Gender Oppressions and Forms of Subordination in the Rural Community of Nueva Palestina, Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the realities experienced at both the community and family levels by a group of women from a rural community in Chiapas, whose lives are shaped by the gendered conditions and circumstances of their local context. The account presented here draws on a process of research and accompaniment carried out through a feminist methodology, conceived as a commitment to recovering lived experience through situated inquiry. The findings are organized into two thematic blocks: gender-based forms of subordination at the community level and gender-based forms of subordination at the family level. At the community level, the study reveals inequalities in decision-making and political participation, as well as the feminization of agricultural labor, which does not relieve women of domestic work; within the family sphere, women’s contribution is shown to be central to the maintenance and support of their households, through double or triple workloads involving domestic and care work, with consequences for their health and bodies. Overall, what we describe as gender paradoxes becomes visible: the achievement of rights and advances coexists with the persistence of oppression within both community and family dynamics.