Trabalhadoras rurais e empoderamento: relações conjugais e convívio familiar de mulheres líderes de sindicato

Abstract

The thesis starts from the autobiography about the possibility of establishing a feedback relation between personal dimension and epistemological dimension typical of the problematic that involved this research, translated by the experience of female rural workers. By circulating and producing knowledge on public life plan of Sindicato dos Trabalhadores e Agricultores Familiares de Serrinha (Sintraf), this women were constituted by ‘struggle’. Struggle where knowledge and ways of empowerment emerged and also motivated us to investigate in which action they covered the relations sex/gender in the Family, within the marriage/conjugality contract. Aspect from which the guiding questions of the investigation arose: What features could we consider as empowerment or not of the female rural workers heading the management of Sintraf Serrinha? In case of such features exist, what knowledges would be involved for them? What are the conditions for this knowledge to have collaborated or not for the empowerment of these female workers within the scope of the marriage/conjugality contract? Such questions were supported on the following aim: to develop a study about the knowledge related to the possible empowerment of female rural workers in Sintraf Serrinha’s management; analysing how the divisions of power were configured in the private sphere and investigating whether this knowledge collaborated or not for the empowerment of these workers within the scope of the marriage/conjugality contract. In order to theoretically circumscribe this phenomenon, we seek for an interdisciplinary approach to the Sisal Territory/municipality of Serrinha-Ba and the public-private processes involved in the knowledge and empowerment achieved by female rural workers. Therefore, we call upon authors as Freire (1987), Pateman (1993), Batliwala (1997), Léon (2001), Paludo (2001), Humberto Nascimento (2003), Patel (2005), Telma Nascimento (2009), Coelho Neto (2013), among others. Regarding the methodological point of view, we decided for the qualitative approach, research field with inspiration in ethnoresearch; using the survey and semi-structured interview as a mean to collect information. In addition, based on the research findings, we defend the thesis that the empowerment achieved by these women in the public space of Sintraf Serrinha was replicated in the private space of the family and the marriage/conjugality contract. This empowerment carried the absolutely revolutionary content of knowledge/know-how. It was through the knowledge/know-how that these women recognized themselves in their gender identity, as a family farming and as an individual of rights. It was through the knowledge/know-how that they move ahead individually and collectively to fight against domestic violence and public policies for health. It was through the knowledge/know-how that they affirmed within the family, their individual and collective right to occupy and expand their political skills in the public space.