FEMINISM AND ECONOMIC AUTONOMY: AN EVALUATION OF ATER WOMEN IN THE CITY OF CURRAIS NOVOS/RN – 2015/2017
Public policies. Feminism. Economic autonomy. Technical assistance and rural extension. Rural women.
The quest for women's economic autonomy is based on the feminist demand for inclusion in economic and social practices. In this context, organized women's movements, since 2003, have won the implementation of a set of public policies in order to promote development for rural women. Among these achievements is ATER (Technical Assistance and Rural Extension), which is a policy of assistance rural producers to strengthen production, associativism and cooperativism. This work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATER program for women in the city of Currais Novos / RN from 2015 to 2017. More specifically, we propose to: investigate whether the program has contributed to women's autonomy, identify if economic changes and the perception of women's social role in the lives of beneficiaries have occurred since participating in the program; and finally, to investigate the socialization of domestic work and care within the families of the benefited women. The conceptual debate will be referenced mainly in feminist theorists Federici (2019), Hirata (2007), Kergoat (2007), Brumer (2004) and Carrasco (2018) in the approach of women's economic autonomy, sexual division of labor and feminist economics dialoguing with the concept of development as the freedom by Amartya Sen (2000). As for the research instruments for data collection, we used a semi-structured interview script and the focus group interview, such instruments allowed us to bring the assessment of the various actors and social agents directly involved in the effectuation of ATER. It became evident that the policy brought significant results to the women benefited, the increase in the production and in the financial autonomy provided the expansion of individual and collective capacities.