Emma Zapata Martelo

Gender, rural households, and biodiversity in native Mexico

Knowledge about maize varieties is the key to rural households survival in native Mexico. Native peoples relate to nature in particular ways and they play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity. This paper discusses the relationship between native womens accumulated knowledge on maize varieties and the laboratory analysis of the species that they manage. Fieldwork was conducted in an Otomí community, San Pablo Arriba, located in the state of Mexico.

Does Contraception Benefit Women? Structure, Agency, And Well-Being In Rural Mexico

The authors of this paper examine Amartya Sens contributions to the concept of human well-being from a gender perspective and argue that this concept is particularly useful for explaining womens decisions on contraceptive use. The study draws on data collected in six rural communities of Chiapas, Mexico. It emphasizes the ways in which public discourse articulates the apparent benefits of having small families; the context of the household and community in which rural women make reproductive decisions; and the impact of family planning programs on womens sense of subjective well-being. In particular, it questions the assumption that reduced fertility through contraception necessarily enhances womens well-being and points to the importance that women attach to being a party to reproductive decisions. The authors also explore the links between womens assessment of these decisions and of paid work, and their actual education levels and real possibilities of employment.

Masculinidades indígenas y empoderamiento femenino

This article analyzes the changes in the way the husbands/partners of Otomi women expressed their masculinity after the inclusion of their spouses in the labor market through the microfinance project of ProMujer. We seek to answer the question of How does the economic empowerment of indigenous women influence the ways in which men express their masculinity? The research work was carried out among 20 of the husbands/partners of women belonging to the Centro Focal de ProMujer located in Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. An in-depth interview was used to find out their stance towards women’s work and the income they bring to their households. The results show a discourse in which men display conflicts, contradictions, and resistance towards this new situation: while they recognize the economic contribution of women (without which they could not fulfill all the needs of the household as they did in the past), they resist taking part in stereotypical female activities. In their discourses, one can see the difficulties and fear they experience when assimilating the newly gained independence of women, who as novel resource managers participate in different activities, interact with other women, and salute their process of change.