 |
6.0 |
6.3 |
Uruguay |
1985 |
4.4 |
9.2 |
Venezuela |
1990 |
2.5 |
5.5 |
(1) Feminine percent of the E.A.P. in the Agricultural Sector.
(2) Percent of women in the total Agricultural E.A.P.
SOURCE: Based on "Latin American Women Statistically Speaking" FLACSO-CHILE, WOMEN'S INSTITUTE, SPAIN, 1993.
(Volumes correspond to each country).
TABLE N° 7 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN FEMININE INVOLVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE PER OCCUPATION
Region/Country |
Family Helpers |
Self-Employed workers |
Day workers |
Brazil |
35.7 |
17.1 |
47.2 |
Mexico |
35.4 |
44.0 |
20.1 |
Temperate South America |
53.7 |
18.9 |
23.8 |
Central America |
14.1 |
64.0 |
19.1 |
Caribbean |
18.0 |
11.4 |
64.5 |
South America, Temperate Area |
30.2 |
43.0 |
24.9 |
Total Latin America |
32.5 |
20.9 |
44.5 |
SOURCE: |
ILO. Yearbook of Labor Statistics for 1988. |
IDB, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, **1990 report. |
Paid labor in agricultural industries has been performed by many women over recent years. In fact, the majority of the studies indicate that these companies have generated employment for feminine manual labor. It has also been observed that there is great diversity among the countries regarding the working conditions, even though they share some aspects: wage discrimination, lack of social security and other benefits. The seasonaleness of the work and the women's weak organization (CEPAL 1990a) would also contribute. In this regard, Díaz (1992) in a case study conducted in Chile's central valley, stated that of 44 temporary workers in the agriculture industry who participated in the study, only 21 signed a contract for the period prior to the study.
In reference to wage earning rural women, generally in all of the Regional countries, they received salaries which were inferior to men's salaries. In Bolivia, for example, the cane companies hire men to cut the cane, while women and children are left to de point, peel and pile the product. These employees are known as "fourths" since the women received one-fourth of what men receive (FAO, 1991b).
Wage differences, a constant factor in Regional agricultural industries, do not seem to apply in Chile. Venegas ("The fruit related labor market in Chile. Final report (unedited), Venegas, 1992") proposed that there is no wage discrimination against temporary employees in the fruit-growing business: in the major fruit-growing regions, seasonal female workers earn more per hour worked than men. According to the author, the sex factor does not mark the main difference, rather the occupational position and the type of work. In this same sense, estimates from the National Employment Survey of Chile, October-December, 1992, indicate that women who work for themselves in "agriculture, hunting and fishing'' earn more than men placed in the same category: her average income represents 127.3% of the average male income. However, considering salaried workers, women's average income represents 85.3% of men's average income. (IINE, 1994).
Trade is another economic activity carried out by women in rural areas. A study conducted in Honduran district (Denen, 1993) showed that trade activities follow the same logic as the division of productive work: women process a good part of the agricultural or livestock products in or around the house, where, at times, she has a small sales point installed. The income of these women equals over one third of the total income generated by the total sales of farm products. However, there are imbalances between men and women: sales with greater monetary value are made by men; they sell and purchase both on and off the farm. Women sell smaller items, yet they conduct more transactions although it is within a more restricted working radius.
When referring to the productive work of women, the production of domestic goods and services should not be forgotten; these also go unnoticed and is subject to "invisibility. since they do not figure in national accounts." This invisibility has long been evidenced in -tender studies. It should be highlighted that whatever the productive activity of rural women, said activity runs parallel to the performance of domestic work which, in the majority of the cases, is conducted under conditions demanding a considerable amount of time and physical effort since they do not have modern appliances, such as washing machines, gee stoves, etc. This implies that women develop a "double. or "triple work day". In this regard, Grunfeld (1990), when referring to rural women in Southern Chile, indicated that domestic teaks, such as water hauling, clothes washing and cooking, require a great amount of time and effort, in addition to wearing them down sad hindering their devotion to other activities, whether economic, cultural, political, social, recreational, or others.
The access women have to land and credit is considered a fundamental element for the performance of productive efforts under the same conditions that men enjoy. However, in the majority of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, this access is limited and is directly related to the low productivity of feminine agricultural work, specifically on small farms (IDB, 1990). The restriction in land and credit access is basically due to cultural and legal factors.
In a cultural environment, it is observed that, generally, women define themselves as generators and reproducers of goofs and services in domestic activities while men are responsible for production. This impedes that women be conceived as beneficiaries of productive programs. In fact, the majority of such programs are geared towards men, while social programs for home improvement are to women (León, Prieto Salazar, 1987). The aforementioned indicates that cultural barriers exist within the same organizations that plan, manage and design programs and policies. Undoubtedly, this contributes to the disregard of women and systematically underestimate their productive role in rural areas of the Region, a matter which has already been discussed.
