h ' ..'4

FAMILY AND FUTURE A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN gglgtf

i « y.. "*í d -v, — HH

Hi HH 111 MB MM ECONOMIC COMISSION FOR LATIN AMERI HE CARIBBEAN / ECLAC UNITED NATIONS Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund

1994 International Year of the Family

Cover design: Marian Salamovich LC/G.1835-P April 1995

This text was prepared on the basis of the documents submitted at the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the International Year of the Family (August 1993). Publication of the book was made possible by the valuable assistance of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATION

Sales No. E.94.II.G.6

ISBN 92-1-121192-1

Applications for the right to reproduce this work or parts thereof are welcomed and should be sent to the Secretary of the Publications Board, United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y. 10017, U.S.A. Member States and their governmental institutions may reproduce this work without application, but are requested to mention the source and inform the United Nations of such reproduction.

Copyright © United Nations 1995 All right reserved Printed in Chile CONTENTS

Page

Foreword 9 THE FAMILY'S PLACE IN THE CONCERNS OF ECLAC, Gert Rosenthal 9

THE FAMILY'S PLACE IN THE CONCERNS OF UNICEF, Marta Maurás 11

INTRODUCTION 13

I. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 17 A. URBANIZATION, MODERNIZATION AND THE FAMILY 17 B. SOME DETERMINING FACTORS OF WOMEN'S GREATER INDEPENDENCE 18 C. SOME CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 19 1. Demographic transition 19 2. Poverty and income distribution 19 3. The speed of change 21 4. Changes in the State's role 21 5. Cultural factors 22 D. THE SOCIALIZATION CAPACITY OF DIFFERENT FAMILY STRUCTURES 23 E. NECESSARY CONDITIONS FOR THE FORMATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF A FAMILY 29 1. Minimal material conditions for family consolidation 29 2. Access to support services 30 3. Opportunities for social mobility 30 4. Democratization of intrafamily relations 31 F. SOME THOUGHTS ON FAMILY POLICY 31

II. INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 35 A. BACKGROUND 35 B. CHANGES IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: URBANIZATION, INDUSTRIALIZATION AND FAMILY RELATIONS 36 1. Rural-to-urban migration and kinship networks 37 2. Family, labour market and mutual support networks 38 3. Family and household structure 40 Page C. SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT IN INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS: PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY AND INDIVIDUATION PROCESSES 42 1. Domestic violence: public intervention in the private sphere 43 2. Sexuality and reproduction 45 3. An alternative approach: reproductive rights as human rights ... 46 4. Intergenerational relations: youth in the family and in society — 47

D. CONCLUDING REMARKS: FAMILY, PUBLIC POLICIES AND PRIVATE SPACE ... 49 1. Family and equity 50 2. Human rights in the family: prevention and protection 50 3. Family and social networks 51 BIBLIOGRAPHY 53

Annex: SOME CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS: THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT, THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND PRIVATE LIFE 55

III. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE CARIBBEAN FAMILY 59

A. BACKGROUND 59 B. STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES 59 1. Family structure 59 2. The conjugal cycle 62 C. FUNCTIONS 67 D. POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE FAMILY 70 1. Structural adjustment 70 2. Urbanization and migration 71 E. MALFUNCTIONS 73 F. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK 74 G. CONCLUDING REMARKS 75 BIBLIOGRAPHY 77

IV. THE URBAN FAMILY AND POVERTY IN LATIN AMERICA 79

A. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 79 B. TRENDS IN POVERTY AND PROFILES OF POOR HOUSEHOLDS IN THE REGION 81 1. Economic growth and its impact on domestic organization 81 2. The crisis and major changes in urban economies 84 C. STRATEGIES OF POOR URBAN FAMILIES IN RESPONSE TO ADJUSTMENT PROCESSES AND RESTRUCTURING OF THE STATE AND THE ECONOMY 85 1. Intensification of work 85 2. Consumption patterns 87 3. Changes in household composition 89 4. Participation in mutual assistance networks 90 Page D. MECHANISMS THAT TRANSMIT POVERTY FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER 90 1. Teenage pregnancy 90 2. Unequal distribution of resources. Households headed by women versus households headed by a resident male 91 3. Dropping out of school or falling behind 92 4. Economic dependence on the family labour force 93 E. SOME THOUGHTS ON POSSIBLE ACTION 93 BIBLIOGRAPHY 95

V. THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN LATIN AMERICA 97

A. INTRODUCTION 97

B. CHARACTERIZATION OF RURAL FAMILIES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 97 1. Rural population and families 97 2. Indigenous families 98 3. Rural families and poverty 100 4. Socio-economic activities of rural families 102 5. Income diversification and migration 105 C. FORMS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AMONG RURAL FAMILIES 106 1. Extended rural families integrated into family networks 106 2. Rural nuclear families 108 3. Family arrangements based on multiple unions 109 D. CULTURAL CHANGES AND RURAL FAMILIES 109

E. FINAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 110 BIBLIOGRAPHY 113

Annex I: CARTAGENA DECLARATION 115 Annex II: REGIONAL PROPOSAL FOR THE ELABORATION OF ACTION GUIDELINES FOR THE BENEFIT OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN FAMILIES 119 Foreword

THE FAMILY'S PLACE IN THE CONCERNS OF ECLAC

Gert Rosenthal Executive Secretary Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

The selection of agenda items to orient the findings presented in the latest edition of debates at the Latin American and the Social Panorama of Latin America point Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the mounting difficulties faced by to the International Year of the Family, low-resource sectors in trying to form held at Cartagena, Colombia, was linked complete and stable families; they also to some of the most recent concerns of bear witness to the adverse effect of the ECLAC regarding the evolution of Latin new family structures on the academic American and Caribbean societies. For the performance of children and young past few years, the Commission has been people, which tends to aggravate the lack developing a proposal on changing of equity that characterizes the region's production patterns with social equity, societies. which has been reflected in a number of Issues related to the family overlap in publications. This approach, whose most a number of areas with issues related to important conclusion is that economic changing production patterns with social growth with social equity in a context of equity in a context of democracy. First, democracy is not only desirable but also when the family fails to meet (or to possible, has become the linchpin of the meet adequately) certain essential institution's thinking and a source of responsibilities, the social and financial inspiration for its work in different cost of assigning these duties to other areas. private or public institutions is usually The subject of the family has not very high. This situation is disturbing in escaped this influence. Some of the countries such as those of the region,

* See ECLAC, Changing Production Patterns with Social Equity: The Prime Task of Latin American and Caribbean Development in the 1990s (LC/G.1601-P), Santiago, Chile, March 1990. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.90.Ü.G.6; ECLAC, Sustainable Development: Changing Production Patterns, Social Equity and the Environment (LC/G.1648/Rev.2-P), Santiago, Chile, May 1991. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.91 .II.G.5; ECLAC, Social Equity and Changing Production Patterns: An Integrated Approach (LC/G.1701/Rev.l-P), Santiago, Chile, 1992. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.92.II.G.5; ECLAC/UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Education and Knowledge: Basic Pillars of Changing Production Patterns with Social Equity (LC/G.1702/Rev.l-P), Santiago, Chile, 1992. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.92.II.G.6. " ECLAC, Social Panorama of Latin America, Edition 1993 (LC/G.1768), Santiago, Chile, 1993. 10 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. which must concentrate their scarce inculcation of civic values with an ethos resources in vocational training, the that reflects our peoples' own cultural establishment of the infrastructure needed identities. Third, social democracy is for sustained production and the steady based on a series of values, including absorption of technical progress. Second, responsibility, tolerance, moral the growing consensus that human obligations towards others and respect for resources training is the basic pillar of their rights, which are nurtured and changing production patterns with social consolidated in family life. Genuine equity has been accompanied by increased democracy begins at home, with the recognition that families are key actors in elimination of all forms of discrimination influencing children's academic success. against women and of authoritarianism in Thus, the capacity of families to play a role inter-generational relations. that efficiently complements that of the The idea, then, is that directing many school system is a highly significant of the actions carried out in the social field resource for the economic growth of towards families, seeking to build their nations. Families and schools are social autonomous capacity to achieve better units that must be mutually reinforcing standards of living for their members, is in processes of socialization for an efficient and effective way to promote development, duly combining the individual well-being. THE FAMILY'S PLACE IN THE CONCERNS OF UNICEF

Marta Maurás Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

The position of the United Nations owing to the decline in men's role in Children's Fund (UNICEF) on the family is providing material sustenance for the based on the role played by the latter in family. As a direct result of the economic ensuring the survival, protection and crisis of the 1980s, many families became development of children, which is the poor or indigent, or were even destroyed primary aim of the Fund's activities. The as social units. Some of the repercussions Convention on the Rights of the Child of the economic crisis, such as the increase affirms that the family is the fundamental in the number of households headed by group of society and the natural women and single-parent households, environment for the growth and and the rise in child labour, are of well-being of all its members, particularly particular interest to UNICEF. Another children. Likewise, the Plan of Action for notable phenomenon, which is not Implementing the World Declaration on necessarily related to the economic crisis, the Survival, Protection and Development is the increase in early parenthood. of Children in the 1990s also recognizes The diminishing (and sometimes the family as the social institution that has non-existent) role of men in meeting the the primary responsibility for the family's material needs has undermined nurturing and protection of children and their position of authority and forced adolescents, and for their introduction to women to shoulder a double workload. the culture, values and norms of their This has also helped to weaken the father society. The Plan of Action also asserts that figure as a moral authority. Programmes "for the full and harmonious development to support female heads of household of their personality, children should grow must therefore be an integral part of up in a family environment, in an programmes to assist families. atmosphere of happiness, love and Thus, a series of problems associated understanding". The importance which with changes in the structure and UNICEF attaches to the family is also based functions of the family must be taken into on the Convention on the Elimination of account. These problems are also directly All Forms of Discrimination against conditioned by economic and social Women. The role played by women in the processes, which can erode or eliminate full development of the family has become families' capacity to fulfil the functions even more important than in the past, expected of them. 12 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Since the above-mentioned linked to family development. This calls phenomena are widespread in the region, for the allocation of more financial policies to support the family must be resources, the recognition of specific areas conceived as a substantive part of social of competence and the provision of the policies and must be directed towards all human resources needed to take families, regardless of the forms of dejure appropriate action to design and or de facto organization they may adopt, implement new family policies. In nearly and with due respect for their cultural all the countries of the region, institutions identity. The family unit is justified as a that serve families seem to lack the focus of State policies because it can be capacity to carry out diagnostic studies more functional and efficient than and implement policies, and do not have individuals or institutions in many areas, enough reliable information. That such as social security, housing, nutrition, situation makes it hard to improve the health promotion and basic sanitation. efficiency of public decision-making on It is also important to recognize that measures to benefit the family, seen as the the family remains primarily responsible main determinant of child survival, for the socialization of its members. This protection and development. To help process includes education, inculcation of families meet all of their responsibilities, it social norms, promotion of gender is necessary to pursue some specific strategies, reproduction of the labour objectives which, on the one hand, take the force and redefinition of the power mandate of UNICEF into account and, on relations between men and women. the other, seek to solve a number of what However, some of the family's are considered key problems with the socialization functions (in the areas of structure and functioning of families in the basic education and labour) have been region: a) providing social services (health transferred to or complemented by other care, nutrition and education) and legal institutions, such as schools and and judicial support to promote greater enterprises. None the less, the family is family stability, in the context of efforts to still better able to perform functions such improve economic conditions; these as affective socialization and the services should include providing development of relations of solidarity families with the information and among family members, which enable education they need to take appropriate individuals to develop stable inter- decisions regarding children's health relationships of solidarity with others and and education, and could also include better equip them to resolve conflicts specialized education and counselling within the family and to deal with services to foster the democratization pressures at work and in the social and of family relations; b) directing these political spheres. economic support measures and For all of these reasons, the family social services towards the lowest- should not be considered as merely the income families on a priority basis; and sum of its parts, but rather as a group c) designing mechanisms to ensure the entity with irreplaceable functions and protection and development of children special needs. who, for some reason, have lost their Undoubtedly, the reformulation of original family unit, by integrating them policies to benefit the family must involve into another family unit or placing them in an overhaul of the public institutions appropriate institutions. INTRODUCTION

At its plenary meeting of 8 December 1989, Cambios en el perfil de la familia: la experiencia the General Assembly of the United regional. Subsequently, ECLAC and the Nations, by its resolution 44/82, National Institute of Statistics, Geography proclaimed 1994 as International Year of and Informatics of Mexico (INEGI) the Family and designated the Economic organized the Methodological Work- and Social Council as the coordinating shop on Analysis of the Family in body for the Year, ECLAC, in turn, was Latin America, which took place at designated as focal point for preparatory Aguascalientes, Mexico, from 27 to activities in the Latin American and 30 October 1992. The participants in that Caribbean countries. workshop reviewed the status of In that capacity, ECLAC organized a information on the structure and series of meetings of government and functioning of families in selected Latin non-governmental experts to review and American countries, studied the discuss existing information on the comparability of the sources used for the situation of families in the region. The regular compilation of data and the need ultimate objective of those meetings was to formulate policies and programmes of to gather all available information to serve action in that field, and made suggestions as a basis for the elaboration of guidelines and recommendations for improving the for action to strengthen families' use of existing information sources. autonomous capacity to enhance the In close coordination with the well-being of their members. Government of Colombia and the The first of those meetings was the) secretariat of the International Year of the Workshop on Family, Development and Family, ECLAC organized the Latin Population Dynamics in Latin America American and Caribbean Regional and the Caribbean, conducted in Meeting Preparatory to the International collaboration with the Latin American Year of the Family. That event, held Demographic Centre (CELADE) from 27 to at Cartagena, Colombia, from 9 to 29 November 1991 at Santiago, Chile, to 13 August 1993, was attended by study the situation of families in the representatives of the States members region. That effort was supported by a of ECLAC, the United Nations system, number of United Nations bodies and intergovernmental agencies, non- received generous financial assistance governmental organizations in con- from the CELADE/Canadian International sultative status with the Economic and Development Agency (CIDA) Exchange Social Council and other non- and Cooperation Project (phase III). A governmental organizations. selection of the documents presented at This book contains seven documents that workshop was published in the book submitted at the Regional Meeting. The 14 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN... first five were prepared by ECLAC to indispensable for enabling families to act provide a substantive basis for the as effective agents of development. debates. The other two are the result of the The document "Intrafamily relations government experts' joint efforts at in Latin America", prepared by Elizabeth Cartagena, and reflect the consensus Jelin, begins by noting that changes in the reached on the priorities that should be institution of the family in Latin America addressed in actions to strengthen the have been associated with the processes of institution of the family. These last two urbanization and development. From this documents are the Cartagena Declaration perspective, the paper analyses the role and the Regional Proposal for the of kinship networks in migratory Elaboration of Action Guidelines for the processes; the relationship between Benefit of Latin American and Caribbean household/family organization, the Families. Both documents were adopted labour market and social networks; and by the representatives of the 24 States changes in family organization. members of ECLAC attending the meeting. As regards internal dynamics, the The document "Situation and family is seen as a social organization with prospects of the family in Latin America a hierarchy of power based on the criteria and the Caribbean" served as a general of age, sex and kinship —a hierarchy frame of reference. It notes that the which has been radically altered as evolution of the family in the Latin individuation and autonomization have American and Caribbean countries gained ground, especially among women reflects a number of world-wide trends: and youth. The analysis focuses on the smaller family size; growing family tensions resulting from this process, instability, as shown by higher divorce which occur between generations within and separation rates; an increase in the family and between the privacy and premarital sexual relations; a decline in intimacy of the family, on the one hand, the sexual double standard; and the and the public responsibilities of the State proliferation of families in which both in defence of civil rights, on the other. Both spouses have jobs, of single-parent domestic violence and sexual and families, of families where the partners reproductive practices are analysed from have not formalized their union and of this perspective. cases of successive unions that translate As for the relationship between the into a variety of child-rearing family and State policies, the family arrangements. should be seen as a mediating institution The document examines how these in measures to promote social equity trends, also seen in countries that have while guaranteeing basic human rights long been industrialized, take on a and the integration of the individual into different meaning in the countries of Latin social and community networks. America and the Caribbean, in light of five Barry Chevannes prepared the specific characteristics of the region: i) the document "Stresses and strains: situation current stage of demographic transition in analysis of the Caribbean family", which many of the countries; ii) the influence of asserts that even though the structure of poverty and uneven income distribution; the African-Caribbean family seems to be iii) the speed of socio-cultural changes; a chaotic mélange of different types of iv) the shifting role of the State; and v) the arrangements, in reality it follows a importance of national idiosyncrasies, well-recognized cultural pattern, which which are largely a product of the mixture begins with a visiting, non-residential of aboriginal, European and African form of conjugal union, followed by a cultures and institutions such as slavery. consensual co-residential form and Lastly, the paper offers some general ending in legal marriage. Viewed from guidelines for strengthening the family's this perspective, and not according to the capacity to link and implement life plans traditional Western model, the family or agendas, which are considered characteristics initially identified as INTRODUCTION 15 problems —i.e., illegitimacy and male vulnerable than others. Gender and irresponsibility— no longer appear as generational relations —which are such. Taken in its entirety, the family unequal and create unequal access to achieves its socializing role; one of the resources and benefits— make children underlying principles enabling it to do so and women more vulnerable to poverty is the principle of blood ties. and its consequences (malnutrition, The African-Caribbean family is disease, violence) than other family influenced by economic conditions, such members. as those that accompany structural Manuel Chiriboga prepared the adjustment programmes, which erode the document "The rural family and ethnicity ability of parents (particularly men) to in Latin America". Given the vastness and discharge their parental roles, and place complexity of the topic, and the diversity an enormous burden on mothers. At the of regional and national situations same time, owing principally to the recent surrounding and defining rural families, progress made in women's struggle for the paper focuses on families of equality, the need to upgrade the laws to subsistence farmers and small-scale be more in keeping with cultural and producers, and covers only some general economic realities has been recognized trends that can be inferred from the throughout the subregión; however, this information available. development is uneven among the The study analyses the interaction various countries. between the socio-economic dynamics of Lastly, the document underscores rural families and their various the need to give due respect to manifestations in the areas of marriage African-Caribbean cultural norms and to and child care and the relationships take measures in the areas of policy between genders and generations that are analysis and design to incorporate the role formed within this framework. The study of males in their purview. proposes a typology of family situations in In the document "The urban family rural areas of the region, on the basis of and poverty in Latin America", Mercedes which it builds a typology of rural families. González de la Rocha deals with family The study is divided into five sections, and household responses to the including the introduction. The second worsening of poverty in Latin American section presents a socio-economic cities. She contends that social responses characterization of rural families, and the to the economic deterioration caused by third describes the main forms of the crisis have been largely private, as organization of these families. The fourth households have employed a series of identifies some of the processes that are strategies to cope with and mitigate the changing family behaviour, and the last effects of the crisis. It is therefore crucial to offers recommendations for public analyse these strategies in order to policies targeting rural families. understand the real impact of the The second part of this book contains economic policies implemented in the the Cartagena Declaration and the Latin American countries. Moreover, this Regional Proposal for the Elaboration of impact is differential. The drop in the Action Guidelines for the Benefit of income of middle-class households was Latin American and Caribbean Families. proportionally greater than that of The Declaration comprises a set working-class households. None the less, of agreements reached by the working-class households are at a greater representatives of the Governments of the disadvantage, especially young countries of the region at Cartagena, households, those that are at very Colombia, in relation to a number of advanced stages of the domestic cycle issues, such as promoting family-oriented (elderly households) and female-headed public policies, taking into account the households. Lastly, within each diversity and cultural identity of families; household, some members are more encouraging the development of 16 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. decentralized institutional structures, of a overall development of the family and high technical and political level, in order identifies priority areas of action with to integrate actions in the areas of respect to the family and public policies, prevention, protection and family namely legislation, institution-building, development; reinforcing programmes socialization and cultural identity, family designed to satisfy the basic needs of resources and services, and research and families; and furthering actions under the human resources training. The Proposal Regional Proposal. concludes with recommendations on The Regional Proposal, for its part, international cooperation and regional puts forward the main objectives for the integration. Chapter I

SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

A. URBANIZATION, ways. On the one hand, it has widened the MODERNIZATION AND THE FAMILY gap between the public and private spheres, thus undermining social control The evolution of the family in the mechanisms and reducing the pressure on countries of Latin America and the individuals to adjust their behaviour to Caribbean reflects a number of social norms. On the other, social world-wide trends: smaller family size; expectations concerning the formation growing family instability, as shown by and organization of the family have higher divorce and separation rates; an become more flexible. The various issues increase in premarital sexual relations; the that have arisen with regard to the decline of the sexual double standard; and family's diversity need only be mentioned the proliferation of families in which both to illustrate their significance: the spouses have jobs, of single-parent secularization of marriage, the family's families, of families where the partners dissociation from marriage, the split have not formalized their union and of between the roles of husband and father, cases of successive unions that translate the reversal of the sequence of marriage into a variety of legal, economic and and child-bearing, etc. In fact, in some child-rearing arrangements. countries the idea of progress tends to be Although the intensity and features of linked to greater tolerance of the diversity these phenomena vary from one country of family structures, which is perceived as to another, they show similar tendencies reflecting greater pluralism and broader in all the countries, implying that they opportunities for choice, freedom and reflect the overall process of development personal fulfilment. The combination of in Western societies. The multiple facets of these processes has reinforced the trend this process are inextricably intertwined towards family privacy and autonomy with changes in the structure and and the feeling that the stability of unions functions of the family. One of the most should depend more on the quality of the important of these is the change in the relationship than on factors external to the degree of autonomy of unions vis-à-vis couple. their social environment, and of each Modernization is characterized by a partner in relation to the other. This growing differentiation and specialization autonomy has increased along with the of institutions. In the case of the family, it urbanization and modernization of has translated into a progressive ¿ocieties. Urbanization has enhanced the concentration on affective functions, with family's autonomy with respect to its traditional instrumental functions being social surroundings in two principal absorbed by other institutions. As a result 18 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. of this process, ties of mutual dependence educational and service structures helped among family members have weakened, to broaden women's opportunities for and their interpersonal relations have participation in public life. In the changed.1 demographic sphere, lower fertility, The growing economic independence longer life expectancy and the of women has widened their margin of concentration of reproduction in the initial negotiation with regard to domestic rights phases of conjugal union enabled women and responsibilities. Couples have had to to prolong the period during which they adapt to a more symmetrical relationship had no reproductive responsibilities. than was common in the past. The stability Consequently, women began to have of these relationships has come to depend more time for work outside the home. This more on compatibility between life plans increase in women's free time was and the similarity of expectations boosted, on the one hand, by rapid concerning each partner's role than on advances in domestic technology that cut adherence to traditional family models. down considerably on the time required The relative emotional cost of a split for household chores, and, on the other, by between the partners is higher in the new the expansion of social services related to models of family organization. the care or education of children. In sum, the formation and dynamics At the same time, the notable increase of relationships between partners have in women's levels of education enabled come to depend less on social norms; them to take advantage of the new women have gained independence from employment opportunities in the service men; and the meaning of male-female and information sectors which opened up relationships has changed. with the expansion of "post-industrial" economies. This situation facilitated women's entry into the labour market and B. SOME DETERMINING FACTORS raised the opportunity costs of early OF WOMEN'S GREATER marriage, pregnancy and limitation to INDEPENDENCE purely domestic labour. Likewise, the gradual consolidation of family Undoubtedly, the current changes in consumption patterns which many family life revolve around the evolution of one-income households could not afford the status of women. Regardless of what encouraged more women to participate in type of union is formed, its viability and the economy. stability hinge on the progressive In the area of values, there arose two broadening of women's opportunities for possible motives for questioning participation in public life and the spread traditional standards. First, it became of values that question the traditional evident that the requirements of division of labour within the family. A traditional family organization brief look at some of the most important contradicted the opportunities and structural roots of these processes is independence which the new situation therefore in order. offered women, so that the idea of a more Demographic and technological equitable definition of men's and factors and changes in occupational, women's roles within the family became

1 To understand this phenomenon, it is useful to compare the relative cost of breaking family ties in different systems of family organization. For example, ties between the members of families who own enterprises, such as small farms, workshops or urban trades, are usually very strong, since a rupture would entail the destruction of not only the living arrangements, but also the sole or main source of subsistence, of all the members of the family. This instrumental dependence is also very strong in the breadwinner system, in which the husband/father works outside the home while the wife/mother takes care of the children and the household chores. Each partner's role is defined on the basis of obligations in the public and private spheres, which differ according to sex and are mutually related and complementary. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 19 more attractive. Second, a new system family functions of emotional support of values, closely linked to the for adults and reproduction, the dominant trends in the development of demographic features of Latin America Western capitalism, began to emphasize and the Caribbean have shifted priority to personal fulfilment, authenticity and functions relating to the socialization of individualism, in clear opposition to the new generations. Indeed, the great requirements of female dependence challenge of training human resources implicit in patriarchal models. posed by the modernization of the Lastly, women's personal expec- region's economies makes the family's tations and plans underwent a profound socialization capacity, and particularly its change owing to technological progress effectiveness in complementing the role of and the dissemination of knowledge the schools, a necessity for development. about contraception, which gave them This need is accentuated by the poor control over their fertility and, ultimately, quality of the instruction provided by the ability to dissociate sexual activity educational systems and their scant from reproduction. capacity to compensate for inadequate family socialization. In recognizing the importance of these C. SOME CHARACTERISTIC functions, the fact that the countries of the FEATURES OF LATIN AMERICA region are in different stages of AND THE CARIBBEAN demographic transition should not be ignored. In some countries, the greatest In most Western countries, the demographic pressure is exerted by aforementioned trends went hand in hand young people seeking to enter the labour with the processes of urbanization and market, while in a few others, a trend modernization. However, in Latin towards population ageing is becoming a America and the Caribbean, they took on significant factor. Countries whose certain specific features owing to the demographic transition is well advanced factors analysed below. are taking a growing interest in seeking social mechanisms to ensure the elderly 1. Demographic transition population's access to services and material resources, considering that The Latin American and Caribbean region during the 1980s, many national social has a very young population. Around security systems lost much of their 1990, an estimated 19.6% of Europeans capacity to provide the elderly with their and 21.4% of North Americans were own autonomous means of subsistence. under the age of 14, while that proportion was as high as 35.8% in Latin America and 2. Poverty and income distribution the Caribbean.2 In fact, children make up the region's largest age group. This means Today, in the early 1990s, about 44% of that families in the process of expansion Latin America's population is living in are more numerically significant than in poverty, mostly in urban areas. Since poor other regions; their composition, needs households have more children than other and functions must therefore be taken into households, over half of the population account. under 14 is in this situation. At the Whereas in Europe, the population same time, the region has the world's age structure and the decline in fertility to highest indexes of household income less than replacement levels in many concentration. Although there are no solid countries have led to an emphasis on the grounds for predicting how the progress

2 See United Nations, The Sex and Age Distribution of Population. The 1990 Revision of the United Nations Global Population Estimates and Projections, Population Studies series, No. 122 (ST/ESA/SER.A/122), New York, 1991. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.90.XIII.33. 20 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN... of the restructuring and adjustment in search of work usually place greater policies being implemented in the region economic responsibility on the wife and will affect poverty and income mother, and in some cases on children and distribution, the situation in most of the young people. Second, consensual unions countries still shows no signs of are more common among the poor. They improving in the near future. are less stable than legal unions and One of the most noteworthy generally are not based on a consolidated characteristics of poverty in contemporary life plan or agenda for the family, judging society is its occurrence in the midst of inter alia from the results of studies widely-disseminated images of opulence showing that in low-income populations, and conspicuous consumption, which set women in consensual unions often wish to up a dramatic contrast between poverty formalize the relationship, while men and increasingly high expectations and, resist taking this step. Third, the stability moreover, sharpen the impression that of family structures is affected by models available material resources are of patriarchal domination that clash with insufficient for forming a family.3 Poverty the growing trend towards more egalitarian affects the formation, structure and participation by men and women in social, functions of families. Young people in economic and political life. poor sectors, especially males, are more The socialization capacity of families reluctant than other young people to is also directly and indirectly affected by formalize a union and take on long-term their socio-economic situationAThe responsibilities, since they have only to scarcity of means, the inevitable look at their immediate surroundings to concentration on problems of daily realize that making this type of subsistence, inadequate housing and commitment can drastically reduce their overcrowding have a direct impact on chances of fulfilling their ambitions and children's nutrition, health and emotional overcoming poverty. In many countries, and cognitive maturity, and on the the proportion of families headed by family's capacity to complement the teenage mothers is growing,4 apparently education imparted in the school system as a result of the combination of weaker or even to keep children in the home, as social control of young women's sexual shown by the phenomenon of street behaviour, lack of information on children in many cities of the region. With pregnancy prevention and the attraction respect to the indirect effects of these of romantic love as a source of gratification factors, the instability of poor families and, and an escape route from a basically particularly, the absence or replacement of frustrating environment. the father figure, limit their socialization With respect to family structure, the capacity still further. stability of family relations is subject to Paradoxically, the smooth functioning more tensions in poor sectors than in other and stability of the family are more socio-economic strata, owing to a number important for the poor than for other of factors. First, the roles of the various sectors, since their more limited access to family members often undergo changes health services, care of the elderly, that do not conform to the family's education and other services makes it aspirations, but rather to social forces, incumbent on the family to fulfil these especially those of the market, over which functions. Moreover, it is through the the poor have little control. For example, family that individuals are integrated into the father's unemployment and migration networks of mutual assistance based on

3 In countries where personal income is highly concentrated, images of opulence usually come from the highest economic strata of those countries; in contrast, as international communications networks expand to countries with middle- and low-income strata, the latter's aspirations are increasingly moulded by lifestyles in the developed countries. 4 See Mayra Buvini and others, "La suerte de las madres adolescentes y sus hijos: un estudio de caso sobre la transmisión de la pobreza en Santiago de Chile" (LC/R.1038), Santiago, Chile, ECLAC, 1991. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN. 21 links such as kinship, proximity and level, the family's growing inability to geographical or ethnic origin; these fulfil its traditional functions was not networks can play a very important role in sufficiently offset by the establishment of the subsistence strategies of the poor. services designed to lighten the burden of family obligations. 3. The speed of change These processes shifted the balance of power within families and, particularly, In countries where industrialization called into question the legitimacy of the began early, family structure evolved model that vested authority in the role of gradually over the course of a century, the husband/father. Traditionally, this whereas in most Latin American and authority had been grounded primarily in Caribbean countries this process was men's fulfilment of obligations as the compressed into only a few decades. In family's main provider (or sole provider, 1950, the region's population was still as in the breadwinner system), as leader of predominantly rural and the most a collective enterprise, as possessor and common family model combined transmitter of the abilities and skills production, consumption and repro- required for male children to enter the ductive activities. Between 1950 and 1970, labour market, and as mediator with the the cities of the region grew rapidly as a outside world, especially the State result of mass migration from rural to bureaucracy. Men are reluctantly urban areas; on average, Latin America's retreating from the position which all of urban population grew from 41 % to 57.4% these aspects of their traditional role had over those 20 years. Encouraged by the given them, and the legitimacy of their State and the church, the mass demand for power within the family is communications media idealized the being undermined in the process.5 breadwinner system (the father as Moreover, the redefinition of family provider, the mother as home-maker). The members' roles is a slow and difficult fact that most families believed in this process, especially since clearly defined ideal did not prevent, in practice, a alternative models with strong collective progressive increase in married women's support have yet to emerge. participation in the labour market. That In this regard, it is noteworthy that very trend swiftly gathered momentum in the few studies have been conducted on the 1980s, undoubtedly in response to the change in men's role within the family and economic crisis and the consequent its influence on their attitudes towards the deterioration of living conditions. An formation of families, domestic conflicts ECLAC study in Uruguay in 1984 and 1986 and other aspects of social life. The wealth showed that the percentage of urban of research on women carried out in recent families living below the poverty line decades is, of course, a valuable source of might have risen considerably in that information on men. However, to period had women not contributed to understand the family's process of change, household income. it is necessary to redress this imbalance, These rapid social changes had especially since many male attitudes are destabilizing effects at both the personal and acknowledged to play an important role in institutional levels. For individuals, the generating the tensions that trigger changes gradual loss of validity of the traditional in family structure. frame of reference as a guide to the behaviour required for family members to 4. Changes in the State's role adapt to the new circumstances became a major source of normative conflict and In response to the economic crisis, the psychological tension. At the institutional region's Governments implemented

5 Rubén Kaztman, "Why are men so irresponsible?", CEPAL Review, No. 46 (LC/G.1717-P), Santiago, Chile, April 1992. 22 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

public spending cuts that seriously the indigenous peoples that populated curtailed the provision of education, extensive areas of the territory before the health care, social security and housing conquest and the groups transported from services. Some analysts see this process as other parts of the world as slaves. Some a drastic change in the relationship elements of these groups' traditional value between the State and society and as a systems weakened and others became reversal of the trend observed in previous consolidated in the course of their history decades, when an embryonic "welfare of discrimination and prejudice, economic state" seemed to be emerging. exploitation and social and political Consequently, large sectors of the exclusion. To understand the high rates of population had to set out to procure illegitimacy and fatherless families in services to which they had begun to countries where much of the labour force consider themselves entitled as citizens, once consisted of slaves, it must be especially in the Southern Cone countries. remembered that slaves usually were not Families began to take on more allowed to marry and that children were responsibility so as to compensate in part the responsibility of the slaveholder and for the reduction in public services, and the mother.8 In general, it is difficult to eventually played a crucial role. This comprehend the various forms of unions, represented an additional burden, the nature of family conflicts and especially for families that were alternatives for solving them without mobilizing and pooling their resources in taking into account the complex identity an effort to protect their members who problems affecting those who have been were facing a slow job market, and to marginalized and whose options have counteract the consequent decrease in been severely limited for long periods of family income.6 time, as well as the norms and the world view that shape the attitudes of 5. Cultural factors communities and kinship networks in this regard towards their members. Undoubtedly, the family's reaction to In sum, as noted at the beginning of external circumstances also depends on this paper, an initial analysis of indicators cultural factors and the norms shared by of change in models of family formation family members. These norms may and levels of stability does not reveal great originate in the history of the subsystem differences between trends in Latin and reflect traditional values, and inhibit, American countries and those in the most or at least delay, the effects of changes in highly developed Western societies. the conditioning environment. But the However, a closer examination shows that cultural sphere has a dynamic of its own, although the same indicators may be in which changes may speed up or shift found in both contexts, they reflect direction in response to new opinions or phenomena that stem from different new points of view.7 causes and have different effects. A brief The population of Latin America and description has therefore been given of the the Caribbean comprises a wide variety of region's characteristic features and their ethnic groups, including descendants of influence on the family. In a region where

6 Bryan Roberts, "Household coping strategies and urban poverty in a comparative perspective", Urban Life in Transition, M. Gottdiener and C. Pickvance (eds.), Newbury Park, California, Sage, 1991. 7 See Laszlo Cseh-Szombathy, "Modelling the interrelation between macro-society and the family", International Social Science Journal, vol. 42, No. 4, Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 1990, p. 447. 8 Some authors do not consider this family structure an unhappy legacy of a history of slavery and colonialism; in their view, these circumstances of the past helped to consolidate this model, but were not determining factors. See Errol Miller, Men at Risk, Kingston, Jamaica Publishing House Ltd., 1991, pp. 97-98. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN 23 over half of all children live in poverty, ideological positions, and should be where most families are still growing, supported by empirical evidence in so far where public services began to shrink long as possible. However, a severe information before reaching universal coverage, where gap is apparent in this respect. there is a marked discrepancy between the Despite its enormous potential, the requirements of internalized family information collected in censuses and models and those imposed by the household surveys sheds light on only a environment, the family's structural few isolated aspects of the new family weakness has much more serious effects models. The data-gathering tools used in on its members and on the functioning of most countries of the region do not society than in developed countries. In the investigate second and third marriages latter, the level of well-being and solid and unions, children who do not live with institutional support enjoyed by families their biological parents or children who have placed society in a better position to live with their mother (but without their absorb the effects of debilitated family father) in their grandparents' home. structure. Correcting these shortcomings is the highest priority for research on the family. The second priority is the conduct of a D. THE SOCIALIZATION CAPACITY detailed study of how each of the new OF DIFFERENT FAMILY family structures carries out the functions STRUCTURES which society seems to expect of it. This calls for careful analysis of the correlations In Western countries, family structures are between each family structure and infant clearly becoming more diversified. Many mortality, children's nutrition levels and observers feel that this process is so deeply school performance, anti-social conduct rooted in the inexorable forces of among young people, the stability of modernization that it cannot be stopped. couples and the probability that families However, at the same time, there is a will bear the responsibility of caring for widespread sense of uncertainty as to the elderly. To orient the actions of public which family model or models will and private agents interested in creating predominate in the future, though both the conditions families need to carry out optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints functions essential to their members and have been expressed with regard to the to society, it is indispensable to clarify consequences of the process. these linkages. The countries of the region The optimists' view is that this must take the first step in that direction by diversification represents the triumph of decisively addressing the problem of pluralism, individual freedom of choice families' "statistical invisibility". This can and broader opportunities for the pursuit be done by gradually adapting national of happiness. The pessimists, on the other systems for gathering, processing and hand, draw attention to the trend towards disseminating statistical data to the need social disintegration and anomie and to an for information on the family and for an exaggerated individualism that takes integrated research programme on the precedence over solidarity and emotional relationship between family structures commitment, and argue that the new and functions in different socio-economic family structures threaten the well-being contexts. of adults and children alike, as well as the Meanwhile, the scant information functioning of society as a whole. The available on some countries of the region attempt to address these issues has after 1980 indicates that the family opened up a debate on the priority that structures that have spread fastest are should be given to values which often those that seem to have weaker appear conflictive. Although debate is socialization capacity, at least with respect inevitable, the arguments it involves to children's performance in school. The should not, at any rate, reflect purely socialization capacities of female-headed 24 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. households, consensual unions and legal 1990s, approximately two out of every marriages can be compared on the basis of three young people who had not research carried out by ECLAC.9 Although completed primary school were cohabiting these categories reflect only one aspect in a consensual union, but only one out of —perhaps not the most important one— every six young people with 10 or more of the process of diversification of family years of education were in this situation. structure, their analysis can reveal Also noteworthy is the marked increase significant correlations. (25%) in consensual unions among less Table 1 illustrates changes in the educated youth. In Europe and the United structure of households with children States these unions are more common under age 15 between 1980 and 1990 in among better-educated young people and urban areas of Argentina, Colombia, appear to represent an attempt to test the Uruguay and Venezuela. It appears that relationship, which might contribute to a throughout this period, female-headed more stable marriage and more households and consensual unions were responsible parenthood. In the case of concentrated in lower-income strata. The Latin American countries, however, most proportion of households in these consensual unions seem to reflect a set of categories rose from 14% to 19% of all circumstances associated with poverty, its households with children under 15, and reproduction and a lack of opportunity for from 21% to 26% of all low-income social mobility, and therefore seem to households. indicate that young people (especially Table 2 shows similar trends in the young men) who are not equipped to case of children who reside in these types control the forces that will determine their of households. As a result of this trend, by personal destinies are reluctant to make the end of the past decade about 20% of all commitments involving long-term children under 15 lived in nuclear families economic responsibility. headed by women or consensual unions, The data in table 4 confirm that while in low-income sectors this household income is a powerful proportion reached 25%. determinant of children's school Table 3 presents information on performance. However, they also show changes in the proportion of young people that within each income bracket, children between the ages of 15 and 24 living in a do better or worse in school depending on consensual union, compared to the total the type of relationship that exists number of young people living with a between their parents. Children born of partner. These changes anticipate possible parents who live together without having trends in family structure, and in the legalized their union have twice as much proportion of children who will be chance of being left behind in school as affected by these variations, in the coming children of legally constituted unions, and decades. The table shows an increase of those who reside in female-headed about 63% in the proportion of households households are also at a disadvantage in made up of young people in a consensual terms of school performance. union. This increase is higher than that It is worth noting, however, that observed among all nuclear families with while the negative association of children (48%), and foreshadows changes consensual unions with children's school in household structure as increases in the performance is present in all countries number of consensual unions among the and income strata, it has been observed in young are reflected in households several countries that when female heads consisting of older adults. of household have sufficient income, their Moreover, consensual unions are children may perform better in school more common among young people with than children of legally constituted lower levels of education. In the early marriages.

