Mulheres rurais e pluriatividade: caminhos para a emancipação

Abstract

We understand that, in the current socioeconomic organization, genders do not enjoy equal rights and women are destined by patriarchy to domestic work, typically unpaid activities, and submit to processes for the sake of the family, while simultaneously nullifying and being nullified as social subjects. The history of women shows that this condition changes from the moment women become aware of their rights, claiming access to education, paid work, participation in politics and public life, bearing in mind that domestic spaces are part of the private sphere. For women living in rural areas, the subjects of this research, the unequal power relations between genders are intensified, as in these territorial cuts the struggles and demands of the feminist movement happen more slowly compared to urban areas. Our geographical focus is on the "periphery" of the feminist penetration field: rural domestic spaces. Our focus is on women living in the rural area of the municipality of Euclides da Cunha/BA, who seek pluriactivity, in addition to supplementing family income, affirming themselves as subjects of rights and making themselves heard and respected, constituting a daily challenge. Thus, our thesis rests on the understanding that women who live and work in rural areas find in pluriactivity a mechanism to break with the patriarchal structure of the family unit and, in this way, to protagonize their own stories. We know that the territory and the relationships established within it are dynamic, therefore there is an urgency to produce theories that reflect reality. To achieve our research objectives, we will use a qualitative approach, seeking to evidence the reality of rural women from encounters with them: conversations, looks, and laughter, methodologically recorded in field diaries, photographs, interviews, and questionnaires recorded by mobile device. In this way, it was possible to understand why women become pluriactive and seek, in paid activities outside the domestic environment, a means for their financial independence and, consequently, their emancipation. Although it is too early to say that rural women are independent or emancipated, it was possible to observe during the research that their perception of themselves is changing, as well as the power relations in rural domestic spaces.