Theme 6-1: Pastoralism, Social, Gender and Policy Issues--Oral Sessions

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Internationally, rural women are considered key to sustainable development. However, in the Uruguayan livestock sector, women’s work is largely unrecognized by public policy makers, causing younger women to migrate, and resulting in the "masculinization" of livestock husbandry. In Uruguay, extensive livestock production (range livestock) analysis has historically ignored the genuinely productive role that women play in rangelands, limiting the visibility of their action to reproductive activities while ignoring their importance in terms of income generation, herd management, networking, strategic planning, etc. Although family production integrates women, their work is often invisible, subsumed within domestic chores or seen as "helping" the husband, considering him the only "producer." This paper reflects on the role of women in the organization of labor in extensive livestock systems while providing elements to elucidate the relationship between gender and livestock production strategies. Through the implementation of semi-structured interviews and participant observation dynamics, we analyzed the productive practices of women dedicated to cattle ranching in the Northern littoral (“Litoral Norte”) grasslands of Uruguay. Our analysis focused on three main areas: i) a typology of the main identified profiles of rural women involved in livestock production (principal decision-maker, collaborator, job executor) and farm and time management options; ii) the different dynamics of decision-making, according to the previously cited typology of women’s profiles and roles; and iii) women’s subjective perceptions and visions of the transformations experienced in their productive activities. Results reveal the relative heterogeneity of female work configurations in family livestock production systems. Main labor differences evidenced in the production unit are rooted in deeper structural inequalities originated in the traditional place’s women are assigned in the Uruguayan society at large. In that regard, our research identified five factors that influence the position, profile, and labor roles of women in extensive livestock production in Uruguay: i) the symbolic power position and relationship of women with and within their families, ii) their socioeconomic background, iii) the relative size of their farms in number of hectares, iv) the presence of labor support/employees, and v) the formal tenure of land and animals. We conclude that the rich diversity of women’s involvement strategies in ranching is linked to a delicate articulation between their families, their professional and their social universes (including their expectations for the future), all of which offer women a span of different degrees of autonomy to determine their time management, the performance of productive tasks, and their own identities.

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Sustainable Development and the Transformation of Female Rural Labor: The Case of Woman Cattle Ranchers in Uruguay

Internationally, rural women are considered key to sustainable development. However, in the Uruguayan livestock sector, women’s work is largely unrecognized by public policy makers, causing younger women to migrate, and resulting in the "masculinization" of livestock husbandry. In Uruguay, extensive livestock production (range livestock) analysis has historically ignored the genuinely productive role that women play in rangelands, limiting the visibility of their action to reproductive activities while ignoring their importance in terms of income generation, herd management, networking, strategic planning, etc. Although family production integrates women, their work is often invisible, subsumed within domestic chores or seen as "helping" the husband, considering him the only "producer." This paper reflects on the role of women in the organization of labor in extensive livestock systems while providing elements to elucidate the relationship between gender and livestock production strategies. Through the implementation of semi-structured interviews and participant observation dynamics, we analyzed the productive practices of women dedicated to cattle ranching in the Northern littoral (“Litoral Norte”) grasslands of Uruguay. Our analysis focused on three main areas: i) a typology of the main identified profiles of rural women involved in livestock production (principal decision-maker, collaborator, job executor) and farm and time management options; ii) the different dynamics of decision-making, according to the previously cited typology of women’s profiles and roles; and iii) women’s subjective perceptions and visions of the transformations experienced in their productive activities. Results reveal the relative heterogeneity of female work configurations in family livestock production systems. Main labor differences evidenced in the production unit are rooted in deeper structural inequalities originated in the traditional place’s women are assigned in the Uruguayan society at large. In that regard, our research identified five factors that influence the position, profile, and labor roles of women in extensive livestock production in Uruguay: i) the symbolic power position and relationship of women with and within their families, ii) their socioeconomic background, iii) the relative size of their farms in number of hectares, iv) the presence of labor support/employees, and v) the formal tenure of land and animals. We conclude that the rich diversity of women’s involvement strategies in ranching is linked to a delicate articulation between their families, their professional and their social universes (including their expectations for the future), all of which offer women a span of different degrees of autonomy to determine their time management, the performance of productive tasks, and their own identities.