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ASSETS IN INTRAHOUSEHOLD BARGAINING AMONG WOMEN WORKERS IN COLOMBIA'S CUT-FLOWER INDUSTRY

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13545700500508551

1466-4372

Greta Friedemann‐Sánchez,

Income, Poverty, and Inequality

Abstract Abstract Drawing on ethnographic and survey data, this article examines the diverse ways in which land and home ownership, wage income, and social capital combine to structure the alternatives of women workers in the cut-flower industry of rural Colombia. Most of these workers live in traditional male-dominated households where domestic abuse is prevalent. Data showing rates of property ownership by gender are presented, and the barriers and facilitators to property ownership by gender among agricultural wage-workers are analyzed. Property ownership is acquired largely through inheritance or purchase, which is influenced by social capital and the historical nature of relationships with large landowners. Women's household bargaining strategies rely on a combination of assets: kin networks; labor-related networks; and physical, financial, and individual assets. The author argues that the social capital of individuals, including their labor, kin, and solidarity networks, is key to an understanding of both property acquisition and intrahousehold bargaining processes. Keywords: Social capitalpropertyagricultural labordomestic violencenon-traditional exportsrural Colombia JEL Codes: J16, Q15, R2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Carmen Diana Deere and Cheryl Doss for their initiative in the enormous task of guiding the discussion on women and wealth; the four anonymous reviewers for their sharp insights and comments on earlier versions of this article, as well as Carmen Diana Deere, Maria Floro, Diana Strassmann, Joan Griffin, Nina Sayer, and Diana Burgess for their helpful comments; Andrea Cutting for her assistance in preparing the quantitative data; and the Center for Chronic Disease and Outcomes Research at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center for providing me with the time and resources to complete the manuscript. Notes 1 The concept of a fall-back position also referred to as the threat point or breakdown point, borrowed from the Nash game theory model, is the level of utility that each individual in a bargaining position will attain if they do not cooperate (Gillian Hart 1992 Hart, Gillian. 1992. "Imagined Unities: Constructions of the 'Household' in Economic Theory". In Understanding Economic Process, Edited by: Ortiz, Sutti and Lees, Susan. 111–130. Baltimore: University Press of America. [Google Scholar]). In effect, it reflects the amount of power that an individual brings into bargaining by leveraging the current bargaining position with alternatives that may include, for instance, a change in behavior such as moving out of the household, withdrawing sex, or finding a second job. 2 See, e.g., Ann Whitehead 1981 Whitehead, Ann. 1981. "'I'm hungry, Mum': The Politics of Domestic Budgeting". 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"Endowments and Assets: The Anthropology of Wealth and the Economics of Intrahousehold Allocation". In Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries: Models, Methods, and Policy, Edited by: Haddad, Lawrence, Hoddinott, John and Alderman, Harold. 112–125. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Google Scholar]) for a discussion on the similarities, differences, and complementarities between anthropology and economics in household economic analysis. 6 There are no studies that show the proportion of flower farms located on former haciendas. In the 1990s many of these passed from the traditional landlord class to narcotraffickers (Alejandro Reyes 1997 Reyes, Alejandro. 1997. "Compra de tierras por narcotraficantes". In Drogas Ilícitas en Colombia: Su Imacto Político, Económico y Social, Edited by: Fransisco, Thoumi. 279–2346. Bogotá: Editorial Ariel. [Google Scholar]; Deere and León 2001 Deere, Carmen Diana and León, Magdalena. 2001. Empowering Women: Land and Property in Latin America, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Since it is reported that the latter have purchased land in 37 percent of Colombia's municipalities (Reyes 1997 Reyes, Alejandro. 1997. "Compra de tierras por narcotraficantes". In Drogas Ilícitas en Colombia: Su Imacto Político, Económico y Social, Edited by: Fransisco, Thoumi. 279–2346. Bogotá: Editorial Ariel. [Google Scholar]), it is possible that a number of flower companies are located on such land. 7 See Donny Meertens (2000 Meertens, Donny. 2000. Ensayos sobre tierra, violencia y género, Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro de Estudios Sociales (CES). 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Participant observation encompassed household chores and marketing. 12 Reasons why individuals did not consent to answer some questions or the entire survey included low literacy skills and inability to verify the content of the questionnaire, regarding the research as a nuisance, and most important, being suspicious of any written document, especially if it contains personal information, despite assurances of anonymity, as fits the cultural parameters of Andean peasants. 13 Particularly open to criticism were the industry's short-term employment contracts and its practice of subcontracting to circumvent having to provide workers with employment benefits (Alicia Eugenia Silva, 1982 Silva, Alicia Eugenia. 1982. "De mujer campesina a obrera florista". In La realidad colombiana: Debate sobre la mujer en América Latina y el Caribe, Edited by: León, Magdalena. 28–42. Bogotá: ACEP. [Google Scholar]; Greta Friedemann-Sánchez, 1990 Friedemann-Sánchez, Greta. 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The critiques were well founded in the 1980s and early 1990s when the flower business experienced dramatic growth. Since the mid-1990s, however, most flower farms in the area where this fieldwork took place give workers permanent and indefinite contracts. Workers are not paid by piece-rate, they are salaried. 