Gender, agroecology and local markets at São José de Mipibu in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

ABSTRACT

At the local market held in São José de Mipibu, peasant women are the principal protagonists, finding in it a strategy to meet their subsistence needs. Through their participation in agroecology and local markets, they achieve material, sociocultural and subjective improvements related to the provision of food and care for their families. However, the power relations underlying the sexual division of labor, which makes women responsible for household and care work remain, as women’s workloads increase with their involvement in the local market. For this reason, this case study demonstrates that gender equality is not automatically attained by implementing agroecological practices on farms or by participating in local markets.

KEYWORDS:

• Food sovereignty
• ecofeminism
• feminism
• peasant women
• rural women
• alternative food networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Throughout this paper we mostly employ the original Brazilian term feira, but occasionally we translate it as local market.

2. An area close to the house, reserved for cultivation or animal rearing for the family’s self-consumption.

3. A large area for market crops. The term refers to the prior elimination of the vegetation cover required to enable the crops to grow.