9 See ECLAC, Panorama social dc América Latina (LC/G.1688), Santiago, Chile, October 1991. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 25

Table 1 URBAN HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILDREN UNDER 15a (Percentages) 1980s 1990s Household type Total Alb Q4C Total Q1 Q4

Nuclear family 65.7 67.7 70.1 69.1 68.2 78.2 Female-headed 5.3 8.3 2.5 6.2 8.2 3.7 Consensual union 8.5 12.8 4.0 12.6 17.7 5.8 Legally constituted union 51.9 46.6 63.6 50.3 42.3 68.7 Other 34.3 32.3 29.9 30.9 31.8 21.8

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ECLAC, on the basis of household surveys conducted in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. a Unweighted averages. b Lowest income quartile. c Highest income quartile.

SITUATION IN THE 1980s SITUATION IN THE 1990s

a Consensual Legally Other FH Consensual Legally Other union consti- union consti- tuted tuted family aFemale-headed. family 26 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Table 2 CHILDREN UNDER 15 IN URBAN AREAS8 (Percentages) 1980s 1990s Household type b C Total Ql Q4 Total Q1 Q4 Nuclear family 65.0 67.0 69.7 68.3 67.9 78.4 Female-headed 4.7 7.0 1.9 5.8 7.6 3.0 Consensual union 9.3 13.5 3.2 13.7 18.3 5.7 Legally constituted union 51.0 56.8 64.6 48.8 42.0 69.7 Other 35.0 33.0 30.3 31.7 32.1 21.6

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Source: ECLAC, on the basis of household surveys conducted in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. " Unweighted averages. Lowest income quartile. c Highest income quartile.

SITUATION IN THE 1980s SITUATION IN THE 1990s

union consti- tuted tuted family a Female-headed. famüV SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 27

Table 3 YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 15-24 IN CONSENSUAL UNIONS IN URBAN AREAS3 (Percentages)

Years of study

Percentage of all unions aged 15-24

°'5 6-9 more Total

1980s 42.5 22.0 6.2 22.7 1990s 67^0 403 1^1 37A_ Source: ECLAC, on the basis of household surveys conducted in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. " Unweighted averages.

YOUNG PEOPLE IN CONSENSUAL UNIONS Years of study 28 FAMILYAND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Table 4 URBAN CHILDREN AGED 7-14 LEFT BEHIND IN SCHOOL3 (Percentages) Household type Total Qlb Q4C

Nuclear family 21.4 29.6 9.3 Female-headed 24.5 33.5 9.9 Consensual union 32.6 36.9 14.5 Legally constituted union 17.2 24.8 8.8 Other 27.3 33.9 13.8 Source: ECLAC, on the basis of household surveys conducted in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. " Unweighted averages. b Lowest income quartile. c Highest income quartile.

CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND IN SCHOOL

Nuclear FHC Con- Legally Other family sensual consti- union tuted family aLowest income quartile; b Highest income quartile. cFemale-headed. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 29

As indicated above, consensual collective achievements have a synergistic unions are increasingly common. The few effect; the shared efforts and goal existing studies on the subject indicate that orientation strengthen the familial social these unions are concentrated among fabric. When this fabric is strong, the persons at lower socio-economic levels; economic, social and cultural that they are significantly more unstable opportunities of each member of the than formal marriages;10 that they reflect family are maximized; when it is weak, the the fact that women, who are likely to family lacks the capacity to stimulate its prefer a legal union, have less bargaining members to make use of existing power than men;11 and that households opportunities or to find and adequately where the parents are living in a utilize the resources offered by the State or consensual union and those headed by public welfare organizations. women with low incomes have less In order for the familial fabric to socialization capacity than legally withstand and respond to changes in the constituted marriages, and this is reflected sociocultural and economic environment, in the school performance of the children family relations must be democratic; (see table 4).12 otherwise, there can be no dynamic adjustment to the external or internal demands on its members. E. NECESSARY CONDITIONS What are the main factors that must be FOR THE FORMATION AND taken into account in formulating policies CONSOLIDATION OF A FAMILY to create favourable conditions for elaborating family agendas with the No analytical effort has yet been made to above-mentioned characteristics? These identify the necessary conditions for policies should be built around four forming and consolidating family pivotal factors: families' access to material structures which are able to protect the resources, availability of basic services, well-being of their members and, in turn, opportunities for social mobility and a to contribute to equitable and democratic democratic family structure. development. These functions may be performed by various kinds of families, 1. Minimal material conditions for regardless of their organization, as long as family consolidation there is some type of family "agenda". A family agenda is a plan for a shared Poverty limits the possibilities of forming life, which sets forth goals and orders a strong, stable family. It is very difficult priorities for achieving them. The to formulate and sustain a collective plan comparative advantage of the family as an and cope with destructive forces when institution lies in its primary solidarity. A family members are hardly able to family agenda potentiates this resource determine their own destinies and when and channels it towards the attainment of the day-to-day struggle for survival collective goals. In addition, solidarity and absorbs all their energies, especially when

10 Sonalde Desai, "Family structure and child nutrition in Latin America and West Africa", Population and Development Review, vol. 18, No. 4, December 1992. See also Norsen Goldman, "Dissolution of first unions in Colombia, Panama and Peru", Demography, vol. 18, No. 4, November 1981. Goldman finds that, in Colombia, Panama and Peru, consensual unions are several times more likely to break up than legal marriages (p. 659). 11 Rao Vijayendra and Margaret E. Green, Marital Instability, Inter-spouse Bargaining and their Implication for Fertility in Brazil, 1991, cited in Sonalde Desai, op. cit. 12 A recent study shows that, regardless of their socio-economic level, children living in households where the family head has a consensual union show lower nutritional indicators than children of married parents (Desai, p. 710). The author of the research states that, since men feel that consensual unions are less stable, their commitment to this type of relationship is weaker, and hence they devote less time and money to maintaining the home and caring for the children. 30 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. poverty occurs in the midst of images of responsible sexual behaviour —which opulence, as in the case of the region's would give parents more control over the cities. Such images, which invade most number and spacing of children— or child homes through the television screen, care facilities, which represent crucially mould the aspirations of children and important services for working parents youth, and make it a much more arduous and, in particular, for mothers who are the and complex task to adapt their goals and sole source of support for their 13 priorities to the family's income. The households. discrepancy between the aspirations fomented by these messages and the 3. Opportunities for social mobility nuclear family's material means to satisfy them is a constant source of frustration, Opportunities for social mobility are and weakens the familial fabric. another factor in determining whether In addition, the lack of a shared family agendas are feasible. Open agenda reduces the possibilities of societies create the necessary conditions overcoming poverty, since family for enabling their members to participate disintegration and poverty go hand in in the achievement of concrete objectives, hand in a downward spiral. Constantly and this generates a positive synergy that having to cope with difficulties in trying stimulates new efforts and the to meet the basic needs of their members establishment of new goals. Social gives families a sense of helplessness and mobility and the perception that goals are dependence on external factors, and attainable are important incentives for engenders fatalistic, apathetic attitudes. collective efforts to reach them. On the All this reduces the family's ability to other hand, the lack of incentives can marshal its own forces and gain some provoke reactions of despair, fatalism and control over outside influences. Poverty "existential gloom".14 reduction policies must therefore provide The perception of opportunities for access to resources and services and, at the social mobility is based on a comparison same time, create conditions to allow between the permeability of the social passive families to become more active. To structure and the type of goals which achieve that goal, policies must take individuals and families set for advantage of the family's social capacity themselves. The experience of the 1980s —i.e., its ties of solidarity— to establish was especially dramatic in the region, relationships that enable families to make since the mass media kept sending out optimal use of existing opportunities. It is messages that stimulated the desire for not realistic to regard poor families as consumption in all social classes, even as agents of development if measures are not avenues of social mobility were being designed to activate their social capacity. closed. At the same time, the unevenness in the quality of education available to 2. Access to support services children and youth of different social strata became more marked. In view of the The family's ability to develop and put growing recognition of the contribution of into practice a collective agenda also human resources to development, the depends on the type of external support degree of permeability of a society is services to which its members have access. increasingly defined by the degree to These resources include, for example, which all its members have access to the information to help promote more codes of modernity, regardless of their

13 Several examples of this type of situation are presented in studies done in Brazil and included in A. Fausto and R. Cervini (eds.), O trabalho e a rua: crianças e adolescentes no Brasil urbano dos anos 80, São Paulo, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) / Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), 1991. 14 In view of this situation, comparative research should be conducted on the various forms of family integration in environments that offer differing possibilities for social mobility. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 31 social or ethnic origin. Thus, the existence families as agents of socialization) help to of an equitable education system —i.e., create youth subcultures which one that is based on the recognition of the institutionalize the "generation gap". This different socialization capacities of the combination of greater economic various social strata and that concentrates dependence and more cultural autonomy its resources where these capacities are is the core of the domestic friction that weakest— can be of considerable help in exists between youth and adults. A stimulating or reinforcing family agendas. democratic family atmosphere, in which Even among the poorest families, the mutual rights and obligations are expectation that their offspring may be recognized, can keep these tensions from able to achieve a better standard of living turning into open conflicts. encourages parents to try harder to make These considerations suggest the that future possible. more general issue of the influence of cultural factors on family integration. 4. Democratization of intrafamily Although this topic has aroused a great relations deal of interest, little is known about the relative influence of these factors and the One of the bases for consolidating family characteristics of the social support agendas is the democratization of mechanisms (legislation, mass media, domestic relations. This is because the education system, community or kinship stability of the ties of solidarity among networks) which promote respect for family members largely depends on the values and norms and punish deviations consistency between rights and from them. Any progress made in this obligations, and on the degree of field will require more thoroughgoing consideration and respect which family studies on at least two value-related members enjoy both within and outside subjects. First, the values underlying the the home. The relationship between predominant images of the domestic family and society has been markedly division of labour, which affect attitudes affected in recent decades by the growing towards the relation between the sexes, incompatibility between the traditional need to be examined. It seems obvious that family model and the gradual the flexibility needed to maintain family incorporation of married women or cohesion in a constantly changing world, women living in other types of union into where opportunities for men and women the labour market, a process which are increasingly similar, cannot be based accelerated with the economic crisis. on criteria of solidarity whose underlying These inconsistencies require a profound premise is the gender-based division of change in gender relations, which should labour as an organizing principle of the be established on the basis of a more family. Second, more research must be equitable distribution of domestic rights done on how the requirements of family and responsibilities. solidarity can be reconciled with the Intergenerational relations within primacy of individualism and personal families are also being affected by the fulfilment stressed by the consumer speed of the changes taking place and, in society. particular, by the transformation of young people's outlook on life. On the one hand, F. SOME THOUGHTS ON FAMILY the growing requirements of the labour : POLICY market force young people to prolong their studies, and this postpones their entiy into the workplace and extends their In conclusion, some considerations on the economic dependence on their parents. desirable characteristics of public actions On the other hand, the rapidity of change, targeting families are presented below. the prolongation of studies and exposure These comments deal with the limits to the mass media (which compete with between the private and public domains; 32 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. whether such measures would contribute always be present in the design of public to greater family autonomy; and the policies. concrete meaning of "family policy". For example, a nutrition policy that The initiatives of public and private takes into account the findings of recent agencies concerning the family will have research on the differential allocation of to move carefully, according to Jelin, resources within families would recognize "along the uncertain, unstable path"15 of that women devote a higher proportion of the tension between respect for privacy their income —or the money available to and the public responsibilities of those them— to buying food. Thus, in order to agencies. Actually, even more than in maximize the benefits of a nutritional other areas of social policy, it would seem subsidy, it would seem more reasonable to preferable in this field to limit direct give it to the mother, not the father. This intervention to extreme cases in which the appears to indicate that a sectoral policy general well-being or the human rights will be more effective if it takes family of family members are seriously dynamics into account. However, a jeopardized. Efforts in this area should distinction must be drawn between short- focus, instead, on creating favourable and long-term effects. Strengthening the conditions in which families can socialization capacity of families to ensure potentiate and combine their resources that children grow up in a family and channel them towards the environment that fosters their formulation of a collective agenda in development would be considered a which the rights of all those involved are long-term effect. This consideration is respected. important because, in the absence of other In this context, family policy-makers corrective measures, a public policy that are interested in clarifying under what grants nutritional subsidies to mothers conditions social benefits may inhibit, may have the undesirable effect of rather than stimulate, the emergence and reinforcing the pattern of differential consolidation of family agendas. There are income allocation by men and women, those who feel that this inhibiting effect and may weaken the family structure in may result from policies which channel the long run. On the other hand, a policy benefits mainly towards families in which recognizes the need to strengthen danger of falling apart, but which do not the family's socialization capacity would provide incentives for overcoming promote better child nutrition and, at the difficulties through joint efforts that same time, encourage parents to adopt would enable each family member to more democratic ways of deciding how associate such solidarity with the family income will be spent. achievement of greater collective Policies to raise the productivity of well-being. family micro-enterprises meet the dual Strictly speaking, family policy objective of augmenting the effectiveness —beyond family-related legislation, of sectoral policies and strengthening which defines the rights of family family structures, to the extent that, as a members and regulates the formation, result of the functioning of such organization and dissolution of families— enterprises, family members learn to could be regarded, on the one hand, as an associate the attainment of economic goals aspect of overall social policy and a with the joining together of individual necessary factor in the effectiveness of the efforts in solidarity. These enterprises may latter,16 and, on the other, as an element of become a mechanism for bolstering family normative orientation towards agendas by serving as a means of strengthening the family that should achieving collective economic goals which

15 See chapter II. 16 Carlos Eróles, Cuestiones actuales de familia, Buenos Aires, National Commission on Family-related and Population Policies, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, 1989, p. 82. SITUATION AND PROSPECTS OF THE FAMILY IN.. 33 largely depend on the effective those dealing with the mass media. In any combination of individual efforts. Social case, the important thing is to recognize benefits linked to employment (child-care that all measures designed to enhance centres, parental leave, family allowances, people's quality of life should be etc.) should take into account their channelled through the family, and that potential effect on the division of domestic their effectiveness depends on whether tasks between men and women as an they contribute to a workable family organizing principle of the family. The agenda that is compatible with the same is true of educational, housing, demands which society places on each of health care and social security policies and its members. Chapter II

INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

A. BACKGROUND urban areas. At that point, household organization became an object of study, Since the post-war period, the key since it linked the social processes of issues in Latin America have been production and reproduction. economic development, political stability, Second, the impact of the debates and population growth and urbanization. discussions stemming from international Social and cultural aspects have been seen feminism is beginning to be felt in the as "obstacles" or as "consequences", but region. The recognition of women's rarely as phenomena with their own "invisible" work in the domestic domain effects on the major development led to its explicit incorporation into challenges. analytical models, both in debates on the The incorporation of the institution of cost of reproducing the labour force and in the family into the analysis of the region's the study of the factors that determine the main social, economic and political supply of female workers in labour processes —and even taking into account markets. Symbolically and culturally, the the micro-social level and everyday life— analysis of the notions of public and are the result of a number of changes private from the feminist viewpoint which have taken place in the past two became a key axis for rethinking the decades, including, first of all, the crisis division of labour and of power domains that occurred in the development according to gender. paradigm when social practices began to Third, there are new social emerge which could not be fully grasped phenomena that need to be understood: with the analytical tools of that paradigm. the increase in the number of households For example, in order to understand the consisting of a woman and her children "informal sector", it is not enough to without the permanent presence of a man; ascertain the percentage of independent the increase in the percentage of marriages workers in the economically active that end in divorce; the gradual increase in population; research must be done on the elderly population, with the how, within a family unit, the process of concomitant problem of deciding who integration into production is combined should take responsibility for supporting with the satisfaction of consumption and them; and the increase in the proportion of reproduction needs. The analytical logic women in the labour force and its effects that had been applied to peasant units on family organization. These trends have —where the processes of production implications for household organization and reproduction are permanently and the restructuring of co-residence interconnected— had to be extended to bonds and kinship-based obligations. 36 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