Cultural barriers influencing programs and project managers are also in rural areas in base organizations, as well as in families, couples and even in the women themselves. Therefore, the existing barriers in the planning entities and in the rural population are mutually reinforced, many times to the point where women do not acknowledge themselves as potential beneficiaries to land or credit access programs.
The scarce access that women have to land and credit is also related to the existence of a series of legal discriminatory provisions7. To this must be added the fact that the majority of the countries present a gap between the legislation and its application in the rural sector. This often leads to customs overruling the laws, hence reinforcing the subordination of women (FAO, 1990a).
7 For further explanation of these legal discriminatory dispositions see 7.1 "Legislation and Rural Women.
In reference to land access, it has been observed that agrarian reform policies have discriminated against women. In some countries, even legal provisions constitute an obstacle. When there are no such legal obstacles, frequently tradition and poor feminine organization pose barriers (FAO, 1992b). Generally, there is a tendency to define the beneficiary as the "head of the house" understanding that person is in fact a man. This does not acknowledge the existence of homes lead by women nor the woman's right to participate jointly with their husbands.
Explicitly, in Cuba and Nicaragua women have benefitted from agrarian reforms, countries where rural women's participation is defined in national policies (FAO, 1989). However, in Nicaragua, the majority of women have been indirectly benefitted through cooperatives. Direct access that women have to land has been very reduced: in 1984 only 8% of the direct beneficiaries were women thereby revealing contradictory legal provisions. If the Agrarian Reform Act acknowledges equality among men and women, it also establishes that ownership rights should be issued to the name of the claimant and not the family which leads to the fact that ownership titles have been awarded to men. Furthermore, although the Cooperative Law proposes to support women's involvement through their integration in economic and social management of the cooperatives, it does not grant legal inheritance rights to the husband's widow (Nicaragua, 1993).
The limited access women have to credit is part of a more general problem that tends to affect small farm producers. In fact, the experiences of credit for rural people, for example in Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Ecuador, verify that women have been good administrators and that they payback their debt (FAO, 1992b). Despite the fact that they represent a lower risk than men to financial institutions, since their rate of return in general is higher, banks and credit institutions are hesitant to grant them credit due to the fact that "...they do not own property which may be offered as guarantees. In general, they request small amounts and usually lack experience in credit activity" (FAO, 1989:95).
Diverse farming and women's organizations have demanded access to land and credit and below are various national examples. A survey conducted on 25 representatives of the National Committee of Rural and Indigenous Women of Colombia yielded that almost all of them admitted that their lack of land ownership proves to be an obstacle in obtaining credits and technical assistance. The first would be because they do not have a mortgageable property; the second, because of their "non-owners" status, they are excluded from the design of technical assistance programs (León, Prieto and Salazar, 1987).
In Guatemala, the Coordinator of Small and Medium Manufacturers, CONAMPRO, proposed at its First National Rural Convention (1992) that granting land to women who could not access credit should become a priority. However, the Mayan Guatemala Organizations Counsel, COMG, incorporates women as land beneficiaries through their family group (Arias Foundation/Tierra Viva, 1993).
In Peru, the district associations for rural women created in Puno in 1982 which extended to Junin and Piura, have demanded land and credit, as well as other grievances. In Brazil, the presence of rural women wee indispensable at the large assemblies for the agrarian reform during the 1985-1988 period (Women's Institute, Spain-FLACSO Chile, ed. 1993. Volumes correspond to each country).
In the Dominican Republic, the Feminine Minimum program created on the framework of the 1990 elections by the Research Center for Feminine Action, CIPAF, contemplated the right to land for rural women as one of their demands (Women's Institute, Spain-FLACSO Chile, ed. 1993. Dominican Republic).
In Paraguay, the Coordination of Rural Women, CMC, an internal entity of the Paraguayan Rural Movement was created in 1985 proposing the access to land as one of their demands. (Women's Institute, Spain-FLACSO Chile, ed. 1993, Paraguay).
As can be observed, the demands for rural women to access land and credit are included in rural organizations, thus forming general grievances from the farming arena, as well as in expressly feminine organizations.
Women are diversely inserted in social and economic affairs in the rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean for which, instead of speaking of the "rural woman" a more precise manner would be to refer to them as "women who live in rural areas."
The available information shows that one problem has been detected and maintained over many years through gender studies. Actually, the woman's economic involvement in rural areas of the Region have been, and still is, systematically underestimated both for its scope and diverse expressions. This problem also present in urban areas regarding domestic tasks, has lead to the creation of the concept of ''invisible work" or the "woman's invisibility". In rural areas, this gains a particular strength since the productive and domestic activities do not tend to be differentiated from a practice, evaluation or objective standpoint. This is unaffected by whether or not such activities are conducted on or beyond the farm, thereby causing difficulties in quantifying the generation of benefits, monetary and non-monetary incomes or savings through consumption and sales of goods and/or services.
