Uncovering the Work-Family Interface: The Impact of Facilitators and Stressors on the Health of Farm Women

Work-family interface (WFI) theory has identified many stressors that influence work-family dynamics from the standpoint of employees. However, work-family facilitators, as well as the effects of gender differences and the impact of sociocultural environments that differ from a formal employment situation, have received much less attention. Our research aimed to fill these theoretical gaps by analyzing the facilitators and stressors involved in work-family dynamics and determining their consequences for farm women's physical, psychological, and social health. We used a qualitative method with a grounded theory design to collect data via semi-structured interviews with 46 farm women from the region of Araucanía in Chile. Our results explain how facilitators, stressors, and outcomes take place in a process of work-family balance that, paradoxically, implies exhausting journeys, a gender-based overload, a risk of diffuse body pain and distress, and a lack of time for personal healthcare and productive autonomy. Addressing these issues requires a comprehensive approach involving improved healthcare infrastructure and services focused on changing the pressures that the farming WFI exerts on rural women.

¿Pensar el cuerpo femenino como diálogo de saberes?

Resumen: La investigación buscó describir los significados que, en torno a la menstruación, producen las feministas de un colectivo en el sur de Chile, y la relación entre estos significados y la cultura regional indígena, mapuche, que forma parte de los referentes simbólicos de las mujeres para la producción de significados corporales. Fue un estudio cualitativo, basado en la teoría fundamentada, con enfoque de género y perspectiva intercultural. Por medio de entrevistas y un grupo de discusión, los resultados mostraron múltiples significados en torno a lo menstrual, originados por las distintas posiciones históricas y espaciales de las mujeres, con la cultura mapuche. Las conclusiones problematizan el feminismo menstrual, al mostrar sus limitaciones para reconocer las diferentes experiencias corporales entre las mujeres del hemisferio sur y resistir la colonialidad simbólica occidental.