Macrosocial change, feminization of agriculture, and peasant women's threefold economic role

Analysis of the impact of change in land tenure and production patterns on the roles and position of women in Romanian villages in the last 25 years reveals some unpredictable consequences of the macro social changes brought about in Romanian agriculture. A time budget survey of 500 peasant families revealed that: (1) no work role is performed exclusively by either sex; (2) the time allocated to various roles for women is independent of whether the family lives in a mountainous region, but the converse is true for men; (3) women spend more time in house keeping activities than in all other activities taken together; and (4) women still manage to work more than their husbands on cooperative farms in two out of three ecological areas. Hence, though women's traditional roles of housekeeper and mother may have changed in content, the time spent on them has not been reduced. This situation has increased women's economic decision-making authority, authority within the family and economic independence. These gains, however, are constrained by the traditional view of women as subservient to men and the extraordinary amount of effort expected from women under the new regime. 20 references.