WUNRN
MEXICO - RURAL WOMEN SUCCEED
IN TRADITIONAL MALE ROLES
Jean Guerrero / The Wall Street Journal
After her partner departed, Leonor
Fernández began to run the family's 2.5-acre coffee farm. Most men who migrate
from
SIERRA MAZATECA, Mexico - June 6, 2012 - Every year for the past decade, 200,000 Mexican men have left for the United States.
The result has been a steady reshaping of everyday culture around those left behind—usually forcing women to become breadwinners. And as the shift deepens, it is upending one of the long-standing cultural pillars here: the Mexican cult of machismo.
When coffee prices plunged more than a decade ago, Leonor Fernández's partner left the couple's home and their five children in this rugged mountain region of southern Mexico to work in North Carolina. At first, he sent back remittances, but then the money—and the phone calls—stopped coming.
"I think he started his life again over there. He forgot about us completely," says Ms. Fernández.
To survive, Ms. Fernández began to run the family's 2.5-acre coffee farm. She then organized more than 100 local coffee producers and began traveling seven hours in a shared taxi van to the nearest city of Oaxaca at least once a month to sell their coffee. Eventually, she was appointed head supervisor of Oaxaca's State Coffee Council. "At first you feel the whole world crashing down on you, but little-by-little you open up again and you become tranquil," she says.
As coffee's prices skyrocketed last year, Ms. Fernández took advantage. She purchased an extra hectare (2.5 acres) to grow coffee and upgraded her wardrobe, which had included mostly traditional indigenous outfits. Also last year, in a surprise, her former partner, Dario Pereda, returned and asked to be taken back. Ms. Fernández said no. "I feel freer this way."
Mr. Pereda
says he didn't forget about the family, but often couldn't send back money
because work was unstable.
Traditional
gender roles aren't disappearing, and aren't about to. Men are still in charge
of rural Mexico, with about 6.6 million employed in the agriculture sector
during the 2010 census versus about 1.6 million women. Many women depend on
remittances from their migrated husbands, who take the lead in the family
business activities once again when they return. But in many cases,
relationships have changed permanently.
Ms.
Fernández's story isn't unusual. Most of the men who migrate from Mexico never
return, according to the country's National Population Council. And many stop
sending money back to their wives, the women say. Nearly 80% of remittances from
migrants come from sons, not husbands, said Antonieta Barron, an economics
professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University.
Women
are now the main breadwinners in 1.19 million of Mexico's estimated 6.2 million
rural households, a third higher than a decade ago. More than half of the
people who participate in all of the Agriculture Ministry's farmer programs,
including those that incentivize productivity through subsidies, are now women,
up from only about 30% just four years ago.
And
in the few cases where men do return from the U.S., they often take on a
greater share of the household duties—at least temporarily—like washing dishes
and cooking, which they were forced to learn while abroad, researchers said.
Even
as net migration from Mexico has plummeted to zero, according to a study
released in April by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center, thanks to changing
demographic and economic conditions on both sides of the border, women continue
to keep their newfound role in the rural economy.
Women
are in charge of the corn crops in San José del Rincón, a poor rural community
in the country's largest state, also called Mexico. The United Nations' Food
and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, says 80% of families in the food security
program are headed by women due to migration.
Eulogia
Lopez said she migrated to the city with her husband more than 20 years ago,
but she returned to the farm without him, turned off by what she said was his
indifference toward their children. She now coordinates community projects
organized by FAO. "Sometimes these men want a submissive woman who will
just sit there, and I'm not one of those," she said.
Women
are slowly changing the rural economy. Ms. Fernández, the coffee producer, said
she believed Mexico's organic coffee output is rising as women, who she says
tend to be more environmentally conscious, enter the business.
After
her partner disappeared, she obtained Fair Trade and organic certifications for
her coffee and is helping her organization members get certified.
The
Mexican government, through its popular cash-transfer program, Oportunidades,
and private banks that specialize in small rural credits favor women.
Compartamos,
a micro-credit bank, says 98% of its clients are women. Men, the bank found,
are more likely to spend the money on activities like drinking alcohol.
"It's
proved that women, when they receive money, dedicate their efforts to their
families, whereas with men, there's the problem of vices," said Daniel
Manrique, public relations director at Compartamos.
Irene
Fructuoso Lopez, who lives in Oaxaca, a colonial city in Southern Mexico, said
she can't rely on her husband to send back remittances from the U.S. But she
has to feed her two kids. So when someone handed her a flyer about Compartamos
recently, she decided to take out a $1,200 credit, and is now starting a
tortilla business.
"I
feel more independent, like I can fight for myself," she said, adding many
women in her community have taken charge like her.
Rita
Casimiro de la Cruz, a coffee producer in the state of Guerrero, won a national
coffee quality competition called Premio Cosecha the year after her husband
migrated to Arizona to find work. When he heard about her victory, he came back
to their rural town to celebrate.
"I
told him, 'we won a prize,' and he said, 'No. You won it,' " she said.
With a quiet laugh, she added, "A woman can, too."