Social and labour insertion patterns of rural young women

Abstract

Agrarian families linked with small family farms have been studied to unveil the insertion itineraries followed by its young female members. Following a qualitative methodology (in-depth interviews, and discussion groups), we have been able to describe the social and labour insertion of these young women, and to detect the family’s influence in the young women’s personal development. The peculiar family and labour organization of these groups is the origin of how resources available are distributed in order to secure the group’s survival and reproduction. In a milieu in which socioeconomic life greatly influences agrarian exploitations, families manipulate their scarce or plentiful resources in order to attain their aim of surviving and, at the same time, changing. The distribution of these human and material resources is unequal, it is different according to members’ gender, and, in the studied cases, it constitutes a reproduction model. Young women count on two basic options: to live on within the family unit or to abandon it. Marriage away from the village where they were born, and academic life will grant them independence from their own family. On the contrary, remaining single, or marrying a young agrarian will link them for life to the family unit. These options are personal choices of these young women, and show a clear image of young female agrarians who are considered to be independent and mature only after marriage.