14 The most prominent national nongovernmental organization is Corporación Cactus, which has worked in alliance with European consumer groups. For a full description of the Florverde program, see Friedemann-Sánchez (1999 Friedemann-Sánchez, Greta. 1999. "The Self-Regulation of the Fresh-Cut Flower Industry in Colombia". MA Plan B paper, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. [Google Scholar], forthcoming). 15 Verena Meier's (1999 Meier, Verena. 1999. Cut-Flower Production in Colombia: A Major Development Success Story for Women?. Environment and Planning A, 31: 273–289. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) research in Colombia is based on fieldwork performed in 1991 and 1992, before most of the changes in production described here had taken place. Colombia's increasing state of civil unrest has undoubtedly discouraged researchers from working there. 16 The industry uses the terms colaboradores (collaborators), operarios, and trabajadores de campo (field workers) to designate workers who work all their shifts in the flower fields in contrast to supervisors and monitors whose work spans the fields, laboratory, and office among other areas. In this article, I will refer to collaborators as "field workers." They constitute the majority of floriculture's workforce. 17 These employment benefits are the prima, a bonus of half a worker's salary given twice a year, at the end of June and December. Another, the cesantía is a severance payment that corresponds to the number of years worked, regardless of whether the worker was fired or quit. In addition, the company contributes one-half of the monthly premium to the social security program and the health care plan. Some companies also pay the workers' share if they do not miss any workdays during the month, an incentive for workers to come to work regularly, which also highlights the problem of worker absenteeism. Due to the extensiveness of the Sabana and the many different types of companies, I could not verify in this study whether all flower companies currently comply with the labor legislations. Based on my observations, the flower farms associated with Asocolflores had better hiring and production practices than did non-members. The variability between farms is also noted by Meier (1999 Meier, Verena. 1999. Cut-Flower Production in Colombia: A Major Development Success Story for Women?. Environment and Planning A, 31: 273–289. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 18 By comparing time allocation of household chores by gender in two regions in Ecuador, Constance Newman (2002 Newman, Constance. 2002. Gender, Time Use, and Change: The Impact of the Cut Flower Industry in Ecuador. World Bank Economic Review, 16(3): 375–396. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) concludes that female participation in the labor market has no effect on women's unpaid labor, but does increase slightly men's time in unpaid labor – a change that might reflect women's increased intrahousehold bargaining power. Tanya Korovkin (2003 Korovkin, Tanya. 2003. Cut-Flower Exports, Female Labor, and Community Participation in Highland Ecuador. Latin American Perspectives, 30(4): 18–42. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) reports a decrease in community participation and childrearing activities by women wage workers in Ecuador's floriculture industry. 19 Current level of property ownership by women contrasts dramatically with Medrano's (1982 Medrano, Diana. 1982. "Desarrollo y explotación de la mujer: Efectos de la proletarización femenina en la agroindustria de las flores en la Sabana de Bogotá". In La realidad colombiana: Debate sobre la mujer en América Latina y el Caribe, Edited by: León, Magdalena. 43–55. Bogotá: ACEP. [Google Scholar]: 47) finding that 70 percent of the women workers in this region in 1980 owned land. This sharp decline could be due to the much greater share of migrants in the current workforce. 20 Since the 1990s, couples in consensual unions have the same property rights as married couples (Deere and León 2001 Deere, Carmen Diana and León, Magdalena. 2001. Empowering Women: Land and Property in Latin America, Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 21 Cesantía payments are sometimes disbursed before termination of employment upon the request of the employee. 22 The granting of credit to employees is part of the Florverde Program instituted by Asocolflores and is implemented by individual farms through employee fund loans (fondos de empleados). These are supported by the monthly savings of workers and managed by the farm's administration. All workers contribute 5 percent of their monthly salary to the fund, and every worker has the right to request a loan. The money deposited is relinquished to workers at their request. 23 Family violence in rural Colombia is pervasive but understudied and underreported. In addition, in spite of the existence of laws against domestic violence, the judicial system does not provide an effective mechanism for enforcing these laws. See Constance Newman, Pilar Larreamendy, and Ana María Maldnado (2001) on domestic abuse in Ecuador's floriculture industry. 24 The overall program of the workshops is developed by Asocolflores' Florverde program and is implemented by individual farms. The gendered component of Florverde, in turn, is a response to the 1995 presidential initiative of Ernesto Samper, who created the National Office for Women's Equity (Dirección Nacional de Equidad para las Mujeres) in the context of the 1979 United Nation Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). 25 In the context of Africa and South Asia, Agnes R. Quisumbing and John A. Maluccio (2000 Quisumbing, Agnes R. and Maluccio, John A. 2000. "Intrahousehold Allocation and Gender Relations: New Empirical Evidence from Four Developing Countries". Food Consumption and Nutrition Division Paper 84 Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. www.ifpri.org/divs/fcnd/dp/papers/fcndp84.pdf (accessed November 2004) [Google Scholar]) discuss the threat of withdrawing oneself and one's assets as an intrahousehold bargaining strategy.