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

World Bank Reprint Series: Number Ninety-eight Michael Cernea Macrosocial Change, Feminization of Agriculture, and Peasant Women's Threefold Economic Role Reprinted with permission from Sociologia Ruralis, vol. 18, no. 2/3 (1978), pp. 107-24  MACROSOCIAL CHANGE, FEMINIZATION OF AGRICULTURE AND PEASANT WOMEN'S THREEFOLD ECONOMIC ROLE by M[( HA:FIL.(ERNEA Agri.mO/d re and Rural Development Dcpartment 7The World Bank, Vasbington Within the framework of recent structural changes in Romanian agri- culture, namely collectivization, the role-set of women in the changing peasant family is a matter of great relevance for sociological inquiry the family and the developmental process. It is a current assumption that social change in tradition-al rural societies is beneficial to women's development, that it improvcs their economic situation and reduces their heavv workload. While suchl an assumption may be true in manv cases, it is my contention that the real process is both more complex and often contradictory. This paper will analyze the impact of change in land tenure and production patterns cn women in a specific case: the Romanian village in the last 25 years. It will focus on some unpredicted consequences of the macrosocial changes brought about in Romanian agriculture, upon the roles and position of peasant women. The verv rapid pace of industrialization in postwar Romania, as well as the collectivization of the country's agriculture' in less than 15 years (1949-1962), represent the most important and the most far reaching macrosocial changes that have ever happened in Romanian society. They have a multiple impact on family structure, and specifically on the occupational roles of women and their position in family and society. Although industrialization has in many respects changed the structure of the national economy and the social division of labour, agriculture still utilizes almost 49%^r of the econominally active population of Romania (against approximately 75% before 1940). The analysis of the occupational structure of Romania's total and agricultural labour force reveals immediately the occurrerce and extentof  108 Michael Cernea a major unpredicted phenomenon: the large increase in the number of women working in agriculture. An unusual concept has been coined to describe this process: the feminization of agriculture. The feminization of agriculture is, essentially, the combined consequence of overall collectivization and rapid development of industrial employment opportunities. Though both industridlization and cooperativization of agriculture are the result of centrallv planned policies, the actual extent of their impact on the feminization of agriculture was neither intended, nor predicted in advance. This process has become more obvious in the last 12-15 years, during which women have gradually come to provide the main bulk of the labour force employed in Romanian agriculture. Robert Merton suggested that a certain class of non-anticipated phenomena could be analysed using the general concept of 'latent function' as opposed to 'manifest function' (1959, p. 65). He defined a latent unction as an unintended consequence of a social process, unex- pected when the process was started, relatively autonomous in respect to the goals desired. It appears that even in a centrally planned society, such unpredicted and unplanned processes do occur. The country's industrialization, the increasing mechanization of basic agricultural structure in the villages have had some profound effects on women, which were not anticipated when colleccivization was initiated. As a result of collctivization, the peasant family has become subject to many structural changes (Cernea, 1969, 1971). Not all of them were unintended: on the contrary, one of the goals of the state's policy was precisely to elicit some of these changes. The macrosocial system was acting deliberately upon the family microsystem in order to transform it, to make it more responsive to the economic and cultural expec- tations of the macrosystem. Nonetheless it does not follow that every- thing which happened to family patterns and family roles was anti- cipated by the policymakerF. The changing position of peasant women can be examined under three headings: (a) the woman's economic role as a family prozvidler and labour resource; (b) her status as wife; (c) her role and influence as mother. FEMINIZATION OF .%(,Rl( 1I.i RIR The extent of the trend toward the feminization of agriculture in Romania is really impressive. The assessment of these trcendls will undermine a quite widespread assumption among sociologists dealing  MAacrosocial Ch'nge Feiniiznl ti)n 109 with the sex-ratios in various contemporary rural societies. It is still widely thought that in rural areas more males than females are involved in the local labour force; that is to sav, agriculture is considered typically as a man's occupation2. For instance, Smith and Zopf (1970, p. 59) considered that "urban woman of most ages have higher rates of involvement in the labour force than do those in farming districts, for agriculture is typicallv a man's occupation". This assumption, however, simply does not hold true for mwany councries, including Romania or other east-european countries. Smith and Zopf go on to note that "in addition, the potential female labour force in many farming areas is greatly reduced by the large migration of young women to cities, where they do find jobs". However, it appears that foi some European, as well as African countries, male migration to cities is much higher than that of young women. Another sociologist, Professor Olaf F. Larson (1968, p. 586), in a rather classic article on 'Rural Society' published