Gênero e agroecologia: estudo de caso de uma organização produtiva de mulheres camponesas em Laranjeiras do Sul Paraná

Abstract

This research analyzes the importance of the participation of rural women in productive groups, adopting agroecology as a local development strategy in order to enable greater inclusion of gender issues in the sustainable rural development discussion. In this research we used a strictly qualitative methodology, characterized as a case study of a group of women from Agroindustry of Recanto da Natureza, located in the country side of the city of Laranjeiras do Sul, in the state of Paraná - Brazil. The data collection ocurred in two distinct stages: a stage of direct observation of the group's operation and a stage of interviews with three participant women and their spouses - chosen at random - and also with the leaders of both the women's group of Agroindustry and the agroecology group. The research took place between the months of May and October of 2015. The data analysis was made using the dialectical hermeneutical method, in which the speech of the subjects is understood within their social context. The data collected were classified into categories of analysis: family farming, agroecology, social relations of gender and identity. The research shows that the more the family and the group understand, discuss and experience the agroecology, the more likely they are to have better divisions of labor between genders and new social roles for men and women. But despite this progress, there are still unequal and hierarchical divisions between the genders. The study indicates that agroecology may not achieve all the completeness of the paradigm shift it proposes without the women's struggle for larger spaces, including in the decision-making and power spheres.