Desenvolvimento e o trabalho doméstico e de cuidados das mulheres que residem no monumento natural das árvores fossilizadas do Tocantins/Filadélfia-TO

Abstract

The Fully Protected Area of the Natural Monument of the Fossilized Trees of Tocantins (MONAF) was implemented in October 2000 to protect the phytofossils found in the city of Filadélfia, state of Tocantins, Brazil. In the years after the implementation of the MONAF, there was a prevalence of studies in Geology, Paleontology, and Archeology in the area. As this category of Protected Area allows the presence of properties and, consequently, the permanence of people in the area, the present study sought information about a particular part of the resident population: women. The present study aimed to understand the socioeconomic aspects of the housework and unpaid care provided by rural women residing in the MONAF. The theoretical framework used attempted to explain the reasons for the greater responsibility of women in reproductive labor and the consequences resulting from this dedication for the social and economic development of women. It also included a theoretical survey on the characteristics, claims, and achievements of rural women. The present study comprises qualitative exploratory research, which used as technical procedure the case study. We used semi-structured interviews to gather field data, which were applied to 35 women above 18 years of age. Descriptive statistics and the thematic content analysis technique were used for the analysis of the collection instruments. Our results showed the socioeconomic profile of MONAF women: age, marital status, level of education, occupation, positive and negative perceptions of the place where they live; time devoted to housework and unpaid care (estimated in hours and other meanings); the people with whom they share these activities; and the reasons they said they have to do so (in this case, most women justified as being their duty). In addition, we also present the main aspects of reproductive labor, according to the perspective of the women of MONAF: (1) As reproductive labor is predominantly less valued than productive labor, it is not valued enough by the family and the society to contribute to the economic autonomy of those who perform it. (2) Reproductive labor is important because it guarantees the supply of essential free products and services for those who live with those women, such as their husbands. (3) Reproductive labor has a high cost to their lives related to health and the great amount of time spent that prevents those women from achieving a situation of social and economic equality. (4) Those women’s longings are related to their needs for income and public services. We conclude that, as affirmed in the feminist theory, the housework and unpaid care provided by the women residing in the MONAF guarantees the well-being and development of people in the same measure as they distance those women from the achievements of fundamental human liberties.