in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, wrote in the same vein: "The combined effects of differential fertility and differential migration leave the rural areas with a disproportionate burden of dependents, Lspecially children, and a relative shortage of persons in the pro(luctive adult years. With the exception of certain Asian and African counuries, rural areas have more males than females - particularly at the V'ounger aidult ages - because of the selective factor in net migration. These differences in sex ratios reflect the difference in work roles. In the most modernized countries, the greatest opportunity for gainful enmploy ment for females is the nonfarm work; the 'field' activities are predominantly men's work". Despite the rather vague reservation about 'certain Asian and African countries' this description is quite inadequate. Ti aditiina l1 agriculture in most African countries below the concinenc's northern belt, for instance, was and still is a woman's activity as m uch as a man's one, and often even more so. WXives were, and are, responsible for providing the family's food crops, with men only helping them. The so called 'modernization process' in some instances relieves women of their agricultural tasks. But the process is inlherently contradictory, and in many other countries rural development means, among other things, a heavier work burden on the peasant women. The s'iift from suibsistence agriculture to market oriented agriculture often has adversc effects on women, adding to their tradition:al tasks new ones, namely to help men in cultivating cash crops. But even in some rural societies in which aggriculturc used to be a precdominantly man's work, the new trends  110 MiAlhael Cernea indicate a reverse of the previous pattern. Romanian agriculture, for instance, as well as that of other East-european countries with a rapidly modernizing agricultural technology, has clearly ceased to be a 'pre- dominantly man's field'. This is particularly significant because of the widespread dogmatic hlJief that modernization, tractorization and mechanization ePnlinnac', women and shifts the agricultural labor force's sex-ratio in favor of men. Empirical facts do not support across the board this outdated sociological contention. The sociologic:al awa- reness of this new situation, when and where it occurs, is crucial for an understanding of other social (and family) processes which are occur- ring at the same time. The very rapid industrialization of Romar.nii (which led to a 30-fold increase in industrial output between 1938 dnd 1976), absorbed a large number of peasants into urban faccorics, particularly male peasants. Thus, industrialization called for massive rural out-migration. The latter was favoured by (1) the collectivization of agricutlture: this weakened the traditional attachment of peasants to their former pri- vately owned land, thus encouraging them to leave their villages either permanently or temrporaril!' (2) the widespread introduction of trac- tors and increasing nmechanization of agriculture; this freed a significant proportion of the labour force hitherto engaged in manual work, and encouraged people to look for permanent, non-agricultural employ- ment. With men leavPing their family farms and their lhouseholds for jobs outside the village, the burden placed on women, who had to carry out more and more of the agricultural work once done bv their menfolk, constantly increased. Three main patterns of peasant rural urban-migration can be iden- tified: a)permnanent migration of youngpeasantis, the majoriky y of whom are young male peasants, which creates a disequilibrium in the villages' sex-ratio (especially among the under 30s); b) temporary ;nigraulnti of adults, whose families remain in the villages, the mrajority of these adults is also male; c) permanent migration of entire peasant Jimilies. In addition we must mention a fourth category d) the commuters, that is people who live in a village but work in nearby urban industries. Most of these are again males, and most are household heads. As many as an estimated 60%-70%6 of peasant families have at least one of their male mcmbers involved in a movement of type (a), (b) or (d). Type (c) rcpresents, pcrlhaps, 5-7%. The consequence of the processes mentioned under 'a', 'b' and 'd' is that peasant women consitute for the time being the main agricultural labour force. Table 1, in which 1956 and 1966 census data are con-  Macrosocial Change Feminization lHi trasted, suggests changes which have occurred during this period in the sex-ratio of the agricultural labour force, in eaclh age group. TABLE 1 Women in the Agricuitural Active Population Age Groups Number of women per 100 men 1956 1906 Total 115.3 133.9 14-19 years 111.4 143.3 20-24 years 116.1 140.5 25-29 years 112.6 145.4 30-39 years 126.3 143.5 40-49 years 129.5 155.6 50-54 years 10'7J 1506 55-59 years 111.4 120.8 60 years and over 9'.1 83.8 From this Table it can be seen that the percentage of women in the total active agricultural population is rising in all the age groups (except that of 60 and above). The disequilibrium in sex-ratios between 25-54 is particularly high. Moreover, since the state owned agricultural farms employ an even higher percentage of male than female labour, the sex-ratio discrepancy in the Agricultural Producer Cooperatives (APCs) is even more sLcute than the Table's gross figures suggest. This table also indicates another significant process as well: the aging of the agricultural labor force. Women in the more advanced age groups (40-54) are drawn back into field work on a large scale, and their proportion relative to men in the same old age groups is even higher than in the younger age-groups (the aging of the agricultural