Abstract

AMBORT, María Eugenia. Living and working in family farming: an ethnographic approach to gender roles in horticulture in La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Trab. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.23, n.39, pp.291-313.  Epub July 01, 2022. ISSN 1514-6871.

In this article we analyze labor organization and gender relations in La Plata’s horticulture, paying attention to how the sexual division of labor occurs based on roles associated with feminine and masculine stereotypes. We adopt an ethnographic and comprehensive perspective in order to approach this activity carried out by Bolivian migrants. Through participant observation in discussion workshops on gender issues with farmer women, and in-depth biographical interviews with some of them, we were able to reconstruct the logics of family organization of horticultural work. Through an intergenerational comparison, we analyze the multiple inequalities that are produced and perpetuated in the households. The feminist economics approach allows us to analyze these logics, presumably typical of the domestic sphere (and therefore private), as part of the accumulation mechanisms that are based, in an invisible way, on unpaid work and control of women’s bodies. We find that while there is an inertia that perpetuates gender inequalities, there are signs that through women's participation and processes triggered by the rise of the feminist movement, this could begin to change. We highlight that although there is an inertia that perpetuates gender inequalities, there are indications that through the organization of women and the rise of the feminist movement, this could begin to change.

Keywords : Family agriculture; Gender roles; Feminist economics; Ethnography.

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