Empreendedorismo feminino no meio rural paraense: estudo com agricultoras familiares em municípios do Baixo Tocantins.

Abstract

Gender equality and women's empowerment, objective of the global agenda for the sustainable development of the planet, comprise fundamental rights discussed at different levels. In the rural area, it is important in order to guarantee the reduction of gender gaps and the expansion of woman participation, whose scenario is strongly guided by horizontal power relations that end up restricting their access to productive resources and rights therefore, disadvantage and vulnerable. The woman “invisibility” as a productive agent, associated with the absence of an occupational identity, reduces their individual freedom and results in lower development rates. Developing actions that are capable of empowering, expanding equality, reinforcing civic norms and values to help insert women in the economic process, as in entrepreneurial initiatives, are essential. The general objective of the research was to characterize the profile of women in family farming, both at the regional and local levels, based on official gender statistics and primary data collected from women farmers in the northeastern region of the of Pará state, in addition to make an indicator to assess the level of entrepreneurship and women's empowerment. To identify the woman’s profile in family farming in Pará, data from the 2017 Agricultural Census obtained from the IBGE Automatic Recovery System (SIDRA) were used. To characterize the profile of family farmers, 40 producers were interviewed, using semi-structured questionnaires splited into 4 blocks: socioeconomic profile; production and marketing system; associativism/cooperativism and entrepreneurial profile. Exploratory Factor Analysis (AFE) was used to create the Female Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Index in Family Farming (IEEF). The data imply limitations on land access, with the main form of obtaining it through inheritance or donation, a large percentage of women in areas under 2 hectares and a percentage difference of 10 points compared to men. When considering the purpose of production, more than 34% concerned with subsistence, showing its importance for food security in the household. The access to credit and technical assistance presented expressive results that configure great gaps which more than 95% do not receive any type of assistance and only 20.14% producers had access to rural credit. There was a tendency to age and masculinize the countryside. When observing the local municipalities context of Cametá and Igarapé-Miri, in large part of the results mirrored the state panorama, however, demonstrate a fundamental participation of women in complementation and even as the only source of family income. Pointed to positive responses to women’s entrepreneurship empowerment effects. However, the low participation of women in productive decisions, particularly in stages related to the commercialization of production, in a general context, constitutes strongly hierarchical production chains, and it is necessary for institutions to develop policies and strategies for actions to reduce gender gaps, taking into account in view, the importance of women's work in family farming for sustainable development and for local economies with poverty reduction and increased food security.