The women and the medicinal plants: reflections on the caring role and its implications

Abstract

Focusing on processes of collective learning and social organization of rural women motivated by the theme of medicinal plants in different regions of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), this paper discusses the construction of ‘care for others’ as a female role. The starting point is the observation that this ‘care’ seems to be overcoming the family sphere, being extended to the community and even globally, once women broadened their struggles for gender equality and for the recognition of their work toward a new accountability that includes the requirements to change
the development standard. The groups are organized around the remedies production, establishing forms of action that allow access other political questions. We identified a repositioning of women for the outside, with the entrance in the productive world and toward public life, but also contradictory dynamics that cause work overload. Thus, there are continuities and discontinuities in ‘caring role’ of the women, but the donation of time, affections, words and practices still appear minimized before the developmental imperative.