Women in Chilean Rural Society

Abstract

This chapter seeks to examine the effects of neo-liberalism on the lives of women in the Chilean countryside, and its effects on female participation and organisation. In Chile, as in most countries and societies, there exists a marked difference between male and female, their roles, tasks and status, within the family and society (Brydon and Chant, 1989). Further, the idea of male superiority, ‘Machismo’, is ingrained in many Latin American men, underlying relations between them and their families (Stevens, 1973; Chant, 1985). Men are considered the economic provider, working in the ‘public’ sphere to generate the family income. For women their sphere is domestic, care of the house, the children, and the husband. This work in the ‘private’ world of the home is not remunerated, and, as such, considered to be of little importance. This division of labour is considered by some to be at the very base of women’s subordination — it serves at the very least to reinforce women’s inferior position in society. Hence any change in women’s participation, their incorporation into the traditionally male public sphere, could perhaps have great consequences for their status in society.