These realities, magnified in times of crisis divorce and the liberalization of sexual like the present one, encourage research practices. A fresh look should therefore be and analysis of the underlying social taken at kinship, family, residence processes, thus contributing to the patterns and domesticity, renewal of studies on the family. c) Differentiation between private and The central issues in the analysis of the public. Since the industrial revolution, family are the relationship between the during which the separation between social processes of production and "home" and "work" and between the life reproduction; kinship and the family; and environment and production space took the differentiation between private and place, a differentiation has emerged, public. These issues are described geared towards separating women's and separately below: men's spheres of action into those of a) The relationship between the social power and emotional life. The "exit" of processes of production and reproduction. women from the home to the public world While the emphasis of economic analysis and the "entry" of social controls into the —and, for a long time, of sociological and private domain are phenomena that have anthropological analysis as well— used to only recently been acknowledged, even be placed on the social processes of though, in practice, they have existed for production, the systematic, explicit a long time. inclusion of reproduction helps to close From the outset, it is important to the cycle of the economic process. After all, point out the enormous diversity of social production is complemented by the family situations to be found in the distribution and consumption of what is region's urban social reality. This diversity produced, and consumption takes place and heterogeneity reflect tensions primarily within families and households. inherent in the institution of the family, Furthermore, unless the agents of which encompass everything from the production reproduce themselves —both most instrumental aspects linked to in the sense of reproducing new demands of everyday maintenance to the generations of people to replace the need for love and affection, privacy and previous ones, and of reproducing personal security. working capacity through the daily maintenance of people— the whole cycle is interrupted. The questions of what B. CHANGES IN SOCIAL tasks are required in this regard, who ORGANIZATION: URBANIZATION, will carry them out and which group will INDUSTRIALIZATION AND socialize its resources in order to FAMILY RELATIONS perform these tasks are all bound up with domestic organization in everyday In Latin America, the rapidity of the social life. urbanization process and of the growth of b) Kinship and the family is the classic large metropolitan areas since the 1930s, focus of anthropology. Hypotheses which gained momentum in the post-war concerning modernization seemed to years, is well known. Its relationship to the indicate that the nuclear family was organization of the family —both the becoming the norm. In Latin America, impact of urbanization and the role of however, recent studies have highlighted family networks in the urbanization the importance and vitality of extended process itself— is a phenomenon that kinship networks, even if they do not requires comment and attention. involve co-residence. At the same time, the A number of significant processes in basic dimensions of the family, the urban family organization are discussed legitimate channelling of sexuality and below: 1) the role of kinship networks in procreation and the establishment of filial migratory processes; 2) the relationship bonds have undergone significant between household/family organization, transformations, caused by the increase in the labour market and social networks; INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 37 and 3) changes in family organization, as spend the first few nights and contacts that reflected in current socio-demographic will facilitate their relatively smooth trends such as declining fertility rates; integration into the urban labour market. rising divorce and separation rates, with In more global terms, the presence of these new patterns of household and family channels of communication between the formation; increased numbers of areas of origin and the cities facilitates the one-person and female-headed integration of domestic units in the city households; and population ageing and a and in the country into a single network, higher percentage of elderly persons, with migratory flows in both directions which imply changes in the composition and remittances of money and goods, all of households (more one-person and of which form part of a shared strategy three-generational households). between those who remain in the country and urban dwellers. 1. Rural-to-urban migration and Migration frequently occurs in the kinship networks social context of vertical, or even servile, networks based on clientage. This The process of urban growth since the arrangement, which was much more early 1930s was related to the proliferation common in the 1930s and 1940s, is still of internal migratory flows in the region. evident in the migration of women for In the 1930s and 1940s, migration to cities urban domestic service. Currently, young was numerically small. The first migrants women are recruited on the basis of ties of to arrive in cities and towns, the family dependence. The power of the "pioneers", were probably alone, with no female "boss" over the domestic employee support networks in the city. Beginning in goes beyond the work relationship, since the 1950s, migration became a more the former assumes responsibility for massive phenomenon. The migrants who "taking care" of the latter on behalf of her arrived later could then benefit from the family of origin. This ensures the domestic presence of previous migrants, who employee's security, but deprives her of served as veritable support networks in freedom of movement in the city. the process. Until the 1950s, in the context of large What purpose do these networks migratory flows and urban expansion, the serve? They provide the human context of daily life of migrants was centred on social relations in the migratory adapting to urban life; i.e., finding a place experience. Doubtless they have an to live and helping the network of relatives instrumental value: migrants are not and family members in the migratory isolated beings who arrive in an unknown process. The growth of urban world. The contents of the network and employment opportunities for men gave the type of help vary according to social rise to a marked sexual division of labour, class: since time immemorial, the with women in charge of reproductive provincial upper classes have sent their tasks and men in the labour market. The children to study in the capital cities, children, in turn, had to contribute as best relying on kinship networks to provide they could to supporting the family. them with a residence and ensure their In a second phase, which began in the daily maintenance. Greater access to 1960s, the situation changed. Migration intermediate and higher education, ceased to be the engine of urban growth basically in the larger cities from the 1950s and significant changes occurred in the onward, only served to expand the social labour market. As men's job and sector that used this form of kinship income-earning opportunities shrank and organization typical of the middle and the complexion of the job market changed upper classes. (more services, more subcontracted In the less well-off classes, networks industrial work and outwork, lower ensure that migrants, on arriving in the relative wages), adult women entered the city, will have a house where they can labour market en masse, and changes in 38 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. domestic organization began to be visible. she would no longer have to work. The The 1980s and the impact of the crisis also situation was slightly different in the generated new kinds of collective middle classes in the 1930s, when there responses, including the establishment of emerged a group of educated women who governmental and non-governmental demanded their civil and social rights. community service organizations. Without a doubt, however, they represented a minority. 2. Family, labour market and mutual Society has changed a great deal since support networks then. The increase from the low levels of participation of urban women in the Urbanization and industrialization labour force in the 1930s has been involve a separation between the family significant, although levels of home and the workplace. In recent years, participation and rates of change vary this trend has shown some signs of widely from one country to another. The reversing itself: the impoverishment and 1960s marked the beginning of a time of "deproletarianization" that went along major change in the region, which with the crisis of the 1980s led to an included an increase in the participation of increase in outwork and family-run not only young, single women, but also micro-enterprises. Both processes were married women and married women with accompanied by a basic change in children. This change triggered a change women's social position. in the overall organization of everyday Over the course of the twentieth life. The new patterns of women's century, but especially in the past two integration into the labour market are, decades, women's place in urban society in fact, one of the manifestations of has changed from the traditional model of the profound transformation of the the woman who, in all social classes, family. prepares to become a mother/home- Thus, expanded access to education maker/wife (although, on the side, she on a massive scale, especially in urban may engage in some sort of piaid areas, meant that women had access to productive work), and who is dependent literacy, secondary school and higher on men —first her father, then her education. As educated women came to husband. Today, whether by choice or participate in the labour market to a circumstance, women are exercising more greater degree, there was a visible increase economic and domestic autonomy. in employment among middle-class In the 1930s, few women in Latin women who, in former times, would have American cities had any prospect other been housewives. A recent ECLAC study than to live shackled to their families: noted the following with respect to this young women and single women to their phenomenon: families of origin; married women to their Women have been the main source of families of procreation. In both cases, the the expansion and multiplication of female world was necessarily the qualified jobs and income within the domestic, private world. The "street", for non-manual sector.... There are women, was synonymous with indications, however, that nearly 80% prostitution and vice. It should be recalled of urban women in non-manual that even the anarchist and socialist employment are not heads of movements of the turn of the century household, but rather that many are considered that women's basic role was to married and are from households bring up future revolutionaries. And if, belonging to the upper half of urban because of living or class conditions, society. Nearly one third of women had to work in factories, this was upper-class households rely on the hardly viewed as a desirable situation. The combined incomes of husband and working woman had to be protected; her wife to maintain their standard of social situation had to be improved so that living (ECLAC, 1986b, p. 65). INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 39

This trend has had a significant impact Although the association between poverty on how daily life is organized. In the and female-headed households is well middle classes, young women study and, known, no reliable longitudinal data are as a result, make different decisions about available for determining whether this marriage; housewives/mothers with implies a trend towards the feminization secondary and higher education hold of poverty. part-time jobs or re-enter the labour These circumstances are aggravated market when their children are of school by the fact that women in charge of age. reproductive tasks also bore the brunt of There are also changes (and the State and public-service crisis of the significant continuity, too) in the position 1980s. Long waits in hospitals for medical of working-class women. Women in care or even the inaccessibility of such urban areas are still most commonly services, together with the deterioration or employed as domestic helpers, with all the absence of services in the home or disadvantages that such jobs entail. neighbourhood, had to be compensated Moreover, for women in both for by increasing domestic activity and middle-class and working-class strata stepping up the informal help provided by —although the latter are particularly women. Some studies point out that in affected— the gender-based division of these extreme situations women could labour within the home is slow to change. count on more help and protection from Women are still responsible for household their male blood relatives, especially chores and child care, regardless of their fathers, brothers and young sons, than work situation. Help, whether paid or from their companions or husbands. unpaid, is always provided by and among In the search for alternative solutions women. In fact, the increase in women's to everyday emergencies, women have rates of participation from 1960 onward moved outside the domestic domain and was concentrated among women between into the public, forming groups to demand 20 and 30 years of age, who have the their rights and organizing soup kitchens, heaviest burden of housework; the dining halls or other collective activities. combination of responsibilities inside and These experiences imply a change in the outside the home means that these women way the daily tasks of maintenance and are tremendously overworked. reproduction are carried out, which has Women's growing role in managing transformed the domestic environment daily crisis situations is manifested in the and laid the groundwork for women's changing composition of domestic units. presence in collective movements to The steady increase in the percentage of demand services. The fact that women female-headed households in the region have moved out into the public arena and in the world is a recognized fact. In the because they have been unable to satisfy past, such women were predominantly their maintenance and reproductive needs widows. In recent decades, changing in the domestic and family domain is patterns of family formation, especially as compelling proof of the link between concerns marriage and separation, have reproduction in that domain and also had an effect. While the higher macro-social processes of change. divorce rate may reflect greater autonomy Indeed, the urban domestic unit, as an and freedom in the case of professional organization charged with the daily tasks and middle-class women, the prevalent of maintenance and reproduction, is an situation in the working classes is that the integral part of a broader mutual support man often abandons his family when he system, composed of kinship and finds he cannot solve his employment neighbourhood networks. These problems in the labour market. In those networks are activated and maintained by conditions, separation and male women/housewives, even though they abandonment almost invariably leave minister to the needs of all members of the women and children in extreme poverty. family and the neighbourhood. Studies on 40 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. this topic show that such integration into Kinship and informal relations are horizontal mutual assistance networks important not only for the working class. functions on an everyday level and acts as They are also fundamental to the thinking an informal social welfare system that of the middle and upper classes. In the people can turn to in emergency latter, where more resources are available, situations: illness and death, loss of a job, kinship has been and continues to be one housing crises, protection against of the basic criteria for organizing violence, etc. Although few longitudinal economic activity. studies are available on the subject, this It should be pointed out, however, system appears to represent a stable that not all city dwellers are deeply anchor in the structuring of urban social involved in networks of informal relations relations in daily life, and its importance and that such networks are not always grows as it involves more people stable and predictable. Although there is (depending on the length of time they no systematic, complete evidence, it seems have lived in the city or neighbourhood) that the situations of most extreme and as alternative, resources for meeting poverty and uncertainty are precisely everyday needs become scarce for reasons those associated with the absence of such as economic crises, recessions or networks that provide a sense of extreme poverty. belonging. Households headed by The role of vertical relations and women, especially single mothers rejected clientage in the organization of daily by their relatives, are extreme examples of reproduction is a different phenomenon. this situation. Mutual support networks, In these cases, reciprocity is based on an moreover, cannot compensate for the attempt by the dominant classes to be absence or insufficiency of State welfare manipulative and to do favours to obtain services. Networks may well become political support, either through informal strengthened in such situations, but they mechanisms or through religious or may also come apart when the burden of political organizations in working-class demand is too great for the network's neighbourhoods. In this case, the material and human resources. members and beneficiaries of the networks tend to be men, in their dual role as actors in the political domain and 3. Family and household structure authority figures in their families. What these networks show is the Some socio-demographic trends have had considerable historical continuity of the a major impact on changes in the family cultural tradition of family-centredness, during the twentieth century. First, life which is especially strong in the countries expectancy has increased. This trend has that were once Spanish colonies. been very significant, since it has Secularization may have extended the role compounded the effect of decreased of access to public services in solving some fertility by lengthening the lives of everyday problems. It may also have individuals in the adult and elderly made more room for choice in social phases. Since the age at which the first relations, in particular the bonds of union is formed has not changed friendship in the middle classes. None the significantly, what has happened is that less, especially in the working classes, the potential duration of marriage has kinship networks continue to be more increased. It used to be that widowhood reliable than formal mechanisms. They was the most common means of breaking function as resources for problem-solving the marital bond. As life expectancy in daily life when there is no other increased, the possibility that marriage alternative, or when the alternatives are would end in divorce or separation also insufficient or ineffectual. This accounts increased. In turn, the difference between for their renewed vigour in times of the sexes in terms of life expectancy means economic crisis and reduced State services. that widowhood is a more common INTRAAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 41 phenomenon among women than among involved. Moreover, in the prevailing men. In fact, the situation of men and gender culture, it is more common among women is very different where marriage is men than among women. concerned; there are always many more Third, the effect of crises, old and new, widows and divorcees than there are on the formation of households must be widowers and divorced men, and there is scrutinized. When urban residences are a clear upward trend in their number. expensive and there are no social policies What comes into play here is not only the on housing, young couples tend to difference between the sexes in terms of postpone setting up house or decide to life expectancy but also the cultural model live with their parents. Often, this according to which the male partner in a arrangement is not reflected in couple is generally older than the female. censuses and surveys, making it As women age, the likelihood that they appear that the trend towards nuclear will be left alone without their spouse households has continued. In increases. This idea is reflected in the title working-class neighbourhoods, relatives of a study on the subject, Pirâmide da commonly share a site, living in relatively solidão? (Berquó, 1986). independent housing units instead of in Second, fertility rates have declined as the same household, but sharing many a result of the decrease in the number of aspects of daily life. household members. Lower fertility also These trends constitute a framework means that the population is ageing and for understanding two important that the proportion of adult and elderly phenomena which are on the agenda of persons is growing; consequently, the social policies and should be analysed: the number of younger persons forming increase in the divorce and separation rate households will tend to decline and the and the rise in the number of number of households composed of or female-headed households. including older persons will increase. The increase in divorces and Traditionally, elderly people —most of separations should be examined in the whom were widows— lived with one context of complex sociocultural of their daughters or sons and the processes linked to the process of daughter's or son's family of individuation. The modern values of procreation, in a three-generational personal autonomy, free choice of a household. Increasingly, this pattern of partner based on romantic love and the co-residence has been supplemented growing social expectation of being able to by other forms such as elderly act on one's feelings and emotions are couples, one-person households and becoming more widespread; the "non-nuclear" households (elderly counterpart of these values is the freedom sisters living together, for example). to sever ties when there is no more love, The increase in the number of when the personal cost of a stormy life one-person households in urban areas is together crosses a certain threshold. The attributable in part to the process of growing incorporation of women into the population ageing and can be expected to labour force, which affords them a degree continue in the future. It also reflects other of economic autonomy, enables them to social trends, although they have not been break conflictual ties based on gender very widespread thus far. The growing domination. Many women previously had autonomy of young persons leads them to no escape from troubled marital try to establish their own residence, situations: separation carried a strong separate from their parents, either social stigma and victimization of independently of the process of forming a women, while their lack of economic couple or in order to cohabit before independence strengthened the marriage. This trend is incipient, and institution of marriage. The shift towards occurs only in the middle and upper greater gender equity in the cultural classes, given the economic constraints models that govern couples' relations is, in 42 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. fact, associated with a greater degree of C. SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT freedom. IN INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS: The issue is more complex in poorer PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY AND social strata, since the man or father INDIVIDUATION PROCESSES frequently abandons his family as a result of labour-market crises and his loss of The family unit is not an undifferentiated status as the family's financial provider. group of individuals who share activities These same men, however, sometimes act related to its maintenance. It is a social as providers and/or protectors of women organization, a microcosm of relations and children who are blood relatives, such of production, reproduction and as their mothers or sisters (Fonseca, 1991). distribution, with a power structure and The solution for the future does not lie in strong ideological and affective returning to traditional gender roles, but components that bind the organization rather in promoting changes in gender together and help it to endure and relations within the family. reproduce, but that also include structural The increase in the number of women bases of conflict and struggle. There are living alone with children is a transitional collective tasks and interests, but phenomenon in two senses: in terms of members have their own interests related women's lives, this situation may be part to their place in the production and of a transition to the formation of a new reproduction processes inside and outside couple; in the larger historical sense, it the household. represents a transition to new kinds of The basic principles of the family's families that are more open and further internal organization reflect dif- removed from the full-fledged nuclear ferentiations by age, gender and kinship. model. Not all women who live alone with In the socio-political and ideological children are heads of household. Often, context of patriarchal capitalist societies, they share the house with other relatives children are subordinate to their parents, (parents or siblings, for example). Thus, to whom they owe respect and obedience, they represent a relatively small manifested in the obligation to collaborate proportion of female heads of household and participate in tasks for the common (25% to 30%). In view of the double good, as defined and maintained by demand placed on women —as economic parental authority. Over the last few providers for their children and as centuries, the Western world has mothers-housewives— such family units witnessed marked processes of are especially vulnerable to uncertainty individuation on the part of offspring and and risk. a breakdown of patriarchal authority. In Actually, as a cultural model, the terms of intergenerational relations, the nuclear family developed in a very rise in educational levels entails longer peculiar way: though idealized as the economic dependence, while at the same norm, and assumed to be "normal" by time giving greater cultural autonomy to educational and health institutions, the youth. Rural-to-urban migration, which nuclear family of mother, father and mainly involves young people, leads to children is combined in the region with a the separation and often the autonomy of strong family-centred ideology in which youth with respect to their family of blood relationship and kinship are origin. the basic criteria that determine Given the process of growing responsibilities and obligations towards autonomy among youth and the loss of others. Little is known about the extent of patriarchal authority, intergenerational conflicts that arise from the tension confrontations can occur relatively early between the demands of the nuclear in the life cycle in relation to the children's family and the obligations rooted in contribution to domestic work, parents' kinship ties, especially with the family of demands that they seek employment to origin. help maintain the family, decisions on INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 43

¡whether the resources thus obtained On the one hand, women demand belong to the individual or the family, or recognition of their individuality as the degree of freedom and autonomy in persons. At the same time, women the use of leisure time (where the continue to be —and recognize difference between male and female themselves as— the mainstay of the adolescents is still enormous). family, based on their role as wives and Intergenerational confrontation also mothers. occurs in relation to consumption, especially in terms of pressure from adolescents to obtain a series of goods 1. Domestic violence: public —from fashionable clothes to electronic intervention in the items— demanded by youth culture. In private sphere the household, these pressures lead to conflicts about consumption priorities The family is a paradoxical space. On the and the distribution of benefits. one hand, it is a place of affection and Historically, the process of achieving intimacy; on the other, it is the prime autonomy and asserting individual setting of violence, but violence between interests took place more between members of the same family is something generations —youth opposed to their which is not mentioned. It is secret and parents— than between the sexes. The shameful; it escapes public knowledge. patriarchal model began to break down The only witnesses are the family when the material basis of subsistence members, who keep silent either to ceased to be land ownership, which was preserve the family image or for fear of passed by inheritance from parents to reprisals. Only the most obvious cases are children, and became the sale of labour in detected: the discovery of a cadaver, the market-place, where the relevant unit marks from blows. The family is at once is the individual, not the family. For the place of love and violence. In general, women, the individuation process and the it is estimated that between a quarter and recognition of their own interests and a third of all homicides are domestic rights as opposed to those of the male head killings, where one member of a family of household is much more recent. Thus, kills another (Chesnais, 1992). the issue of the division of labour and the This phenomenon is beginning to struggle for power between the sexes has come out into the open. Even though its appeared only in recent years in the very nature implies that there are no literature on domestic work, the reliable aggregate data, a few figures subordination of women and the social (Carrillo, 1991, p. 180) are sufficient to organization of reproduction. illustrate it: In household dynamics between the sexes, the lines of conflict are — A Mexican non-governmental drawn around the issue of domestic organization estimated that violence responsibility, as women participate more between spouses takes place in at least in the workforce. Time-use studies clearly 70% of Mexican families, although it is show that women carry a heavier burden, not reported in most cases. and this is becoming an issue of feminist — A survey taken in Santiago, Chile, struggle and demands, both in the privacy showed that 80% of the women of each family and in social movements. interviewed admitted they were With respect to distribution, however, victims of violence in their mothers seem to be maintaining their position of "defenders of the common households. good" in the collective domestic In Nicaragua, 44% of the men environment, against the attacks of the surveyed admitted that they hit other members of the unit. The current their wife or girlfriend on a regular situation in Latin America is ambiguous. basis. 44 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.

