Abstract

SHMITE, Stella Maris. Rural women and their participation in present-day production scenarios. Aljaba [online]. 2009, vol.13. ISSN 1669-5704.

This article, which focuses on rural aspects from a gender perspective, analyzes how theoretical concepts are redefined on the basis of the emerging socio-productive transformations in the rural environment, allowing for an interpretation of women roles and also for an explanation of how rural everyday life has been re-structured. In a rural world which undergoes deep social and economic change, women take part in different ways in the new production scenarios. Traditional lifestyles characterized by women's participation both in the productive as well as in the reproductive scenario- with different shades of invisibility- are turning towards a more socially "visible" and, at the same time, more autonomous positioning at the productive level. In the present global context, with its consequent re-structuring of food production systems at world-level, transformation and restructuration processes develop within local rural territories. These change and modernization steps are associated with a break away from women's traditional modes of participation in rural work. New management forms are introduced to the production units, together with intra-and extra land activities, in which women adopt a different mode of participation, distancing from the traditional role assigned to rural women. Also, new forms of female identity are perceived to have emerged, related to an active participation of women in the new socio-productive reality.

Keywords : Productive transformations; Rural woman; Traditional roles; New female roles.