Trabajo agropecuario y no agropecuario de las mujeres rurales en México, 2000-2010

The rural population of Mexico has changed in various ways over the past few decades, one of which is their increasing participation in non-agricultural activities. There is hence interest in demonstrating the changes to rural women’s employment in Mexico during the period 2000-2010. This study draws on data from the National Employment Survey (ENE) and the National Survey on Employment and Occupation (ENOE), and distinguishes between labour market participants from towns with under 2,500 inhabitants and those with 2,500 inhabitants or more. The data are then used to explore a number of points of interest. The first goal is to confirm the supposition that non-agricultural employment has become more important in rural towns in Mexico over the past few years. Taking into account the stance of various authors, the study also seeks to determine whether activities carried out by men and women in rural locations are similar to those conducted in urban areas, or whether rural areas maintain their distinctive nature. The second goal is to demonstrate whether, if the trend towards greater participation in non-agricultural activities continues, rural women will be relatively highly represented. Lastly, given that women’s work presents distinctive features, a multinomial logistic model is used to analyse the influence of individual and family factors on the type of work performed by rural women.