— A study of child prostitution in men's place less clear and erodes the bases Cochabamba, Bolivia, showed that of their authority. Accordingly, some men 79% of the girls surveyed said they react by trying to impose their will on became prostitutes because of other members of the family in an economic necessity after fleeing from authoritarian and violent fashion. violent households or after having Evidence shows that domestic violence is been victims of incest or rape by male more common in families where working family members. women have become the main source of income for supporting the family on a Obviously, family violence is daily basis. gender-related; the victims are women in At the institutional level, the juridical conjugal relationships and girls (and, to a and cultural structure of society erects lesser extent, boys) in the filial barriers to State intervention in the relationship. Lately, however, cases of "private" sphere of the family. In fact, the family violence against elderly members dominant paradigm of human rights have begun to be made known publicly. draws a basic distinction: since There is a growing body of research individuals are thought to have civil and that seeks to understand and explain this political rights in public life, violations of phenomenon in order to help prevent and those rights in the private sphere of family eliminate it. Violence is undoubtedly a relations are not considered as such. form of learned behaviour that can be Unlike structures of political domination changed; it is rooted in the unequal and inequality among men, male relations between men and women, the domination of women is expressed sexual hierarchy and the expression of socially and economically —often in masculinity through domination of private contexts, defined as family life— women. In other words, it occurs in and involves no explicit act of the State. In traditional patriarchal family organi- practice, it can be said that the dichotomy zation, where the power of the man is between the public and private spheres manifested in a variety of ways, even distorts women's civil rights. At the same physical violence, which is taken to be time, the family's right to privacy is used natural in traditional gender relations. as a justification for limiting State Evidence indicates that most men who intervention in that sphere. beat and women who are beaten are from This illustrates the tension between violent families. Often, they see domestic respect for privacy and intimacy on the violence as something natural. The one hand and the public responsibilities domestic isolation of women in the home, of the State on the other, which calls for marriages contracted before women a redefinition of the distinction between develop a sense of their autonomy and the what is public and what is private family as the only institution that shapes and intimate. This is a symbolic and the identity of women are all factors that ideological, but not a practical, distinction help to reproduce this phenomenon. The because the modern State, in practice, has entry of women into the workforce, always had supervisory authority over the changes in their status and the visibility family. The affirmative obligation of the and growing social awareness of the State to protect its citizens from violations problem all point in the opposite direction, of their basic human rights in the private towards a change in the family situation. sphere of the family urgently needs to be However, this change is not as rapid enforced. However, this does not as might be expected, owing to the eliminate tension or contradiction. State modernization process itself. Indeed, intervention in the private world patriarchal domination is called into has two sides: the defence of victims and question by urbanization and subordinates (male or female) of the modernization, as reflected by the change patriarchal system, on the one hand, and in women's social position, which makes arbitrary intervention, control and even INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 45 terror, on the other. Social reactions to the high. It should be pointed out that two are different: anything that could be adolescent maternity is not synonymous an object of arbitrary State intervention with unwed mothers; many young should be kept private and protected from women marry because they are pregnant, State interference, but anything that and a certain proportion of women who reinforces subordination and the arbitrary are either married or in unions have power of the paterfamilias should not children at an early age. The proportion of have such immunity. children born out of wedlock has, The traditional discourse on human however, increased. As might be rights is seriously limited when it is based expected, adolescent maternity is on the distinction between public and inversely related to the young mother's private. But that same human rights educational level. paradigm can be used in another way, as Women who become mothers at an a tool which, by eradicating legal early age are more vulnerable, as are their privileges, establishes limits to power and children. Personal plans for education promotes equity in the organization of often have to be interrupted. Also, these family relations. women are more likely to have a higher fertility rate, to be heads of household in charge of their children and, 2. Sexuality and reproduction consequently, to live in precarious and Changes in sexual practices and the social uncertain conditions. Evidence points to a norms related to them have been transmission of vulnerability and momentous throughout the world, not precariousness from one generation to least in Latin America. Although another, since many women who become systematic research on sexual practices as mothers at an early age are from families such is almost non-existent, the direction, which show the same pattern. if not the magnitude, of those changes in The whole question of sexuality has recent decades is clear: sexual restrictions taken on a new dimension since the and taboos have undoubtedly diminished, emergence of AIDS. Sex education and and people are becoming sexually active preventive practices now have much more at an earlier age, but remain ignorant of complex functions: family planning and the physiology of reproduction (sex responsible parenthood on the one hand, education) and of contraception, and and prevention of illness and death therefore run a considerable risk of combined with control of the epidemic, on contracting venereal diseases such as AIDS. the other. In this area, the implications for For many women, these changes have policy-making are clear: sex education meant more sexual freedom and an involves both the family and health, and acceptance of pleasure as something good. should be the object of an integrated social Among young women, this sexual policy, aimed especially at young people liberalization has led to an increase in of both sexes. teenage pregnancy, abortion and Fertility rates in the region have trafficking in children. More generally, it shown a marked decline since the 1970s. has led to more vulnerable sexuality and This is basically due to the more maternity, especially among teenage girls. widespread use of contraceptives rather Rates of adolescent maternity, which than to changes in the marriage rate or in declined in the developed countries mating patterns (Berquó, 1991; Chackiel during the 1970s, have remained high in and Schkolnik, 1990). It seems that fertility the developing countries. In Latin rates would have fallen further if not for America, the fertility rates of women the fact that in many countries the demand between 15 and 19 years of age have for contraceptives is not fully met, since declined more slowly over the last few the trend in women's reproductive decades than those of the non-adolescent intentions is towards more planning to population, and remain comparatively ensure smaller family size. Of course, 46 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. notable differences still exist between demographic planning of fertility, an social classes and between urban and rural essential component of which is control areas; here again, the basic determining over women's bodies. It is one thing to factor is access to and quality of health care provide incentives that orient services. reproductive choices, based on easy access to information and education about sex 3. An alternative approach: and reproduction. It is a very different reproductive rights as human rights thing to impose reproductive strategies that pay little heed to the desires and Sexuality and parenthood should also be choices of women themselves and of men. approached from a human rights The lack of education and means for perspective. Given the history of others' planning fertility —as seen, for example, appropriating women's bodies, over the in adolescent and unwanted fertility—, as last 20 years the social struggle in the field well as quasi-compulsory programmes to of sexuality and fertility has centred on the control birth rates (sterilization demand for reproductive rights. programmes, uninformed distribution of Women's ability to regulate their contraceptives) reinforce the view of sexuality and reproductive capacity —in women as objects, as bodies to be other words, to take control of their own manipulated and controlled. bodies—implies a dual imperative: others The recent emphasis on new should not consider themselves owners of reproductive technologies and the need to women's bodies, and women should have legislate on their application have brought the power to resist the coercion and the question of reproductive rights to the imposition of others. In the final analysis, fore once again, this time from the other the guarantee that a woman's body will side of the issue, namely the treatment of not be dominated or subjected to any sterility and technological manipulations practice without her consent and for "assisted" conception and gestation. willingness entails the recognition of her The paradox is that, while reproductive bask human rights; this guarantee can be rights (contraceptive methods and seen as part of the right to life and freedom practices) are problematic basically in the and the prohibition of slavery, servitude, peripheral countries and lower economic torture and cruel treatment. In the same classes, conceptive practices ("assisted" vein, rape is an extreme form of physical fertilization) are developed and applied in violence; but so is the imposition of the central countries and in the upper contraceptive methods (the extreme case classes of the peripheral ones. being irreversible surgery) and its Population control programmes and opposite, the denial of the right to access the development and application of to health care that enables women to conceptive techniques are both based on a control their sexuality and reproduction. biologistic view of the family: bonds of The distance between this principle affection and caring, which are cultural and normal practice in the contemporary developments, are ideologically world is enormous. Rape is seldom presented as genetic, thereby making punished; the right of a raped woman to family-related inequalities "natural". In terminate a pregnancy is not recognized in the context of the new reproductive many countries; and women seldom technologies, the desire for parenthood is exercise their sexuality as an expression of manifested in the obsession with having their freedom. The ideal of ensuring one's own child, which stems from the women's freedom of decision on symbolism of blood as the vehicle that reproductive matters can only be achieved unites generations and transmits the if the necessary material conditions are essence of the person. Stolcke describes present. Social reality is far from this ideal. this as a desire for biological parenthood Population policies, whether oriented by means of technological maternity towards birth or birth control, imply (Stolcke, 1991, p. 82). INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 47

The issue of men's and women's generations, is the agent that transmits reproductive rights opens up new opportunities and expectations. Within dimensions of the debate. Are these families, relationships between women's rights or rights rooted in gender generations are not always harmonious; relations? Are they individual rights or do there are conflicts linked to young they belong to the couple? If the people's responsibilities towards the rest responsibility for caring for children is to of the family and to the processes by which be equally shared by mothers and fathers, they achieve autonomy. it is clear that both should have a say with The importance of the family for the respect to the timing and method of socialization of children and young people conception and gestation. is well known. Norms, values and Moreover, the sum and combination identities take shape and are transmitted of the multitude of decisions taken by in the context of family relations, with individuals and couples has long-term their tensions, contradictory messages social consequences, manifested in birth and controls. The family is also the domain and population growth rates. The issue is of caring and affection. Experiences in the therefore a legitimate object of national context of the family combine, in a and even international policies. How complementary or contradictory way, many children to have should ideally be with those in other institutions and social decided by the couple, according to the relations —from the school to the street, costs and benefits involved. A State from friends to the police— in the process population policy can modify the balance of individual development. Moreover, between costs and benefits through families vary in terms of not only social differential incentives. The question, class and economic level, but also their however, is how to establish priorities, capacity to socialize children to enable when the interests of class, gender, them to live a full life and to prepare them professions and enterprises are all for democratic relations inside and intertwined. None the less, the complexity outside the family. of the phenomenon should not obstruct a Some family situations are clearly critical view: what resources should be unfavourable and risky for the used to guarantee which reproductive socialization of children and adolescents: rights? Such questions imply that citizens domestic violence, lack of material should take part in the public policy debate. resources to ensure daily subsistence, The winning of reproductive rights absence of stable bonds and solidarity is neither simple nor conclusive. First, with others, social isolation, traditional there is a cultural block —gender patriarchal authoritarianism or socialization— whereby women's identity lawlessness. Early experiences are known is still strongly associated with to strongly influence basic interpersonal motherhood, while their sexuality and patterns of solidarity and caring for reproductive capacity are controlled by others, as well as the development of a others. Second, there is a material and moral sense. Although a democratic instrumental block: choices can be made upbringing —in which tolerance and about sexuality and reproduction only if solidarity are incorporated into daily conditions are adequate in terms of living— can be based on experiences in quality of life and access to services, and different institutional contexts, family these are far from being assured or relations play the central role in this equitably distributed in the region. process. The ideal situation is characterized by 4. Intergenerational relations: youth in formative and moral complementarity the family and in society among families, kinship groups and community and State institutions. Since The family, whose role revolves around this situation is not easily attainable, procreation and the socialization of new processes of socialization and moral 48 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. development depend on a system of contradictions implicit in this process: checks and balances among these who has the right to decide for minors? institutions, whereby the damage done by Traditionally, this right primarily one can be repaired and compensated for belonged to the father; in recent years, the by another. This requires, in practice, great right of the mother has been recognized. care in formulating proposals for But to what extent do parents have strengthening the family in general, and authority over their children? Who the provision of substitute agents of defends the rights of minors in cases of socialization when the family cannot fulfil family conflict? Is there only one "full legal this task. age", or are different areas of Mention should be made of another responsibility assumed at different times? area where the family as an institution is In what circumstances can the State and limited. The socialization imparted by the community institutions intervene and family does not aim at social equity, but restrict or eliminate the power of one rather its opposite: the family transmits member of the family over the others? privileges and reproduces social All of these questions have a public inequalities. These processes represent de dimension, in law and in the practices facto and dejure restrictions on the ideal of through which the State exercises control equal opportunity. This is why social over juveniles (for example, by imposing intervention is needed to compensate for curfews or deciding which films and more vulnerable family situations. places are allowed or prohibited). They In terms of the internal dynamics of also have a family dimension, in which families, the relation between generations parental control plays a major role and is a source of conflict, especially when conflict and negotiation are the stuff of offspring reach adolescence. Youth is a daily interaction between generations. time of transition from an eminently From the standpoint of society, the formative and dependent stage of life to question of youth has another character. greater personal autonomy, the Quantitative and qualitative data on social development of specific skills and full problems, or simply a close reading of a incorporation into the world of social newspaper from any major city, present production. This stage typically entails the young people as problematic: progression from general education to unemployment rates are systematically specific training and the working world, higher among youth, while social on the one hand, and from dependence to problems linked to violence and crime, autonomy in relation to the family of drug abuse, vagrancy, unconventional origin and to the formation of one's own sexuality (teenage pregnancies and family, on the other. But it is also the stage unwed mothers; sexually transmitted in which patterns of sexual behaviour are diseases, especially AIDS; etc.), "street kids" established, with all the affective elements and other forms of non-family life are involved in socio-sexual relations. Lastly, found predominantly among youth. At it is a stage in which interaction in peer the same time, society rests its hopes for groups, from violent gangs to intimate the future on young people. The formation and lasting friendships, becomes of human resources depends on the especially significant. education of young people for These transitions are constantly being employment and technological change redefined in law and in the daily practices and on the preparation of young people of social services. The law sets an arbitrary for citizenship and the renewal of political limit, full legal age, at which a person is leadership, as well as for family and publicly recognized as having adult domestic roles (especially in the case of responsibility, including penal women). responsibility. In practice, people go One more perspective needs to be through a gradual process of social considered: the view of youth as subjects maturation. There are tensions and with their own identity. Instead of looking INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA 49 at youth from the adult world and of marital rape as a criminal offence. defining them positively (human Third, policies and legalities manifest resources) or negatively (social problems), themselves in concrete institutions and this perspective incorporates the way practices: police and legal actions, young people see themselves: who they practices of educational or public health are, how they express their identity, what institutions and State policy governing the practices and patterns they develop as mass media. Lastly, there is the mediating their own, and how they react to the role of institutional practices and daily parameters of a social, economic, political interaction in civil society, which and cultural environment constructed by provides meaning and cultural criteria for others (i.e., the adult world). In the context interpreting the relation between the of the current crisis in Latin America, family and the State. youth are less active politically, Utopian The family is subject to this ideas have less impact and youth are seen supervisory authority and at the same less and less as "saviours" and builders of time is seen ideologically as private space, the future, and more and more as "victims" separate from public and political life. The of the social system. Little is known about formulation of State and community how young people, especially poor ones, policies concerning the family requires a see their role in present and future society, critical analysis of this symbolic construct or whether the role they envision will allow and recognition of the tension between them to disprove the dominant opinion of respect for the privacy of the family and the them as "social problems" or "victims". State's public responsibilities. In each historical circumstance, public policies will have to move carefully as if on a D. CONCLUDING REMARKS: cornice along the uncertain, unstable path FAMILY, PUBLIC POLICIES AND of that tension. PRIVATE SPACE On the other hand, the whole social edifice —both at the micro-social level of The relation between family dynamics the division of labour within the family and State intervention calls for a fresh look and at the social policy level— is based on at the dichotomy between public and another fundamental ideological private. In everyday life, the State and assumption: the gender-based division of various social agencies constantly labour, according to which the intervene, shaping the family and the roles woman/mother is always ready and within it, controlling its functioning, willing to organize and carry out setting limits and offering opportunities reproductive tasks, in relation to both her and options. This process is not confined husband and her children, but also, to extreme cases in which the State takes increasingly, in relation to her parents and parents to task, or even deprives them of her husband's parents. Rethinking public their parental rights, because of actions concerning the family entails negligence or abandonment of their introducing gender equity into all such children; it is also seen in countless, actions as one of their guiding criteria, in ongoing actions, both small and large, that order to redress situations that place an have direct or indirect effects on daily unfair burden on women. family practices. These include social Besides the specific field of gender policies such as population or equity within families, there are three reproductive health policies, educational broad areas in which Latin American programmes, housing schemes and social States should intervene in family relations security. There are also legal and juridical through explicit policies and legal reforms mechanisms for the defence of human with well-defined objectives and targets: rights (such as those of minors) and the the advancement of equity, defence of establishment of penalties, such as the human rights and promotion of group penalization of abortion and recognition solidarity. FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

