Rural Women: Establishment of New Relations and Recognition of Rights

Abstract

Women are effectively engaged in family agricultural production. In spite of certain invisibility, women are occupying fields, planting and harvesting. At the same time, they are longing for a free land where they can work. They have always been active at home, in the backyards, in the small subsistence farms and now they are struggling to being recognized as rural workers. The involvement of rural women in social movements has conferred on them the status of political beings and as a result they are not invisible any longer. In the process of active experimentation and learning they founded their own social movement that has become well established since the 1980 decade. Since then, they have organized national meetings, campaigns and created organizations called “Women Collectives.” These organizations are connected to either the Federation of Agricultural Workers in Ceará (FETRAECE – CE) or to the MST (Movement of Landless Workers). They represent important opportunities for giving new meanings to the productive activities of women.