Globalization, Grapes and Gender: Women’s Work in Traditional and Agro-Export Production in Northern Chile
Author(s)
Bee, Anna
Abstract
Recent changes in the global political economy have had dramatic effects on the lives of women as they are incorporated into globalization processes, such as the expansion of agribusiness, in often marginal and unstable ways. However, it is vital to consider how these globalization processes are mediated by women in ways that reflect local geo-historical contexts. This paper explores the expansion of the fruit export sector, land tenure, community organization and female employment in agriculture in northern Chile. Agro-export production has marginalized but not destroyed the small-scale farming sector and large-scale export farms co-exist with small-scale domestically-orientated farms. Female labour has been very important in the success of fresh fruit exports and many rural women negotiate both waged work in the fruit export economy and unwaged work on family farms. The paper explores the women’s perceptions of agricultural work and how these relate to their identities as unpaid workers on the family farm and as waged workers in the agro-export sector. The paper thus attempts to explore the multiplicity of ways that women experience rapid changes in the agrarian sector and how these changes relate to the maintenance of more ‘traditional’ practices and identities.