1. Family and equity an individual's development of his or her potential as a person in different spheres The family is an institution that forms of social life (work, family, citizenship). future generations. In this sense, it These difficulties affect both the present mediates between the social structure at a and the future of young people, limiting given historical moment and the future of their capacities and prospects. Above all, that social structure. With no external damage is a process of personal intervention, it tends to transmit and deterioration caused by social factors reinforce existing patterns of inequality. If deriving from the individual's conflictual it is to promote a more equitable society, it or "needy" environment. However, this requires affirmative action by the State or must be further qualified. Although other collective actors. juveniles in all social classes are at risk, From the inheritance of property and poverty increases their vulnerability by wealth to the positive impact of the affording them fewer resources for "family educational environment" on the dealing with risk and less protection from educational levels of children and youth it. Instead of assuming, a priori, that the (studied by ECLAC, 1991), the family as an family is "good" or "bad", efforts to institution tends to perpetuate privileges address this problematic situation should for some and to reproduce the vicious focus on developing tools for identifying circle of poverty, marginality and violence the social contexts that protect from and for others. prevent damage. The family environment From an intergenerational perspec- can act in either direction, as the case may tive, then, the broadening of opportunities be: when there are values or privileges to that could generate more equity —in transmit, or when what is transmitted is terms of education, employment and neediness and vulnerability. In so far as living conditions in general— requires the family is always part of a broader affirmative action by the State, based on social context that includes the other early detection of populations at risk. The institutions to which young people following example illustrates this belong, the latter must compensate for perspective by exploring the potential deficiencies in its socialization capacity; interaction between State policies and hence the importance of designing the family as it affects children and integrated social policies in this field that youth. are not aimed exclusively at one symptom A number of social problems have a or one institution (the family, for tremendous impact on adolescents and example). juveniles: — in sexuality, AIDS and teenage 2. Human rights in the family: pregnancy; prevention and protection — in education and work, dropping out of school and unemployment; Today, this issue has become very — in the family, street children and concrete and direct. The various domestic violence; manifestations of domestic violence — in peer groups, gangs, violence and —bodily torture, sexual harassment and drug abuse. rape, psychological violence, limitations These phenomena are normally on freedom of movement (slavery)— thought of as separate "problem clearly violate basic human rights. Hidden behaviours" that should be addressed for centuries beneath the mantle of the individually. An alternative approach is to "privacy" of emotional life and patriarchal see a certain unity in these phenomena, authoritarianism, this violence has begun incorporating the notion of damage that to be brought out into the open in the past affects the life outlook of young people few decades. and tends to be cumulative. This damage Intensive efforts to promote respect consists of serious difficulties that impede for these basic rights are needed in order INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

to uphold the democratic rule of law. Such All of this indicates that the family is efforts require sweeping legislative losing some of its functions and is no changes (in the classification of marital longer a "total institution". From the violence, for example); changes in police standpoint of the individual, what action (more recognition of the crime and remains constant is not so much "the less blaming of the victim in cases of family" as a series of family ties between violence or rape); and preventive policies mothers and fathers and children; to protect citizens. between brothers and sisters; and with more distant relatives. These ascriptive bonds carry certain obligations and rights, 3. Family and social networks but they are relatively limited. The rest enters the realm of choice, becoming The profound changes in the family optional. during the twentieth century can be The fragility and limitations of family summed up in three major trends: ties do not imply a concomitant isolation or self-sufficient individualism. It is well i) The family's role as a unit of known that for physical, psychological production has been gradually and social well-being, the individual eliminated, owing to changes in the needs to be integrated in community production structure; social networks which contain and ii) Young people and women have channel affectivity and in which the developed their individuality and become capacity for solidarity and responsibility more autonomous, thereby weakening towards others comes into play; such patriarchal power, causing greater networks confer identity and meaning. temporary instability in the traditional While this function was basically fulfilled family structure and making more room by the family in the past, when no other for the expression of alternative options were available, today the limited individual choices; and partial character of family ties points to the need to promote and support the iii) The separation of sexuality from creation of alternative opportunities for procreation has led to diverse forms of sociability —i.e., alternative or com- sexual expression outside the family plementary intermediate organizations context and changes in the ways families that promote mutual recognition and are formed. democratic participation. INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berquó, Elza (1986), "Pirâmide da solidão?", document presented at the first meeting of the Brazilian Association on Population Studies (ABEP), unpublished. (1991), "O crescimento da população da América Latina e mudanças na fecundidade", Direitos reprodutivos, Sandra Azeredo and Verena Stolcke (eds.), São Paulo, Fundação Carlos Chagas. Carrillo, Roxana (1991), "La violencia contra la mujer: obstáculo para el desarrollo", Una nueva lectura: género en el desarrollo, Virginia Guzmán, Patricia Portocarrero and Virginia Vargas (eds.), Lima, Ediciones Flora Tristán. Chackiel, Juan and Susana Schkolnik (1990), "América Latina: transición de la fecundidad en el período 1950-1990", document presented at the Seminar on Fertility Transition in Latin America, Buenos Aires, 3-6 April, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP)/Latin American Demographic Centre (CELADE)/Centre for Population Studies (CENEP). Chesnais, Jean-Claude (1992), "The history of violence: homicide and suicide through the ages", International Social Science Journal, No. 132. De Oliveira, Orlandina and Brígida García (1991), "Jefas de hogar y violencia doméstica", Mexico City, El Colegio de México, unpublished. Donzelot, Jacques (1979), La policía de las familias, Valencia, Pre-Textos. ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) (1984), La mujer en el sector popular urbano: América Latina y el Caribe (LC/G.1326), Santiago, Chile. United Nations publication, Sales No. S.84.II.G.14. (1986a), Las mujeres latinoamericanas ¿tienen algo que decir frente a la crisis? (LC/R.486(Sem.30/9)), Santiago, Chile. (1986b), Transición estructural, movilidad ocupacional y crisis social en América Latina, 1960-1983 (LC/R.547), Santiago, Chile. (1986c), CEPAL Review, No. 29 (LC/G.1427), special issue on youth, Santiago, Chile. (1991), La equidad en el panorama social de América Latina durante los años ochenta (LC/G.1686), Santiago, Chile, October. (1992), Hacia un perfil de la familia actual en Latinoamérica y el Caribe (LC/R.1208; LC/DEM/R.153, series A, No. 247), Santiago, Chile. Fonseca, Claudia (1991), "Spouses, siblings and sex-linked bonding: a look at kinship organization in a Brazilian slum", Family, Household and Gender Relations in Latin America, Elizabeth Jelin (ed.), London, Routledge International. Grosman, Cecilia, S. Mesterman and M.T. Adamo (1989), Violencia en la familia, Buenos Aires, Editorial Universidad. Jelin, Elizabeth (1984), Familia y unidad doméstica. Mundo público y vida privada, Estudios CEDES series, Buenos Aires, Centre for Studies on the State and Society (CEDES). (ed.) (1991), Family, Household and Gender Relations in Latin America, London, Routledge International. Kaztman, Rubén (1992), "Why are men so irresponsible?", CEPAL Review, No. 46 (LC/G.1717-P), Santiago, Chile, April. Pantelides, Alejandra and Marcela S. Cerrutti (1992), Conducta reproductiva y embarazo en la adolescencia, Cuaderno del CENEP series, No. 47, Buenos Aires, Centre for Population Studies (CENEP). 54 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Rapp, Rayna and others (1979), "Examining family history", Feminist Studies, vol. 5, No. 1. Roberts, Bryan (1978), Cities of Peasants: The Political Economy of Urbanization in the Third World, London, E. Arnold. Romany, Celina (1993), "Women as aliens: a feminist critique of the public/private distinction in international human rights law", Harvard Human Rights Journal, in press. Stolcke, Verena (1991), "Derechos reproductivos", Direitos reprodutivos, Sandra Azeredo and Verena Stolcke (eds.), São Paulo, Fundação Carlos Chagas. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) (1986), The Invisible Adjustment: Poor Women and the Economic Crisis, Santiago, Chile, The Americas and the Caribbean Regional Office. United Nations (1989), Adolescent Reproductive Behaviour. Evidence from Developing Countries (ST/ESA/SER.A/109/Add.l), vol. 2, Population Studies series, No. 109, Add.l, New York. Weinstein, José, R. Aguirre and A. Tellez (1990), "Los jóvenes dañados: una revisión de las "conductas-problema" en la juventud popular", Los jóvenes en Chile hoy, Generación (eds.), Santiago, Chile, Centre for Educational Research and Development (CIDE) / Economic Research Corporation for Latin America (CIEPLAN) / Instituto para el Nuevo Chile (INCH)/Programa de Salud Integral de Pirque (PSI Pirque)/SUR profesionales consultores Ltda. INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

Annex

SOME CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATIONS: THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT, THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND PRIVATE LIFE

The first term that should be clarified constituted in relation to the public analytically is reproduction, which domain. Services, legislation and social comprises three dimensions or levels: control mechanisms, as well as more biological reproduction, which at the symbolic aspects, such as views on the family level means having children and at application of medical science, prevailing the societal level refers to the social images of the family and normality, socio-demographic aspects of fertility; and educational ideologies and daily reproduction, or the maintenance of institutions all help to define the sphere of the existing population through domestic action proper to the family and domestic tasks to provide for its subsistence; and life in each historical and cultural social reproduction, or all tasks other than situation. production aimed at maintaining the Critical analysis of this dualistic view social system. emphasizes the public and social A second set of analytical distinctions character, whether real or potential, of the should be drawn among the terms domestic activity carried out by women. residential group, family, domestic unit,In short, the domestic domain basically reproductive unit and economic unit. Thesincludee s activities of daily production and distinctions are very important for Latin consumption of food and other goods and America, where migration (initially) and services for subsistence, along with changes in marital stability (more activities connected with generational recently) have significantly affected the replacement, such as having children, interrelationships among these caring for them and socializing them —an dimensions. area of activity that takes shape and The distinction between the domestic changes in relation to other institutions and public domains is usually seen as a and spheres of society. sharp division of social reality. The The family, on the other hand, has a distinction between these two spheres biological substratum linked to sexuality has been identified with gender and procreation, and is therefore the social differentiation —men in charge of public institution that regulates, channels and tasks, women in charge of private and confers social and cultural meanings on domestic tasks— as though it were a these two needs. The family, moreover, is universal constant of social organization. included in a broader network of kinship Recent comparative anthropological relations, governed by established social research shows that the analytical model rules and patterns. The social importance based on the opposition between the private of the family, however, goes beyond its domestic domain/ivomen/powerlessness rolaned i n setting sexual and filial standards, the public domain/men/power is basically since it is the basis for recruiting domestic cultural and ideological in nature. In units. Empirically, most domestic units reality, the family and the domestic consist of members who are interrelated, domain are not a closed space, but are but the degree of coincidence between the 56 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. domestic unit and the family, and even relations, reciprocities, rights and duties, more, the social definition of the closeness which vary according to the stage of the (in terms of family relations) of the group life cycle of the person in question. More living together, vary notably from one systematically, the different members of a society to another and over the life cycle of domestic unit contribute in different ways its members. to the tasks of daily maintenance. In terms Recent studies in urban anthropology of both monetary resources and the have highlighted the importance of kinship personal time devoted to those tasks, each network for carrying out tasks connected member's contribution to common with the daily maintenance of the activity varies according to the kinds of members of domestic units. In the obligations and duties the person has contemporary urban world, the towards his or her own kinship network. composition of the domestic unit, always At the same time, domestic units are regulated by family ties, is the result of not necessarily at the core of all activities diverse processes that take place over the connected with the maintenance of their life cycle of its members. On the one hand, members. With regard to some areas of the composition of the future domestic consumption, especially for daily group is influenced by events linked to the maintenance —meals, personal hygiene, formation of the family, including cleaning, etc.— the domestic group seems marriages, separations, births and deaths, to be the basic social unit. But needs in as well as relocations, migrations and other areas, such as health care, housing other accidents or decisions in specific and domestic equipment, can be met by circumstances. On the other hand, units that are larger (kinship, changes in the economic and political neighbourhood or community networks) situation —and especially in social or smaller (isolated individuals) than the policies— at the time of these life-cycle domestic unit itself. In the generational transitions influence domestic reproduction of the population, family organization at each specific moment, relations, whether or not they coincide and this in turn affects its later with the domestic group, are the dynamics. fundamental social relations. Thus, even though most domestic The boundaries of the domestic unit groups are composed of persons with and the family are highly permeable. The immediate family ties between them, the degree of involvement in and inclusion or exclusion of certain members commitment to the activities of the is not determined exclusively by the domestic unit does not vary by chance. closeness of kinship, nor can it be There are social conventions that explained solely by the current situation of differentiate each member's expected the members of the domestic unit. Parents commitment according to his or her place whose children do not live with them but in terms of age, sex and kinship with the who are in charge of children of more or other members. What is expected of a less close relatives, and patterns of dual small daughter changes as she becomes an residency (children of separated parents, adolescent and, of course, differs from for example, or grandparents who rotate what is expected of a male adolescent. among the households of their children), Likewise, different patterns of behaviour are common phenomena that should be are expected of the mother, father, taken into account by policy makers. siblings, uncles, aunts and grandparents. The difference between domestic In other words, even though the social units and kinship units, in turn, points to institution of the family as the centre of another key problem: by definition, affectivity is the same for all its members, kinship bonds that reach beyond the unit it has different meanings and is are different for each household member, experienced in very distinct ways by since each one has his or her own kinship individuals of different sexes, ages and network, with its system of mutual social classes. INTRAFAMILY RELATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

Certain resources are necessary in summarizes theelementsofthisprocess: order to carry out activities relating to Domestic activities fall into two major need satisfaction. The domestic unit must categories: production, which requires devise mechanisms for obtaining or organization of the division of labour, and creating, defending and constantly consumption, or the organization of the reproducing and administering those distribution of goods and services to meet resources. The domestic unit's needs. Decisions about the division of consumption and reproduction activities labour are based on the view of when and are not limited to the tasks of processing how much each member of the family can the goods produced and selling them in and should work; that is, which ones the market-place. The provision of should contribute to the activities that collective goods and services is a very support the group and when. Changes in important input for those activities. The domestic roles are linked to life-cycle provision of services by the State —which transitions, which determine when a boy involves identifying those services and (or more frequently, a girl) should help their users and determining when to with domestic chores or obtain paid work, provide them and at what cost— or when an older person should stop historically has been a battleground for working outside or within the household. the struggle to incorporate all social Decisions on consumption revolve sectors into the benefits and rights around how to organize expenditure or inherent in social citizenship. the family budget in terms of what is Differences in access (and in the need for spent, what the priorities are and who access) to these services historically have controls and decides. Internal been a salient feature in the definition of organization, control and discipline are social class. needed. These tasks are traditionally Resources can come from different assigned to the woman-housewife, but a sources —the labour and direct efforts of woman's responsibility for domestic household members, official transfers organization does not always give her from institutions accredited for that authority and power. purpose (especially the State) and The domestic unit is distinguished informal transfers based on exchange and from other organizations by the kinds of mutual aid networks. They can also take incentives used to motivate the members the form of money or of goods or services to carry out assigned tasks, since they for direct use. The following table bring affection and solidarity into play.

Kind of resource Source Monetary Non-monetary

Work of the members of the Participation in the work- Domestic production domestic unit force

Indirect official transfers Pensions, retirement funds Access to public services, social services, subsidies

Informal transfers from Mutual aid based on relatives and neighbours reciprocity and barter 58 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Indeed, the basic criterion that convinces the ideological pillars on which this members to participate in common tasks process of moral persuasion is based; the by contributing earned income to the mother's selflessness, the father's family budget and /or helping out with responsibility and the child's obedience domestic work is not the individual's are the traditional social values utilitarian calculation of the costs and underpinning the incentive system. These benefits of living together; instead, traditional values, based on an ideological predominantly moral appeals have to be view of the division of labour between made to different members according to genders and generations as "natural", are their place in the structure of the domestic now in crisis in the modern family, where unit. In fact, the classification of gender the effect of democratic and egalitarian roles (the man as the "family head" who values is beginning to be felt and is calling provides resources and the woman who for a change, which will always be charged takes care of the household and children) with deep feelings and desires that find and the system of duties and obligations their expression in highly personalized between parents and children constitute social relations. Chapter III

STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION ANALYSIS OF THE CARIBBEAN FAMILY

A. BACKGROUND family types. In terms of structural composition, the following have been The population of nearly all of the identified: 13 countries of the English-speaking Caribbean, from the Bahamas in the north i) the standard nuclear family, to Guyana in the south, and from Belize in comprising an adult man (usually the west to Barbados in the east, is designated its head), his wife and predominantly African in ethnic origin. their children; Only in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana is this predominance superseded by ii) a unit comprising a woman and her another ethnic group —Indians, in both children; cases— owing to migration and higher rates of reproduction over the last 150 years. The iii) a unit comprising an adult man, main focus of this chapter is therefore the his wife, their children and some African-Caribbean family, but due grandchildren; reference is also made to its Indian counterpart, not least because of important iv) a unit headed by a woman and differences in both structure and functions. including her children and No area of Caribbean studies has been grandchildren; the subject of more discussion and debate than the African-Caribbean family. The v) structural variations of all of these main question that has dogged the issue four, to include members of the wider for some 50 years is how, in describing it, kinship group at any generational to explain its apparent dysfunction. level —siblings, cousins, nieces What does the African-Caribbean and nephews, grandnieces and family look like? How does it discharge its grandnephews of the mother and/or functions as an agent of socialization and father; social stability? vi) units that incorporate in-laws, stepchildren and other children and B. STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES adults not related by kinship to the other occupants. 1. Family structure Census data, however, only partially To begin with, observers and students reflect this degree of variation, as shown are confronted with a multiplicity of by table 1. 60 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Table 1 Regarding conjugal relationships, a JAMAICA: POPULATION ACCORDING TO similar mixture of types is apparent: RELATIONSHIP TO HEAD OF — legal marriage HOUSEHOLD — common-law marriage or con- cubinage Per- — visiting unions Relation Frequency cent- age — single persons. Legal marriage is established and recognized by law, whereas common-law 1. Head 508,938 23.5 marriage is established by simple consent 2. Spouse/partner 228,829 10.5 and recognized by folk custom. Legal 3. Child of head or spouse 813,351 37.5 marriage may not be annulled except by a court of law, whereas common-law 4. Spouse of child 10,025 0.5 marriage may be annulled by mutual 5. Grandchild 230,398 10.6 consent or by the decision of one of the 6. Parent of head or spouse 17,204 0.8 parties. Legal and common-law marriages are co-residential, but visiting unions are 7. Other relative 180,665 8.3 not. Sexual relations are maintained from 8. Other 82,123 3.8 the respective domiciles of the partners, 9. Not stated 96,127 4.5 usually their parental homes. The term "single" refers to persons who are no TOTAL 2,167,660 100.0 longer or have never been engaged in any sexual union. Source: Population census of Jamaica, 1982. Table 2 ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN This table does not reveal the structure (3 COUNTRIES): TYPE AND PROPORTION of Jamaican households, but it gives a clear OF HOUSEHOLDS AS PERCENTAGES picture of the variety of relationships OF POPULATION found in them: 24%, or nearly one quarter, of all Jamaicans are not directly related to Percentage of: the head of the household in which they Country Household type House- Popula- live (categories 4 to 8). These are known as holds tion extended households. Barbados Nuclear 65.1 50.9 Other Caribbean countries provide Extended 28.3 40.2 census data on types of households, as Composite 6.6 8.9 shown in table 2. Total 100.0 100.0 Table 2 shows that the proportion of Guyana Nuclear 62.8 52.7 nuclear households exceeds that of Extended 32.6 41.1 extended households by a ratio of two to Composite 4.2 5.2 one; however, in terms of population, each Not stated 0.4 1.0 type accounts for roughly half. The Total 100.0 100.0 "composite" category refers to nuclear Saint Lucia Nuclear 61.3 49.6 households that include non-relatives Extended 31.2 41.0 (e.g., boarders). Composite 7.5 9.4 In short, African-Caribbean family Total 100.0 100.0 structure appears, at first glance, to be a complex amalgam of different types of Source: Population census of Barbados, 1980; population census of Guyana, 1980; and household arrangements. population census of Saint Lucia, 1980. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 61

