Limits and Possibilities of Political Activism in a Social Movement of Rural Women

Abstract

In a context of gender struggles in the last three decades, various rural social movements of women contributed to the production and recognition of the rural worker as a political subject of rights. In this article, in order to analyze the limits and possibilities of political activism in a social movement of rural women, we articulate the issues and struggles of gender subjectivities. For that, we resume and broaden some reflections presented in the research that founded doctorate thesis, carried out from 2006-2010. The empirical information that enabled the compilation of this research was obtained by means of documentary and ethnographic research, with interviews, observation and monitoring of activities undertaken by a social movement of women in three rural municipalities in southern Santa Catarina. The process of female aging and retirement, the local models of agriculture, the significant exodus of part of the rural population, the exclusion and limited participation of younger women in local activities of the movement are presented as conditions of possibility in the analysis of the limits of political activism.