labor force encompasses the male force as well.) After 1966, the trend continued towards a decreasing use of male labor in APCs, primarily because of the higher male outmigration rates. In 1974, men represented 36.8% and women 63.2% of the total labor force employed in all Agricultural Producer Cooperatives (Spornic, 1976 p. 105). No less conclusive than the average country figures are the data about a particular area: the highlv industrialized district of Brasov. Research carried out in this district found that the number of womeni per 100 men working in district APCs rose as follows: 1968 - 148; 1969 - 153 women; 1970 - 166 women. At the level of the national economy, the structure of the employed labor force is also significant. In 1970, of the total cconomically .ictive male population  112 Michael Cernea 48.1% were employed in industry, building and transportation and only 35% in agriculture; in contrast only 16.7% of economically active females were employed in industry, building and transportation, while 65.7% were working in agriculture (Ionescu, 19-' p. 101). Thus, if agriculture is a task to be carried on the shoulders of giarats, one could say that nowradays these giants are mainly women. Of course, the feminization of agriculture is not only occurrin,g in Romania. A study undertaken by FAO on the changing socio-cconomic role of farm women in European agriculture (Barberis, 1972 p. 10-11) noted that it is happening in several European countries, both east and west, and at various rates: e.g., Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey, U.S.S.R. and to a certain extent even Federal Germany. It seems, however, that the highest rates and progressively increasing pace of feminization are to be found in countries where industrial development is accompanied by collectivization of agriculture. Wo- men, who leave farming more slowly than their menfolk, take over a very important amount of the agricultural activities carried out just one or two decades ago by men. The agricultural population, or at least part of it, tends to take on the characteristics of a residual population: those who cannot leave remain in agriculture, which makes the agricultural population prone to dramatic imbalances in sex-ratios and age-ratios. ( HANN(,I, ROLFVI:.1 \X'ITHIN THE PE\SANAN1 FA111 Y The considerable involvement of peasant women in agricultural activ- ities outside their family household, together with their husbands' increasing involvement in non-agricultural employment, bring about important changes both in the distribution of roles within the peasant family and in the husband-wife relationship. Peasant women have not had to take over the entire work load previously carried out by men. The rapid pace of technological change in agriculture due to diffusion of modern machines, fertilizers, pes- ticides, impDroved practices, etc. (Cernea et al., 1971) has reduced the amount of labor required for various agricultural operations. This too has a direct impact on family life patterns, as it lays the basis for task re-a.lotmenr and role-change within the peasant family unit. Just 25 years ago most of the tasks carried out on the more than 20,000,000 acres of arable land dedicated to :;,,riculcurc in Romania were performed manually. This meant that a tremendous amount of arduous labor had to be performed by all members of the peasant fimmiln , both male and female. Noxvadqas, the bulk of these tasks on coopCrativC  Marosostvcieil Chdtang: 1 tniinli,-,a{ztm 113 farms are mnechanized: for example in 1971, 97' oft lthe ploughing. 83r7 of the sowing, 66% of the hocing and w99Q of the cereal harvesting were done mechanically. At a first look, one might assume that this reVOlution in technology would greatly increase the amount of free time av.ailable for family companionship. Some sociologists viewed it in this wav. But in fact this is not the case, or it is only partly the c.ase. Instead of providing more free time for leisure and companionshipi, miechini,,ationl has been fol- lowed bv occupational fifi ri?entialion between husband and wife witllin agriculturc, and bv men leaving to take in lI-strial employment. This has led to ipatial. stepareiion between hlwsan(i a:nd wife during the day and, for many families, even for the entire week. As a conseqluence of the macrosocial chianges outlinedi above, and particularly of the feminization of agriculture, womein's econiomic roles are strongly emphasised both as far as the total social system is con- cerned and especially within Agricul tur:al ProdU ccr C(ooperatives. Manv APC's suffer from a chronic labour shortage and therefore try to persu- ade their women members to take a la.rger share in farm activties. This results in a potential and actual contcradiction between women's various roles, specificallv bewecen a woman's econoric fuinction as a labour resource and pi7zih1ei for her tnmil, and lher otlher roles -r partit.tlab1 1' those to do with her icti% itis anl(i C(lltuictin.l influence as mother and her status as wife. Women are also presSUred bccause of the tOrni-al rules governing the APCs, under which each mermber hfas the dtily to provide a cert;fin minimum amount of w%ork annually (maILired in work days or norms), irrespective of their familh and household responsibilities. The extent to which these various roles are inc(mp;tihle, or the m legstrain to which women are subject is denimistrated bv the tfindlinig of scrv%er.a1 Cield] investigations that the average amNloLun1t of work performned by women is less than that performed by men who still ,, ork in the APCs. This lholds true for many cooperative farms in which individLal case-studies were carried out (Belint, (Comana, Mfanasia, Girbovi, Buciumi) as well as for a countrv wide research (sample: 120 cooperarive fairms, with a total membcrslhip of 140.000) ;carried out bv the Research Department of the Labour Ministrv (Dragan. 