De-agrarization of rural female employment and working hours in Peru

Abstract

Rural employment in the country is facing in recent years structural changes that have to do with the process of de-agrarization of the fi land, in the context of globalization and market economy penetration, in a world that registers an increasing demand for food. The occupational de-agrarization of rural areas in Peru registers a significant participation of women in non-agricultural remunerated tasks, in the growing agroindustrial activity located mainly in the coastal valleys. In this article we seek to identify the processes and ways in which the non-agrarian occupational diversification of rural women in the Motupe-Lambayeque valley has taken place, establishing the socio-cultural and economic conditions that drive women to sell their labor to non-agrarian production activities, facing challenges that have to do with socio-cultural restrictions on their productive capacity and economic and social recognition; in addition to the complexity of the network of working hours and household chores.