Table 3 shows that, except in Guyana from there to the problems of deviance and Trinidad and Tobago, between one and a breakdown of social order which quarter and one third of all women over now threaten many countries of the the age of 14 are legally married, an even region. The family has been blamed for larger proportion are living without a many of the ills of society. spouse, one or two out of every ten are The earliest studies of the living in a common-law relationship and African-Caribbean family saw the a handful maintain visiting arrangements. multiplicity of household and mating The distribution is somewhat different in forms as manifestations of the sexual Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, where irresponsibility of the Caribbean male, Indians make up the largest segment of the which had been shaped by the chaos and population. These countries show the anomie of slavery but continued as a result highest frequency of marriage and lowest of the economic hardships of the frequency of visiting unions. Indian post-emancipation period. One result of it cultural tradition in these two countries was a deficient family life, in which the encourages early marriage, although main burden for the upbringing and younger generations of women, taking maintenance of children fell on the advantage of the upward mobility mother. Simey (1946), Henriques (1952) provided by the education system, are and Clarke (1957) were all influenced by marrying later. the work of E. Franklin Frazier (1951), Table 3 whose study rejected the contention of Melville Herskovits (1941 and 1947) that ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN illegitimacy and matriarchy among (6 COUNTRIES): PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALES AGED African-Americans were survivals of 14 YEARS AND OVER, BY TYPE OF traditions derived from the polygamous CONJUGAL UNION mating patterns in continental Africa, and instead propounded the view that African-American family structure was a Visit- Common- progeny of slavery and its aftermath. Country Married ing Single law Clarke, however, felt that the conditions union under slavery which Frazier had Barbados 32.4 10.2 3.5 48.5 identified as the source of this pathological Grenada 28.6 13.0 7.3 45.9 state still existed in the present. In this Guyana 48.1 9.1 2.7 35.2 regard, she was supported by scholars such Jamaica3 25.3 16.2 2.8 14.2 as Cumper (1958), who demonstrated the Saint Lucia 29.5 16.1 6.5 43.4 instability of mating patterns and family Trinidad and structure on sugar plantations. Tobago 45.7 12.6 1.7 37.3 Thus, both under slavery and in the present, the various forms of mating, such Source: Population census of Jamaica, 1982, and 1980 as "faithful concubinage", the population censuses in the rest of the countries. a "companionate" and "disintegrated" The "not stated" column, which is on the order of 4% to 5%, has been omitted, and hence the percentages do families (Simey, 1946) or the "maternal or not add up to 100%. Since the "not stated" category for grandmother" and "keeper" families Jamaica amounted to 41.5%, the figures should be (Henriques, 1953), were influenced by viewed with caution. economic and social conditions. Thus, owing to the nature of both the It was not until the publication of the kinship relations among the residents of anthropological studies of R.T. Smith households and the conjugal bonds (1956) and M.G. Smith (1962) and the between men and women, the demographic analyses of George Roberts African-Caribbean family appears to be a (1955 and 1979) that the different types of loose and temporary arrangement which families or households made sense when is unlikely to fulfil its primary role of put in a diachronic perspective. The two socializing the young, and it is only a step Smiths took opposite approaches, but 62 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. reached the same conclusion: that people World Fertility Survey (WFS) carried out first mate extra-residentially at a very in Jamaica in 1974-1975, Harewood (1984) early age, then cohabit consensually, and calculated that the average number of in later life go on to legalize their unions partners for women in visiting unions was through marriage. This process was 2.4, which is to say that the "average" woman validated statistically by Roberts (1955), would have had two or three partners by the using age cohort data from Jamaica's 1943 time she changed her union type. census; later by Roberts and Braithwaite Though they do not constitute clear (1961), using survey data from Trinidad evidence of stability in these unions, the and Tobago; and again by Roberts (1975), results of one nationally conducted using 1960 census data for Jamaica, random sample survey of men aged 18 Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Saint and over are instructive: nearly 40% had Vincent and the Grenadines. As Roberts only one babymother1 and 30% had none puts it, women enter "keeper", or visiting, at all (Chevannes, 1985). Using a relationships at around the age of 19 or 20; clinic-based sample, Brody (1981) found some of them go on to marry, while others that half the mothers surveyed were still go on to cohabit in common-law unions. living with the father of their first child at Eventually, a majority of women in the the time of the interview, and more than latter group get married. half the men in the sample were in a It seems, then, that African- common-law or legal marriage with the Caribbeans practice a form of mating that mother of their second and subsequent results in family relationships that move children. He concluded that the pattern of from structural instability —because the impregnation by the men represented a unions can be and usually are dissolved at movement towards conjugal stability. will by the partners after some time Dann (1987) drew similar conclusions for together—to structural stability. Barbados. Thus, R.T. Smith's earlier contention (1963, p. 36) that extra- 2. The conjugal cycle residential mating was a means by which men avoided responsibility is not a) Visiting unions supported by more current data. His later position (1988) sees the outside Visiting unions mark the formal relationship and ideal of marriage as beginning of the mating cycle. Whereas functions of class, and the resulting premarital sexual relations are established kinship system as a successful means of in secret, visiting relations are, as M.G. humanizing a dehumanizing system of Smith noted, carried on in public. They slavery, racism and economic exploitation give the male exclusive sexual rights, a and creating bridges of identity across the "sine qua non of determinate paternity" gulf of class differences. (M.G. Smith, 1962, p. 251). Public Table 4 shows the incidence of visiting recognition implies social sanction. Yet, unions in Jamaica, as given by Roberts and like common-law unions, but unlike legal Sinclair, for the census years 1960 and marriage, this kind of union may be 1970, using the union status of females dissolved at will. This is the source of its between the ages of 15 and 44. apparent instability. The table shows that eight or nine out One of the first problems, therefore, is of every ten females aged 15 to 19 who are determining the degree of instability of the in some type of union are in a visiting visiting type of union. Using data from the union.2 The remaining one or two are

1 "Babymother" is a folk term meaning "mother of one's baby"; i.e., the mother of a man's child or children. Similarly, "babyfather" refers to the father of a woman's child or children. 2 In considering this table, it should be borne in mind that the incidence of visiting unions throughout the whole population is generally low, as indicated in table 3, which presents data for all women aged 15 and over. What is significant here is the trend that becomes apparent when the data are arranged according to age. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 63 either married, in a common-law communities as well" (Rubenstein, 1977, relationship or no longer living with their p. 209). partner. The proportion who are in a Up to the 1950s, when the category visiting union drops sharply over the next "single" covered both the truly single and 10 years, by three or four out of ten up to those in visiting unions, Roberts (1955) age 24, and by a further two or three up to estimated the average age of marriage by age 29. By the age of 34, slightly over 20% single persons at 29.8 years for males and of all women in unions are in visiting 26.1 for females. He calculated that the relationships. Harewood (1984), working average male, by age 55, had been single with WFS data collected a few years after for some 15 years and married (legally the 1970 census, on which Roberts's and/or by common law) for nearly 25. He figures are based, presented similar calculated the corresponding figures for findings, namely that only one third of the females aged 15 to 45 as 14.5 and 15.5 women who had originally entered a years, respectively. visiting relationship were still in that Once blamed as being the source of union type by age 29, most having shifted Jamaica's population explosion, visiting to common-law marriage. unions have long since been recognized as the least fertile of the three union types Table 4 (Roberts, 1955 and 1975; Cumper, 1966; JAMAICA: FREQUENCY OF VISITING Roberts and Sinclair, 1978; Harewood, UNIONS, BY AGE COHORT, 1984; Charbit, 1984), presumably because 1960 AND 1970 they involve the lowest level of exposure (Percentages) to coitus. This assumption was proved correct by Roberts (1978, pp. 69-70), despite the small aggregates. Among Age group 1960 1970 women under 25 years of age, the monthly average frequency of intercourse was 6.71, compared to 7.04 for common-law wives 15-19 89.2 86.8 and 12.44 for legally married wives. 20-24 52.5 54.8 Lightbourne (1970 and 1984) and 25-29 29.9 30.2 Lightbourne and Singh (1982) do not dispute this characteristic of visiting 21.2 19.7 30-34 unions for earlier periods, but argue that 35-39 17.7 14.9 later advances in contraceptive 40-44 16.1 13.3 technology have reduced the advantage of visiting unions, so that in the 10 years prior Source: George W. Roberts and Sonja Sinclair, Women to 1975 the difference vis-à-vis marital in Jamaica, New York, KTO Press, 1978. unions was reduced in the 20-24 age group, had disappeared in the 25-29 age What, then, of the transition to other group and was reversed in the 30-44 conjugal forms? When does it occur? It age group. Moreover, Lightbourne (1984, should be mentioned that the general p. 121) argues that there is proof that entry consensus on a^sequential conjugal into new partnerships raises slightly "a pattern has been challenged by one woman's likelihood of wanting another anthropologist, who charges that it is birth, has little effect on her likelihood of methodologically wrong to use using contraception for stopping reasons, synchronic data to infer diachronic but is associated with substantially lower patterns (Rubenstein, 1977). However, not likelihood of using contraception to only is he unable to explain the high postpone the next birth and involves a synchronic rate of visiting unions in lower considerable likelihood of being age groups; he is least convincing when he pregnant". suggests "that early marriage is the norm But, he acknowledges, the effect is in other lower-class Afro-Caribbean rural marginal. It thus remains to be seen 64 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. whether the changes which the author under the age of 19. There is no evidence claims to observe in the relative fertility of to suggest that adolescent pregnancy is a visiting unions are confirmed as new phenomenon; quite the contrary. authoritatively as the fact that visiting Early sexuality, which is valued among unions are the least fertile. Even if such both males and females, begins between changes were substantiated, they would the ages of 14 and 15 for boys, and 16 and affect the fertility differential, not the 17 for girls. By the time adolescents reach frequency of coitus, which would remain the age of 18 or 19, a majority have already lowest of all. had their first sexual encounter and It would indeed be futile to deny that become sexually active. Teenage social and economic changes can have an pregnancy, far from being anomalous, has impact on the mating pattern. There is been quite normal in the Caribbean. evidence that visiting unions are inversely Also contributing to the tendency associated with the couple's level of towards early pregnancy is the cultural education (Boland, 1983; Harewood, value placed on childbirth as the ultimate 1984). The lower the level of education, the fulfilment of womanhood. In a culture higher the frequency of visiting unions as without any traditional rite of transition, the initial type of relationship. However, having a child becomes a way of asserting Roberts and Sinclair (1978) observe thai the change in status from girl to woman. people in common-law relationships What has made teenage pregnancy a show the lowest levels of education, and vexing problem for families is the halt that that this trend was first established as far it brings to a girl's pursuit of a career, and back as the 1943 census. Data from hence her upward mobility and that of her MacFarlane and Warren (1989) support family. She inevitably drops out of school this latter contention: the highest and is unable to resume, even when the proportion of visiting unions is found family absorbs the newborn, as is the among secondary-school graduates. norm. The visiting type of mating still has a Understanding the important cultural number of disadvantages for women, one need to prove one's womanhood, some being the man's ability to deny paternity experts have argued for institutional or to escape his obligations. This, no arrangements that would make it possible doubt, was at the root of R.T. Smith's for young mothers to get on with their (1963) earlier charge of avoidance of lives. Notable in this regard is the initiative responsibility. But Roberts and Sinclair in Jamaica known as the Women's Centre, (1978) argue that these unions entail which operates a rehabilitation advantages as well: independence and programme for teenage mothers. The freedom from male dominance. Centre counsels both expectant mothers In sum, visiting unions mark the and fathers, rebuilds their self-esteem, formal start of the conjugal or mating continues the girls' education during process, though there is evidence to pregnancy and obtains places for them in warrant giving this place to casual mating. other secondary schools. The success of However, to borrow from Rubin (1978, the programme may be judged by a p. xx), visiting unions are neither as consistent repeat pregnancy rate of less promiscuous as the moralists say, nor as than 4%, and expansion of the programme unstable as the structuralists say, nor as to various urban areas of Jamaica and responsible for high fertility rates as the other countries. family planners say. Teenage pregnancy has declined One factor that led some observers to steadily over the past two decades, though assume, incorrectly, that visiting unions it remains high in some countries, such as were the most fertile was the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where characteristically early start of 37% of all live births have been to child-bearing in the Caribbean. Roughly adolescents. This decline seems connected one quarter of all live births are to women to the decline in the overall birth rate. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 65

Antigua's crude birth rate declined from sexual relationships with women other 21.68 in 1976 to 13.93 in 1988. Saint Kitts than their main partner. Such and Nevis showed a reduction from 43.14 relationships are called "outside in 1960 to 23.32 in 1985. In Saint Lucia, the relationships" and seem to be a function of rate fell by one third, to 21.40, over the the male's economic ability to maintain seven years between 1982 and 1989. them. Outside relationships are found Nevertheless, there are indications that among men of all ages, but available sustained attention to the problem of evidence shows that they are most teenage pregnancy may have been frequent among young adults. responsible for reducing the proportion of live births to adolescents in Jamaica from c) Legal marriage 30% to 25% between 1977 and 1988. Marriage represents the culmination of the conjugal cycle which begins with b) Common-law marriage visiting unions. As indicated above, it is usually entered into from the middle of The next stage in the mating cycle the female reproductive cycle onwards begins when a man and woman take up —a little later for males, a little earlier for common residence. The common-law females. union retains the voluntary and informal The first point established about character of the visiting type, but assumes marriage is its legal character. It bestows the form of legal marriage through its certain rights and lays certain obligations co-residential nature. Recently, in Jamaica, on the contracting parties. it has won some legal recognition, in that Second, from the social point of view, the surviving spouse of such a union may marriage confers higher social standing on make claims to the estate of her partner, the parties. This is a constant throughout provided that the union lasted no less than the literature on the subject, which reveals five years. that status is acquired not just through the Notwithstanding this recent change, act of marrying itself, but also through the common-law marriage has the lowest conditions attending it, the first and status when measured against foremost of which is the economic socio-economic indicators (Roberts and advancement of the male. This condition Sinclair, 1978), and is therefore the explains the relative lateness of marriage predominant type among the poor observed by all scholars, and the elaborate peasantry. Legal marriage is an ideal to wedding expenses usually incurred by the which most common-law partners aspire, parties. and in this respect the common-law union A third point is the dominance of the is ideally also a transitional type. male in marriage. The husband-father, as The highest proportion of described by Clarke (1957), is the common-law unions —more than one undisputed authority in the household. In third— is in the 25-29 age group among the sexual division of labour, he meets the women (Roberts and Sinclair, 1978). family's economic requirements, while However, the average age of transition the wife assumes responsibility for all from other types of unions to marriage is routine domestic work. Perhaps for this 34 years for females and 42 for males reason, married males participate less in (Roberts, 1955). domestic work than males in the other two In more recent years, common-law union types (Chevannes, 1985). Moreover, unions have replaced marriage as the most the former are less likely to use fertile type of union (Boland, 1983; contraceptives than the latter. Why men Harewood, 1984). who would have been willing to carry out Very little is known of sexual relations certain kinds of domestic work in earlier at this stage of the conjugal cycle. Many union types resist these duties once men —up to half of the sexually active they are married is one aspect of male population— engage in regular gender-segregated roles that needs 66 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. further study. However, if marriage of mating", meaning that the middle and entails respectability in the eyes of society lower classes practice the same mating —as Edith Clarke, R.T. Smith and others patterns, though "the proportion of have demonstrated— and if gender role common-law and visiting unions expectations run along the private increases as one moves from the (female)-public (male) axis —as Powell established middle class to the lower (1986) and others have pointed out—, then class". it is not surprising that the union Under the weight of these and similar conferring the most respectability will at arguments, the issue of irresponsibility the same time be the most markedly and illegitimacy has disappeared from segregated by gender roles. scientific literature. Even the amount of Fourth, until contraceptives were economic support provided by absent introduced in recent times, marital unions fathers is shown by Stycos and Back (1964) showed higher fertility rates than either to be far greater than generally assumed. common-law or visiting unions. As However, a more detailed discussion of mentioned earlier, this feature now male behaviour is given below. characterizes common-law unions. The African-Caribbean peoples have a The conjugal cycle that comprises a family structure that is culturally transition from visiting to common-law to acceptable. From their point of view, the marital unions is undoubtedly cultural. important principle underlying their Roberts (1955, p. 199), who argued against concept of family is neither residence nor the view that it was pathological, showed domestic economy, but consanguinity, or with Lloyd Braithwaite that mating as they say, blood. Family members are patterns were different among East those who are bilaterally related by Indians in the same population (Roberts descent from a common ancestor. Each and Braithwaite, 1962), among whom the person's family thus has two distinct rate of marriage was consistently higher; branches: one established through the with Sinclair (1978), he argued that the mother, the other through the father. The pattern had been the same since two overlap and unite only through the emancipation in 1838. Reviewing the 1970 siblings of a person's own generation by census data, he compared nuptiality rates the same parents. This blood principle is in Caribbean islands where the effective at two levels: one functional, the concentration of Africans was over 90% other symbolic. Functionally, it entails a with those in islands where it ranged from moral obligation to render assistance 60% to 90% and where it was less than when called upon to do so. The main form 60%. He found that "where Negro such assistance takes is child-rearing and concentration is highest the marriage other domestic arrangements. In this way, pattern is overwhelmingly one of low many household units have come to be proportions at ages under 20, with composed and structured in the various pronounced rises, so that at the ways described above. At the same time, childbearing period well in excess of one once socialization and upbringing have half of the women are married. Where been completed, and children have proportions of Negroes fall below 60% "passed the worst", all obligations cease marriage is throughout the age scale a and only the symbolic aspect of the blood much more prominent feature and the principle remains. increase with rising age means that at the The most important symbolic close of the childbearing period the institutional arrangement deriving from proportions reach 70% [...]" (Roberts, 1979, the blood principle is family land, which p. 257). is owned corporately by all cognatic As far as class is concerned, R.T. Smith descendants of an ancestor for their use. A (1988, pp. 112 and 377) argues that the non-marketable asset, it is held in differences observed concern the "rate of customary tenure established by oral occurrence and not a difference in systems tradition. Characteristically, family land is STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 67 small, but whether small or large it is a the child"; conversely, the father is "always productive source of revenue not for the more strict, more exacting and infinitely family members as a whole, since the less well-known" (Edith Clarke, 1957, family does not function as a corporation, pp. 158-159); fathers entertained great but for individual members. Since such hopes for their children, but these were individual use is often the subject of internal attainable only among the most feuds, family land tends to be underused well-to-do. from the viewpoint of production. A man's authority within the family As a symbol, however, family land derives from his status as husband and bestows on the family members a sense of father, since his main function is that of identity and solidarity. Where family land provider. If he is unable to fulfil his role as is at the same time the site of the provider, he will be unable to assert his household, a burial plot established authority over his wife and children. If he within the yard serves as a visible link does not live with his children, he between the living and the dead members effectively relinquishes his rights as their of the family. Growing urbanization father. However, this does not imply a throughout the Caribbean, however, total breakdown. As R.T. Smith notes, threatens this important symbol of family. "there is the general social acceptance that every individual has both a mother and a father" (1970, p. 134). As an ideal, this C FUNCTIONS means that even if the father is not present, he is identified and recognized. The child's Failure to think of the African-Caribbean contact with him is maintained through family in terms of anything but the nuclear visits if he lives in the same village, or family model has led many to overlook the through presents from him. It is therefore crucial fact that, as Raymond T. Smith has not normal for a child to be without a pointed out, it accomplishes its socializing father. Second, children are never without function. It does this primarily through father-substitutes, for every woman will role expectations that are segregated by have some semi-permanent liaisons with gender. Fathers are expected to "mind" one or several men. Third, fathers are their children —that is, to provide mainly providers, seldom acting as economic support— while mothers are enforcers of discipline; though they head expected to "care" for them —that is, to their households, they are "on the fringe of provide emotional support. the effective ties which bind the group The prime socializing agent, then, is together" (1970, p. 223). It is the woman as the mother. She is the stabilizing influence mother around whom activities in the in the African-Caribbean family. One of household are centred. In this respect, the the earliest studies, Edith Clarke's My family is "matrifocal". Mother who Fathered Me, linked the Thus, mothers —not fathers— are the different types of mating and family main socializing agents for both male and composition to the family's economic female children, regardless of the circumstances. The wealthiest of the three structure of the family or type of marital communities studied showed high rates of union. Because fathers or father-figures marriage and pronounced patriarchal function mainly as providers, they tend to relations, while the poorest showed a low be marginal in the day-to-day incidence of marriage, a higher rate of relationships of the household, though not mother-centredness and little male entirely absent. The poorer and more involvement in the home. Nevertheless, materially deprived men are, the greater Clarke found that, regardless of class their marginality, and the greater the role differences, children's most intimate of women as well. Conversely, the better relationship was with the mother, "even in off they are, the more active they tend to those cases where the father is present and be as sources of patriarchal authority over associates himself with the upbringing of their spouse and children. 68 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Since the problems associated with the "I would feel no good as a man" family structure are assumed to emanate "Like a eunuch" from the husband-father, it may be useful "I would feel haunted" to cite some of the findings of Brown and "Like I am wasting my time" others (1993) about the role of men in the "Jealous of others who have" family. Conducted in two rural and two "I would run away from my wife" urban communities in Jamaica, the study Other adjectives included: useless, clarifies a number of important concepts empty, lonely, embarrassed, irrespon- at the heart of family relations. First, with sible, unbalanced, strange (Powell, 1986, respect to headship, it reinforces earlier p. 139). findings that in the Caribbean, women Fathering children was described by will defer headship to men even when the men as a moral duty and a law of they themselves are financial contributors nature, "since children were part of the to or de facto managers of the household,3 man" (Powell, 1986, p. 161). Some but also establishes that "a man's firm and respondents likened impregnation to respected place in the family as rightful disturbing children where they were, and head is attached to the condition of therefore felt that they carried the greater economic support" (Powell, 1986, p. 61). responsibility for their children's life. Economic support is his main As far as the content of fathering goes, responsibility. Even his manhood, both apart from meeting economic needs, a men and women in the study agree, is large majority of the men in the sample linked to it (Brown and others, 1993). claimed to play with their children and Second, men distinguish "having" a counsel them every day. Between 40% and child from "getting" one. Having a child 50% stayed with them daily; a slightly means accepting responsibility as the smaller proportion helped them with father —i.e., the obligation to provide—, homework, and approximately one third whereas getting a child merely establishes tidied them —both as daily chores. unwanted paternity. To have a child is to The authors' most disturbing finding become father to it. Fatherhood is was the neglect of outside children; that is, therefore both biological and social and is children born outside the current union. critical to men's self-esteem. Three When fathers had only outside children, quarters of the men surveyed reported their frequency of contact was higher than that "they would have negative in cases where they also had inside self-assessments if they had been unable children. Thus, the neglect of outside to father children, while the proportion children was associated with the presence who said that having children had of inside children. Considering that a changed their lives ranged from 64 percent majority of the men had at least one to 87 percent" (Brown and others, 1993, outside child, since 45% of the total sample pp. 138-139). had two or more babymothers, the The powerful and even primordial magnitude of the problem is apparent. feelings which men had about fatherhood And although, as indicated above, it came tumbling out in response to the should not be assumed that outside question of how they thought they would children are deprived of father- feel if they had no children. This intensity substitutes, the pressure that this places on was evident from the language in which single mothers is great indeed. they phrased their replies: With respect to one-parent "I would feel like a bird without a wing" households, a comparison between the "I would feel like a tree in a forest total proportion of heads of household without leaves" and the percentage who are working

