RESUMO
PIP: Mexico's peasant sector is undergoing great change as a result of the insertion of capitalist relations into areas that were previously remote. The traditional peasant subsistence economy has been displaced, and peasants have been forced to adopt a series of new strategies for survival, entailing proletarianization or selling of labor. Women in the community of San Nicolas Zoyapetlayoca, in the municipio of Tepeaca, have lived in a situation of poverty and precariousness for some time. Most of the population historically depended on the neighboring haciendas for their livelihood. Women and children also worked there, mistreated and without social protection. The lands that were distributed after the Revolution are insufficient to support the community, and most families must look elsewhere for employment. Incomes are insufficient to cover all the necessities of education, health, nutrition, and other aspects of life. Most women are educated no farther than the primary level. They spend most of their time preparing food, carrying water, washing clothes, caring for their children, and in other domestic chores. Some women work for wages as laborers, factory workers, or domestics. Rural women are disadvantaged by poor working conditions, insufficient education, low levels of health and nutrition, limited participation in social and political life, poor housing and lack of services, and frequently by their own attitudes of traditionalism or fatalism.^ieng
Assuntos
Agricultura , Economia , População Rural , Direitos da Mulher , América , Comportamento , Demografia , Países em Desenvolvimento , Emprego , Mão de Obra em Saúde , América Latina , México , América do Norte , População , Características da População , Comportamento Social , Fatores SocioeconômicosRESUMO
PIP: The relationship between fertility and income has been a preoccupation of demography since Malthus published the Principles of Population. Of the various approaches surveyed in this article, the economic analysis of fertility pioneered by Gary Becker based on neoclassical consumption theory argues the most strongly for a positive influence of income on fertility. Becker's model views children as consumer goods competing with alternative goods as parents attempt to maximize their utility or satisfaction. The indifference curves, budget lines and other analytical apparatus of microeconomic research are central to this approach. Blake and other opponents have questioned the appropriateness of microeconomic analysis in understanding family size and fertility. The theory of the demographic transition, unlike Becker's approach, views the income-fertility relationship as fundamentally negative. Although there is general consensus that the theory of demographic transition is a cornerstone of demography, there is less agreement as to its actual status. It appears to be less a truly developed theory based on a refined conceptual framework than a description or typology of apparent regularities observed in the past. Various authors have criticized specific elements of economic analysis of fertility. Okun rejected explanations of family size based on orthodox consumption theory because the costs of children, unlike the costs of consumer goods, are not the same for all households, while Mincer added analysis of opportunity costs, in this case referring essentially to the value of the time spent by mothers in child rearing instead of other activities. Several other analysts have suggested modification to the microeconomic approach. 2 recent reflections have contributed to an empirical and theortical synthesis of earlier work incorporating elements of demographic transition theory. Eva Mueller and Kathleen Short, in a work with considerable relevance to the Third World, have attempted to reconcile apparently contradictory findings by distinguishing between direct and indirect costs, by examining the time frame of references to income level, and by carefully distinguishing between macro- and microlevel studies conducted in rural or urban areas. Easterlin's work attempts to describe and explain the great fertility changes that occur in the process of modernization, including the fertility-income relationship. He includes in his analysis the supply of children--the number of surviving children a couple would have if they made no attempt to control their fertility--and the costs of fertility regulation. It appears from a review of this literature that the relationship between income and fertility is not universally either positive or negative. Economic analyses can contribute to clarification of the relative influence of income and other varibles that determine fertility levels and trends.^ieng