Rural Women and State Policy: Feminist Perspectives on Latin American Agricultural Development

The UN Decade for Women coincided with an economic crisis in Latin America comparable only to that of the Great Depression. This text synthesizes what has been learned over the past decade with regard to agricultural development for rural women, taking into account the impact of the economic crisis, models of development in the region, and the scope and consequences of
women in development
projects and policies.

consists of country case studies ranging from the neo-liberal model of Chile to socialist Cuba. Each author reviews the growing literature on women’s roles in agricultural development and examines how changes in those roles relate to agricultural development initiatives and the changing role of the agricultural sector in national and international economies. They evaluate national programs established during the decade that were designed to benefit rural women and explore the consequences of ignoring rural women in state development initiatives.

contains four comparative analyses. Contributors consider the major state agricultural policy initiatives in Latin America during the past decade-agrarian reform and integrated rural development-as well as the effectiveness of income-generating projects, which were the main initiatives targeted at rural women. The rural-to-urban migration of women is analyzed as the outcome of the lack of attention to their productive roles.