Rural young women, their work strategies, and the care economy in the province of San Juan, Argentina

Abstract

This article is part of the field of rural social studies and exhibits a set of advances of the thesis of the author's degree on labor strategies and the care economy of rural young women in the town of Barreal, Department of Calingasta, province of San Juan. As a result of the hegemonic model of agribusiness on a global scale, Barreal went through profound socio-economic structure changes that modified the territory and the social relations that take place there. Young rural women are incorporated and remain in the labor field through agricultural and non-agricultural practices, and it is the configuration of the socio-productive structure of the rural social space that qualifies them as a structuring structure. In turn, they perform strictly reproductive work from early ages within their families of origin, and this translates into domestic and caring practices. Therefore, they must promote a specific set of strategies that aim to distribute and organize their time between work practices and others oriented to care work during their social trajectories. The study takes a qualitative research strategy, which allows visualizing rural young women as producers of productive and reproductive work practices and senses; precisely, as a data collection / construction strategy, participant observation and in-depth interviews were used.