Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena León’s recent work, Rural Women and State Policy: Feminist Perspectives on Latin American Agricultural Development, represents a valuable contribution to the growing body of literature about the impact of agricultural development on women. The book examines the impact of state policy on rural women. Most of the documents emphasize a historical analysis, with particular attention on the post-World War II period.
The book consists of a collection of papers divided into two sections. In the first, case studies of eight nations (Chile, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Cuba) are presented. The second section includes four comparative studies in which migration, income generation projects for rural women, agrarian reform, and women’s components in integrated rural development projects are examined from a feminist perspective.
The book deserves careful attention from Latin Americanists for three reasons. First, it represents an important step forward from descriptive literature in which women’s roles in agriculture are simply detailed. In this work, the focus is on analyzing—determining how and why state policy results in changes in rural women’s relative well-being. Second, this work is a major contribution to the literature about rural women in Latin America, an area which is underrepresented in research both about the agrarian sector in the region and about women in agriculture globally. Third, while still employing a case study methodology, as do many researchers in the area of women in agriculture, the authors do examine national trends and emphasize the relationships between the global economy, national policy decisions, and resultant changes in women’s status in the rural sector. The second section, in particular, is to be lauded for developing a comparative approach that brings together data and experiences from a number of nations.
Only two serious criticisms can be made of the collection. First, while moving beyond the description of “what is” and emphasizing analysis, the book still fails to draw general conclusions that address what should be done in the area of state policy as it affects rural women. The editors, Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena León, make some attempt to synthesize results in their introduction and do describe “twelve facts or tendencies with respect to women’s participation in Latin American agriculture” (p. 3). The reader is left, however, without a final conclusion which would point to the kinds of state policies that are required to benefit rural women. Second, while many contributing authors correctly point out that social class is a critical factor in determining the impact of state policy on women, there is virtually no discussion of the importance of ethnicity in this regard.
In summary, the book is worthwhile reading for Latin Americanists. It represents an important step forward in the literature about Latin America and about women in agriculture. Not least important, it is well written and intellectually stimulating.
