Rural children and productive and reproductive work in the Aconcagua Valley. Analysis under the gender perspective

Abstract

The objective of this article was to reflect on the social experiences and representations of rural children from Aconcagua Valley as related to agricultural and household work. Focused considerations were given to the child protagonist approach and visibility of children’s voice, as well as the gender perspective and inequality. This empirical research used a qualitative methodology, consisting of 39 semi-structured interviews with 20 boys and 19 girls from two rural localities in Putaendo. The accounts evidenced the weight that work has on social construction of rural childhood, the sexual division of labor among rural children, the relationship between child labor, fatigue, the body and pain, and representations and valuations about that.