1tr)o). To illisrrarte this point we Lan refer to thise studyN carried out in the APC of HBLIciLui village I B adini et al., 197o p). 125). Tlhie rese.arthers found that at the lowest lev+ k of work-parcipatilron0 (i.e., number of working davs per APC mcemlber per vear) 7.5 were wonme At the higher lcvcls the reverse was the rule.  114 Michael Cernea TABLE 2 llork At t,a,ei in BiBucmi APC No. of working days % of those % of women % of men performed working working working Under 40 days 22.5 72 28 40-80 days 43.1 75 25 81-120" 11.2 10 90 121-200" 11.7 2 98 201-300" 5.4 - 100 Over 300" 6.1 4 96 However, a peasant woman's economic role is not confined merely to her activity on the cooperative farm. She has in fact a threefold eco- nomic role, which stems from the peculiar position of the peasant family vis-a-vis the Cooperative farm. It has to be borne in mind that peasant families/households joined the APCs but also continued to operate on a family basis. Thus a woman has to perform a threefold economic role: (1) that of APC member, simultaneously co-owner and laborer in a large-scale agro-enterprise; (2) that of laborer on the family plot, a piece of land assigned by the cooperative to its members for private use;3 (3) that of housekeeper and manager of the family consumption unit. These are partlv complementary and partly crosscutting and conflicting roles, which are intimarely interlocked precisely because they are emer- gents of the family's economic infrastructure. For the time being, the fulfillment of role (3) and the consumption needs of the family compell women to perform both role (2) and (1). If a woman was not fulfill role (1) in the APC, she would run the risk of not being allotted by the APC the family plot or having the existing plot reduced in size. The benefits from cultivating the family's small plot go entirely to the family (they are not shared with the cooperative), which makes this plot very important in the family's economny. However, recent regulations make the allocation and size of this plot dependent on whether the APC members perform their work assignments in the Cooperative's fields. This is why the woman's role (2) depends on her ftlfilling role (1). Since there are compelling economic incentives to perform as much as possible in both, this implicitly leads to heavy workloads for the rural women, with possible effects. While the time allocated to role (3) remains more or less constant for most peasant women, the emphasis put by a woman on fulfilling roles (1) and (2) varies according to  Macrosocial Change T ninni al i(on 115 whether her husband is working in the APC or is emploved in industry. In rural families in which the husband is employcd outside the APC, it is the wife's primary responsibility to perform the work required by the ACP from its member families. There is also the possibility of occasional con flict betwcell the aims of the family and the cooperativC farm (Ccrnc.., 1975). Since the family lhas a vested interest in increasing the output of its family plot so as to trade its products either to the state agencies or on the openi market, the family may sometimes withdraw its labour from the coopcrative during period of intensive cultivation on the farmily plot (Conscanrinescu & Stahl, 1970 p. 39). Thus, the familv system mav act as both a stimulus to and a brake on the participation of the wife-mother in the socio-eco- nomic activities of the AGP, exerting some ,,control' on it. The time that women allocate to each of the roles mentioned above may throw light on their actual comparative importance in the real life, as well as on the changes in the sexual division of labour within the peasant family. It has been suggested4 that the amount of time spent currently by peasant women on the first and third roles should be computed and evaluated. This should allow for a clearer ranking and a differential evaluation of women's roles as a labor resource, as wife and as mother. A time budget survey carried out on a sample of 500 peasant families randomly selected from 12 cooperativc farms in the Arges district provides vere relevant data (Gheorghiu & Sima, 1973; more details in Cernea, 1974, p. 234-239). Time expenditures were recorded under five headings: a) work in the cooperative farm; b) housekeepinig and familv care, including children's edUcation: c) work on the family plot; d) permanent employment outside the cooperative; e) seasonal emplov- ment outside the cooperative. Time expendirures recor(ledl for each family member by sex and age allowed for a comparison of the roles played by husbands and wives, and more precisely of their differential investments in some common roles. The ecological dimension - whether the cooperative farm was in the mountainous region, in the hill-plain or in the plain area of the district - was taken as an in- dependent variable. The data is graphlically summarised in Table 3. The roles designated under 'b' and 'c' are direccky perfornmed within the family group. Roles 'a', 'd', 'e' are all provider roles, but while the role 'a' keeps the family members inside the village and allo ws them to fulfill roles 'b' and 'cl, the remaining provider roles 'd' and 'e' in most cases take one member of the conjugal couple out of the village. T'he entire burdeen of the family role cltus Fills on the one adult (usually the  116 AMichael Cernea TABLE 3 ALLOCATION OF NORKTINIE BY MEMBERS OF COOPERATIVE FARMS IN VARIOUS AREAS Of THE ARGES DISTRICT THE MOUNTAIN AREA THE HILLY-PLAIN AREA THE PLAIN AREA ALL MEMBERS ALL MEMBERS ALL MEMBERS ::.51/ 252%:: Z4I"0 )33~ * \. .... n.. . 2524o \ z4+;5;;, tU7 --122 33