Women's labor, fertility, and the introduction of modern technology in a rural Maya village.

PIP: The introduction of mechanized technology into a rural Maya agricultural community in the mid 1970s markedly increased the technology with which maize could be ground and water collected, which in turn introduced a possible savings in the time spent working. This study investigated the response of female fertility to the introduction of this labor-saving technology. Using two proximate determinants of female fertility, the association between the advent of modern technology and changes in the age at which women give birth to their first child and the length of mothers' birth intervals was examined. Analyses showed that women begin their reproductive careers at a younger age after the laborsaving technology was introduced. Estimate of the median age at first birth from the distribution function dropped from 21.2 years before the introduction to 19.5 years after the introduction of the technology. In addition, modeling results show that the probability of a woman giving birth to her first child doubles for any age after the introduction of laborsaving technology. However, changes in birth intervals are less conclusive since the differences of smoothed probability distributions are not significant. Moreover, findings indicate that women who initiate reproduction at a younger age can potentially have longer reproductive careers and larger families.^ieng

No going back. Mexican women find opportunity and obstacles in a changing economy.

PIP: An overview was provided of some of the economic and social changes in Mexico that impact on women. At the Colegio de Postgraduados, an ongoing project will examine women's work roles in an agricultural setting. The Ford Foundation has funded research studies at Mexican universities. One such study will examine women workers in foreign-owned factories producing duty free export goods; another study involves interviews with street vendors in the informal sector. Jose Alonso is a specialist on the Mexican garment industry, teaches at the University of the Americas, and advises at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. He contends that the process of development can best be understood by examining the informal sector. There is no Mexican tradition of a business class. Scholars at the Colegio de Postgraduados' Center for Rural Development are exploring income generation schemes, and building a master's degree program specializing in gender and rural development. The program would train professionals with an understanding of the needs of rural women and appropriate strategies for improving women's social and economic conditions. Crises have precipitated major shifts in work patterns in Mexico. During the 1980s, inflation and unemployment rapidly increased and income declined to 1970s levels. Mass movement of women into the labor force occurred. For many women, the dual role in long paid work hours and family and domestic care has produced independence with a big price tag. Manufacturing jobs along the free trade border areas have provided work opportunities for women, who hold 70% of the jobs. These jobs have moved from low paid menial tasks to higher skilled and better paid positions with training, but only for some women. There are few unions, and the government Confederation of Mexican Workers does not include women. Notwithstanding working conditions, women confront other problems with housing and the lack of basic amenities such as electricity, tap water, trash collection, and paved roads and walkways. Border areas such as Juarez attract 200 unemployed daily. Unregulated growth will turn these border cities into densely populated areas. About 40% of the economically active population work in the informal sector. Much of the vendor merchandise is illegal contraband, and intricate handicrafts are sold next to electronic games, cosmetics, and silk-screened T shirts. Informal work is also available for women in cottage industries at home. The Agro-Industrial Women's Unit in Buenavista helps to secure agricultural land holdings for women.^ieng

Women farmers in Central America: myths, roles, reality.

PIP: In Central America, women's productive roles are negated by the widely held belief that women do not work in agriculture or do so only temporarily for reasons of poverty. Working as unpaid laborers, working seasonally in cash crops, and engaging in informal sector activities off the farm, women are not seen as agricultural producers or full-time wage laborers. That notion is enhanced by rural women, who tend not to describe themselves as producers. Women farmers are therefore invisible and deprived of social and legal recognition and protection. Recent studies, however, have found that women throughout Central America have played a long-standing role in agriculture as permanent, not temporary, workers. Official statistics indicate that almost 20% of rural households are headed by women who are fully responsible for agricultural production. Indeed, there are villages in Central America inhabited solely or mainly by widows and single women and their children. Despite the growing body of evidence on women's true productive role in Central American societies, their agricultural roles still remain largely invisible in government census and labor statistics. The author discusses barriers to opportunity and supporting women farmers in Central America.^ieng

Between hearth and labor market: the recruitment of peasant women in the Andes.

PIP: To cover subsistence requirements, peasant women from the Peruvian Andes increasingly are being forced to engage in income-generating activities, including domestic service, marketing, manufacturing, and herding. In many cases, recruitment into waged labor involves migration from rural communities. Case studies of the placement of peasant women in external labor markets illustrate the complex micro- and macro-level factors that determine the mix of productive and reproductive labor. The sexual division of labor in the domestic economy and community is the critical in regulating the length of absence of peasant women from the home, the types of jobs taken, and the migratory destination. In 1 such case study, 56 women from the village of Kallarayan (all of whom had migrated at some point) were interviewed during 13 months of fieldwork in 1984-85. There is no paid employment in Kallarayan, so 14% of the village's population is involved in migration to urban areas or commercial agricultural areas in jungle valleys at any point. Male migration is high in the 11-40-year age group, but becomes seasonal once men marry. Female migrants tend to remain away from the village for longer periods, but are almost exclusively single. Recruitment of peasant women into paid labor is achieved by 5 types of agents: family, godparents and friends, authority figures, recruiting agents, and employers. Peasant girls under 15 years of age tend to be allocated to external labor markets (largely domestic services) by parents and godparents; after 15 years, however, when children are considered to reach adulthood, there is a shift toward self-motivated migration or recruitment by employers and agents. The eldest daughter typically enters migration at age 14 years and sacrifices her education, while younger siblings remain in the home longer. In all but the poorest families, female migration for waged labor ends with marriage.^ieng

Health beliefs related to diarrhea in Haitian children: building transcultural nursing knowledge.