Regarding the low registration of feminine work in rural areas, it has been detected that official elements intervene regarding the criteria employed; measuring methods and instruments that are coded which omit relevant information and often the lack of awareness on the part of the woman regarding her productive value and roles. These three aspects determine what is known as the viscous circle'. of such types of recording inferior figures.
Based on conventional statistics, which is to say those records where low registration is detected, and following the general Regional trend, between 1950 and 1980 the feminine E.A.P. was observed to be less each year for those women dedicated to agricultural activities.
Recent available data for some Regional countries reveal diverse situations: percentages of the feminine, agricultural E.A.P. vary from 26.1% in Peru to 2.5% in Venezuela. These percentages may imply that the proportion of women involved in agriculture continues the general trend in the country which is generally greater in those countries with a higher agricultural E.A.P. However, it is difficult to pronounce the logic of the figures until the problem of the inferior registration has been conquered.
The participation of women in the total agricultural E.A.P. is also heterogenous. The highest involvement (between 15% and 20%) appears in Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Peru. A share below 10% occurs in Costa Rica, Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
It also verifies that the rural E.A.P. is becoming more feminine which responds to modernization in agriculture and livestock activities and to the rural income deficit which would compel the man to leave the family farm to become a paid worker. When this occurs, women take charge of the farm, particularly the small farms, where most of the food for domestic consumption is produced. If we consider the production of rural women on and off the farm, their contributions to savings begin with their own production for consumption, domestic activities or the sale of goods and services we may confirm that a very relevant part of the family income is generated by women.
Women participate in all agricultural and livestock activities and play various economic roles: many are dedicated to non-compensated housework; some are paid either temporarily or permanently in agriculture for national consumption or for exports; while others are traveling traders and artisans in the informal sector of the economy.
In reference to the type of their occupations, OIT estimations for 1988 indicate that Regionally 32.5% of the women help in the home, 20.9% are self-employed and 44.5% are day workers.
Considering OIT's figures, paid labor is one of the most important economic activities performed by rural women. In recent years, her participation has acquired growing importance in agriculture industries which have generated employment basically for women.
In agricultural areas where there are seasonal, employment peak periods for the industry, the paid work of women has intensified representing 70% of the work force of the flower crops in Colombia, 60% of the strawberry production employment in Mexico, 40% of the tobacco work force in Honduras and 52% of the banana workers in Jamaica. In Chile, women comprise 52% of the temporary work force in fruit growing; however, they represent 5% of the permanent workers.
Generally, in all countries women are subject to wage discrimination, a lack of social security and other benefits even though there are some exceptions, such as Chile, where temporary female workers in the fruit-growing industry earn more per hour than do men.
Trade is another activity developed by women and basically consists of selling product produced by themselves. The earnings generated by this activity represent an important part of the total family income. There are differences regarding the type of trade conducted by men and by women: women tend to sell minor goods thereby conducting a greater number of transactions within a limited radius with sales bearing less monetary value than those sales conducted by men.
Women perform all of the above jobs simultaneously with their domestic functions which demand a great amount of time and energy, often translating into a double or triple work shift. Unlike urban women, domestic jobs are performed with fewer appliances to facilitate work.
Cultural and legal barriers limit women' a access to their basic needs for strengthening their productive activities; in other words, land ownership and credit. This is associated with the low feminine work productivity especially on small farms. Basically the problem lies on the non acknowledgment of women as producers which is a conception often shared by program and project designers as well as the financial institutions.
Culture is sanctioned by legal discriminatory norms toward women which is added to the large unawareness existing in the country regarding legislation which many times is replaced by habit. In fact, the majority of the agrarian reform policies applied in different countries of the Region have defined the beneficiary as the "head of the houses" which is understood that such a role is actually played by a man. This perspective ignores the presence of feminine household heads and the right of married women to a shared participation. Cuba and Nicaragua are the exceptions, although contradictory information is available.
The difficulties presented in this chapter are basically cultural meaning that the form in which individuals and institutions understand reality is marked by concepts and codes which do not correspond to the rate of changes. In order to overcome the cultural and legal barriers and the problem of inferior recording of feminine productive work, supplementary, systematic and constant lines of actions are required in two environments:
- making the public and private entities which intervene in measuring, planning or execution of programs in the rural areas aware of the gender perspective;
- making the women themselves aware. of their productive roles. This point is further discussed in the chapter referring to education. Suffice to indicate at this time that the basic labor is to lead to mass awareness and invoke this train of thought from infancy through formal education.
Of course, it is not enough to make the different social participants aware of the gender perspective. Problems such as poverty, land and credit access are shared by women and men in the rural areas of each country. What seems to be important is that rural women be a part of the social organizations of the country, with the authority to participate and, apart from supporting global grievances, and that they be able to defend their roles as women.
