Gender Relations in Family-Farm Agriculture and Rural-Urban Migration in Brazil

Abstract

Censuses in Brazil have shown a progressive change of the population from primarily rural to predominantly urban. This change has been explained, on the one hand, by stagnation, modernization, or the industrialization of agriculture (push factors) and, on the other hand, by attraction to the services and jobs of the growing towns (pull factors). However, with the exception of the 1960 decade, every decade from 1950 to 2000 shows a greater number of migrant women than men. The selectiveness of rural-urban migration is apparently the result of a division of labor by sex that subordinates women and prevents them from inheriting land.