Regardless of where they live or under what circumstances, mothers throughout the world seem to have a compelling desire to provide the best possible health care for their children (Huston, 1979). Haitian mothers living in the Dominican Republic were no exception. The health beliefs and practices of these mothers related primarily to diarrhea among their children which demonstrated a concern and resourcefulness that is commendable. The results of this study clearly indicate the importance of transcultural nurses conducting culturally relevant research as a basis to develop sound health programs in developing countries. Diarrhea was identified as the single most important threat to a child's health in these communities. That mothers did not know about the correct ingredients and/or proportions for oral rehydration solutions (Western views) was of interest. Although the Dominican government makes some commercial packets of ORS, most of the women interviewed did not have ready access to this product. This finding reflected the need for transcultural nurses to offer to teach mothers how to make ORS using the sugar, salt, and water they had available. Since the mothers' perception that diarrhea was a dangerous threat to their children's health, was verified by childhood mortality statistics in the bateys, it would seem that ORS could make a significant impact on the health status of the children. Breastfeeding also was a major health belief factor associated with the treatment of diarrhea. Even though the majority of mothers believed breast feeding should be continued if a child had diarrhea, a number believed it should be discontinued. Nurses working with CHWs will need to emphasize the importance of breastfeeding and help them to develop creative ways of communicating this information to the mothers. The second most dangerous threat to the child identified by the mothers was respiratory ailments. This suggests a new area of concentration for future research and training of CHWs. A host of new questions related to respiratory problems such as health beliefs, causative factors, course of disease, traditional treatments, mortality rate, etc. need to be investigated. When transcultural nurses plan health care programs for women and children in other cultures, it is important to recognize the concerns mothers have for their children, and their intense desire to nature and care for them. In this study, mothers willingly participated and demonstrated active interest in learning to use methods to improve the health and well being of their children. It is well documented (Lieban, 1977) that established health beliefs are not automatically discarded when new knowledge is made available, but that exploration and incorporation of new information when presented in a culturally relevant framework does occur. An understanding of local beliefs surrounding health is fundamental to the development of appropriate transcultural nursing interventions.

PIP: Interviews conducted by community health workers with 83 Haitian women working in sugar cane fields in the Dominican Republic underscored the importance of understanding local health beliefs so that culturally appropriate interventions are implemented. The respondents all had at least 1 child under 5 years of age; their average age was 29 years and they had a mean parity of 4.9. The mothers identified gastrointestinal problems, chiefly diarrhea, as the greatest threat to their child's health. 82% of the mothers had at one time had a diarrheal episode among her children and 31% reported that a child currently had diarrhea; 16% said at least 1 child had died of diarrhea. Water, food, and microbes were identified as the major cause of diarrhea. Although not routinely cited as a cause of diarrhea, the evil eye (transmitted by male of female witches) was viewed by all but 1 mother as a powerful factor in child mortality. The foods mothers claimed they would give a child with diarrhea included lemonade, soups, bananas, and other fruit juices. Both cooking oil and milk were considered harmful. Of concern was the finding that 38% of mothers would discontinue breastfeeding during a diarrhea episode. None of the mothers had heard of oral rehydration; however, most were treating diarrhea with a solution prepared by pouring boiling water over herbs and leaves. This practice suggests that these mothers can be instructed to prepare oral rehydration solutions in which all ingredients are precisely measured. Since diarrhea is a major cause of child mortality in these Haitian communities in the Dominican Republic, promotion of oral rehydration could make a significant contribution to child survival. It is essential, however, that all such interventions incorporate existing beliefs and present new information in a culturally relevant framework.

[Peasant women and agrarian life in Latin America]. / Les femmes paysannes et la crise agraire en Amerique Latine.

PIP: The great agrarian transformation in favor of capitalist agriculture that has occurred over the past few decades in the dependent countries of Latin America has modified the traditional production of foodstuffs, the mode of work, and the social reproduction of peasant women belonging to the social groups with the lowest levels of income. Policies of centralized industrialization which have excluded agricultural manpower have affected Latin American women, accounting for their greater tendency to migrate to cities. Migrant peasant women participate in 3 principal characteristics of the dependent development of Latin America: the rural exodus, the burgeoning of the tertiary sector, and marginality. The consequences of unequal capitalist agrarian development in the formation of a female rural proletariat have not been well studies, resulting in a tendency to disregard the heterogeneity of situations in which peasant women find themselves and to confuse 3 aspects of their condition as members of rural families, as workers, and as women. As family members, peasant women find family income declining, leading to increases in their unpaid labor time and declining standards of nutrition and health. The agrarian economies of Latin America and the Caribbean show a certain homogeneity in the sexual division of labor. Their historical development after their insertion as colonial regions in the world economy produced 3 well-defined forms of agricultural economy: haciendas, plantations, and peasant communities, each with its own forms of family and kinship relationships which reflected adjustments between sexual division of labor and production or manpower needs. Concerning the participation of women, there are curerntly 3 specific types of agricultural production characteristic of Latin America and the Caribbean: peasant family units usually belonging to communities in which women primarily perform the tasks of "reproduction", rural family units which rely on the external labor market for a large part of their consumption, and family units or independent women who rely entirely on the labor market for survival. Recent studies have shown that the subordination of women antedates capitalism, even in situations such as indigenous communities where women have more favorable positions than in fully capitalist societies. In all cases, women are responsible for the unpaid work, but their participation in production activities depends on the patterns of manpower recruitment and the social position of the household. Women replace men when shortages of male workers occur, but men never replace women when shortages of female workers occur. Census figures demonstrate that there is no linear and homogeneous process of proletarianization of displaced peasant women. The most usual forms are working as agricultural laborers, seasonsl or temporaty migration for agricultural work, irregular or temporary salaried work, or petty commerce.^ieng