3 "For the large majority of women in unions, the male spouse is head. Based on these figures, the conclusion is that female headship is confined largely to households in which a man in the role of husband/partner is absent" (Powell, 1986, p. 104). STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 69 conveys an idea of the type of pressure such a state of affairs because it affords that besets women who have to assume them independence from male control. the role of both main provider and Nevertheless, for the sake of the children, nurturer of their children. Table 5 shows some women revert to other unions. that approximately four out of every ten This is where the family, in the sense households are headed by women. But discussed above, becomes a buttress of whereas most male heads of household support. Children may be sent to stay with are employed (two thirds in Jamaica, three grandparents, older siblings, uncles, aunts quarters in Barbados and between eight or other blood relatives, including their and nine out of ten in Saint Lucia and own fathers, until the situation improves Guyana), only a minority of female heads or on a permanent basis. have jobs (one quarter in Barbados, one Given the tendency of visiting and third in Jamaica and Guyana and between common-law unions to break up in the four and five out of ten in Saint Lucia). As early child-bearing years, a cultural indicated above, female headship usually pattern may correctly be inferred from it, implies the absence or lack of a male which sociologists and demographers partner. It can therefore be inferred that calculate at roughly one third. Rates the burden on female heads as a group is higher than this, however, tend to be especially severe. associated with increased impoverish- ment, as many unions become casualties Table 5 of men's failure to live up to their expected ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN role as providers. In Jamaica, where nearly (4 COUNTRIES): HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD 30% of the population lives in the ACCORDING TO GENDER AND Kingston metropolitan area, the EMPLOYMENT STATUS proportion of household heads who are (Percentages) female rose to 44% during the 1980s, while in the inner-city area, characterized by substandard housing, overcrowding, high Total Employed Country Male Female Male Female unemployment and crime, the proportion rose to 52%. Many of these inner-city Barbados 56.0 44.0 75.3 24.7 areas, which house the indigent and Guyana 76.0 24.0 84.0 34.5 destitute, "are now more closely Jamaica 62.0 38.0 66.0 37.0 connected to the illegal underground Saint Lucia 61.0 39.0 83.0 43.0 Brooklyn economy than they are to the Jamaican economy" (Robotham, 1991, Source: Population censuses, 1980, and population p. 11). The reference, of course, is to drug census of Jamaica, 1982. trafficking. Not surprisingly, the greatest As a phenomenon, female headship problems identified by inner-city arises from two sources. One is the longer residents are unemployment and lack of life expectancy of females. Households housing. that become female-headed in this way are These conditions pose great problems usually vertically extended —the in the socialization process. Studies "grandmother household" described by carried out over the years by both the earliest generation of scholars. The undergraduate and postgraduate other source is the breakup of unions and students in the Faculty of Education at the the women's failure to establish new ones. Mona campus of the University of the These households may or may not be West Indies link poor primary- and nuclear, though the younger the head, the secondary-school performance with more likely it is that the household will impoverished conditions at home. Poor comprise only the woman and her school performance generally leads to children. Subsequent establishment of a poor preparation for the labour market, visiting relationship does nothing to alter and this in turn reproduces another female headship, and many women prefer generation of poor people. When mothers 70 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. are also the sole providers, the problem is has had to be renegotiated following worsened by the large number of children. European unification in 1992. Unable to exercise parental guidance and During the 1980s the external debt to provide adequately, these parents leave increased significantly throughout the children to their own devices. Many boys Caribbean. Jamaica's total external debt drop out of school and become street mounted to US$ 4.5 billion, or US$ 1,800 children; their sisters become the per capita. Its debt service ratio in 1989 girlfriends of men of means. was in excess of 40% of export revenue. With a population of 70,000, Antigua saw its debt rise to US$ 422 million, but the D. POLITICAL ECONOMY country has managed to keep its debt OF THE FAMILY service to 8.9% of GDP. Debt service in other countries ranges from a mere 4% to All of the Caribbean economies are based over 13%. on the production and export of primary commodities: sugar and bananas, but also 1. Structural adjustment bauxite. Sugar has been the mainstay for 300 years and was the reason for European All the Caribbean countries have had enslavement of the Africans in the first to undergo structural adjustment place and indentureship of the Indians programmes, most of them voluntary. The and Chinese throughout the nineteenth programmes entail cut-backs in public- century. Sugar production was sector employment, privatization of plantation-based. Banana production, public entities, liberalization of import which started in the final decades of the restrictions and elimination of subsidies, nineteenth century, became an important among other things. Both Jamaica (over source of development for the peasantry, the past 15 years) and Trinidad and a relationship that has continued up the Tobago (more recently) have recorded present in the Windward group of currency devaluations. islands, except Grenada, which Jamaica's structural adjustment —the produces nutmeg. earliest— was part of an agreement with Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and the International Monetary Fund. From a Tobago are the only countries with mining rate of J$ 1.78 per United States dollar, industries: the first two produce bauxite, Jamaica's currency fell to an all-time low while the third produces oil and asphalt. of J$ 28.0 in June 1992, but has since Over the last 40 years, attention has stabilized at J$ 23. Public-sector increasingly turned to the development of employment was cut by over 25%. The tourism as an important source of result of these and other measures was a revenue. Tourism has become the largest sharp rise in the cost of living, an elevation contributor to gross domestic product of the poverty threshold and a decline in (GDP) in Antigua, where it accounts for the health status of vulnerable sectors of 67%, and in Jamaica it competes with the population (IDB, 1992). bauxite for first place. Data obtained from the Jamaican All the countries of the subregion have Ministry of Health reveal that the cost of been prone to high rates of inflation, feeding a family of five for one week rose largely because of their heavy reliance on from J$ 24.27 in mid-1979 to J$ 207.04 by imports, and every one of them the end of 1989, while the statutory experienced two-digit rates of inflation in minimum wage moved from J$ 26 to J$ 84. the 1980s, as well as balance-of-trade Thus, while the minimum wage as a deficits. The Caribbean economies are percentage of food costs stood at 107% in therefore dependent and quite vulnerable 1979, by the end of 1989 it had dropped to to external shifts and shocks. The 40.6%. This means that the combined guaranteed market for commodities income of a family with two adult agreed upon under the Lomé Convention members earning the minimum wage STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION... 71 would fall nearly 20% short of the weekly As the cost of food has risen, requirement for the purchase of food malnutrition has spread. Apart from the alone. Such a family would have nothing fact that the food intake of the poorest to spend on clothing, shelter or households is well below the transportation. recommended daily allowance of energy Using similar data to construct a and protein, UNICEF (1991, p. 39) has shown poverty line, sociologists of the University that between 1979 and 1989, "as of the West Indies calculate that 30% of the purchasing power decreased, the number people living in the Kingston of [hospital] admissions for malnutrition metropolitan area are poor, while half of increased. Decreases in admissions in 1987 that group are destitute. For rural areas, and 1988 were accompanied by a the poverty rate is estimated at 41%. The stabilization of food costs". mean per capita expenditure of Even the Leeward Islands (Antigua small-farmer households is 40% below the and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and national average. Nevis and Montserrat), whose economies At the same time, it should be pointed are the strongest in the anglophone out that the impact of structural Caribbean, have had to undergo structural adjustment is not always negative. Indeed, adjustment. Expenditure on health and the aim is to build a stronger economy in education has stagnated, and the civil the long run. Anderson and Witter (1991, service, which is the largest employer, has p. 73) show that the ratio of individual been whittled down and wage restraints earnings of employed heads of household imposed. to the minimum required income improved between 1985 (when Jamaica's 2. Urbanization and migration structural adjustment programme was at its height) and 1989. The proportion of all Impoverishment, whether attributable heads of household earning up to half the to man or to natural disaster, has from minimum declined from 55.9% to 44.3% time immemorial forced peoples to between 1985 and 1989. At the same time, migrate. In the Caribbean, it explains the proportion earning up to one quarter why more of the nationals of some more has grown from 5.1% to 8.9%, while islands live outside their country than the proportion earning up to twice the inside, and also accounts for the growth minimum has risen from 8% to 11.2%. of cities in the subregion. Women's participation in the labour Opportunities for the emigration of force has also increased under structural Caribbean peoples opened up in the last adjustment. In Jamaica, it is well known quarter of the nineteenth century with the that most of that increase is in low-paying development of banana production in jobs in the free-zone garment industry. In Central America and the construction of Antigua and Barbuda, women's the Panama Canal. Later, in the early labour-force participation rose from 38% decades of the twentieth century, the in 1970 to 46% in 1982 and, following the United States and Cuba became restructuring of the economy around destinations. To this day, there are tourism, is expected to show further enclaves of people in Costa Rica, increases once figures from the recently Nicaragua, Panama and Cuba who can conducted census are available. Saint Kitts trace their ancestry back to the shows a similar increase, from 40% in 1980 anglophone Caribbean. to 48% in 1987, owing mainly to free The closure of these outlets in the zone-type manufacturing. Indeed, 1920s led to the rapid expansion of cities women's participation rates have risen in such as Kingston in Jamaica and Port of the Caribbean as a whole. However, they Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. are well below what they were a century For two decades after the end of the ago, owing mainly to the decline in Second World War, the United Kingdom agricultural production (Reddock, 1989). was the main destination for tens of 72 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN thousands of Caribbean nationals, until environment as well as on social services. immigration policies in that country Slums such as Riverton City in Kingston changed in 1962. Thereafter, Canada and and Green Bay-Gray's Farm in Saint the United States received steady streams John's represent high concentrations of of migrants. This movement continues up poverty, accompanied by improper to the present time and, together with disposal of faecal and solid wastes and contraceptive programmes, has helped to degradation of the environment. Infant slow down the rate of population growth. morbidity, especially respiratory tract With more than 20,000 people emigrating infections and gastro-enteritis, and each year, Jamaica's growth rate has malnutrition are higher among residents declined from 5.54 in 1970 to 3.48 in 1980 of these areas. and 2.90 in 1989. In the Leeward and Yet rural areas as a whole consistently Windward Islands, the growth rate has experience greater poverty. In 1977, for been less than 2.0. Indeed, in five of the example, according to Anderson and nine intercensal periods between 1871 and Witter (1991, p. 78), the proportion of 1980, Saint Kitts and Nevis recorded employed rural workers in Jamaica negative growth, first in 1901, 1911 and earning half or less of the minimum 1921, and later in 1970 and 1980. For Nevis required family income was nearly four alone, the loss in 1980 was shown to be on and a half times greater than the the order of 1.62. proportion of urban workers in that External migration is not without its situation (42.2% versus 9.7%). On the impact on the family. In the movement to other hand, the proportion of urban the United Kingdom, females were workers earning more than two or three generally outnumbered by males, who times the minimum outnumbered their found work in the transport and postal rural counterparts by two to one. services. Often the migrants were reunited Moreover, analysing data from the 1989 with their spouses before being reunited survey of living conditions carried out by with their children. Some men used the Planning Institute of Jamaica, UNICEF migration to escape from previously reported that: established relationships and obligations, "the poorest quintile were more likely but generally these were the exceptions. to live in rural areas, to be employed Since the 1970s, however, the gender bias as small farmers or wage-workers in has shifted towards women, who work agriculture, to have low education, or either as domestic employees or as trained to live in female-headed households. professional teachers and nurses. This ... Rural poverty was found to be circumstance has brought about a novel extensive, with 40.0% of the rural and as yet unresearched situation in some population and 32.5% of rural countries: fathers who are raising their households below the poverty line in children without female support. July 1989" (UNICEF/PIOJ, 1991). The reunion of families continues apace, The survey also established that, but is affected by the unhealthy state of the whereas the food gap was on the order of host countries' economies. One trade-off for 21.7% in the Kingston metropolitan area, the temporary separation is the level of meaning that the urban poor were, on remittances home, which in some countries average, spending over 21.7% less on their equals more than 40% of GDP. nutritional needs than the non-poor, the The search for better opportunities for gap was 34.6% in rural areas. advancement also results in the growth of The situation, therefore, is one in cities. Saint John's, the capital of Antigua, which urban poverty is more concentrated now accommodates 55% of the total and more visible, but in reality less population of Antigua and Barbuda, while intense, than rural poverty. Without half of the Jamaican population lives in programmes to alleviate rural that island's cities and towns. This growth impoverishment, migration to cities will places great stress on the physical prove impossible to halt. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 73

E. MALFUNCTIONS criminal activities are burglaries and break-ins. In Jamaica, where political Notwithstanding the misconceptions cleavages drew adolescents into about the Caribbean family that have gun-related crimes backed by local "dons", dogged its history, there are critical the trafficking and abuse of psychoactive problems that must be faced. The first has substances, especially cocaine, have to do with the male, both adult and child. transformed the quality of crime. The There is growing concern that the upward homicide rate is growing steadily year mobility and achievement evinced by after year in Jamaica and now approaches women is being matched by a converse the all-time high recorded in 1980, when movement among men. The vehicle of political violence claimed the lives of over social progress traditional to the 800 persons, most of them in metropolitan Caribbean, namely education, provides Kingston. the best example of the problem. At all Street children pose another problem. levels of the education system, females are "Street children" must be distinguished outperforming males. In Jamaica, the from "children on the streets". The latter pattern of enrolment is now biased have homes to which they return at the towards females at the high-school level. end of the day. Usually organized by The same is observed in Trinidad and parents to sell various commodities, they Tobago, even among the Indian are most noticeable on market days. A population, which had until recently recent study in a small section of Kingston maintained a traditional cultural bias discovered that many children on the towards the male. At the University of the streets attended school from Monday to West Indies, which serves the anglophone Thursday, but dropped out on Friday to Caribbean, two thirds of all 1992 participate in marketing, which graduates at Mona, Jamaica, were women. traditionally intensifies on the weekends. Using these and similar data, Miller This trend in school attendance is a (1989) argues that women's advancement long-established pattern throughout the is a function of efforts by the traditional Caribbean, as children are drawn into wielders of power to marginalize black family labour in a weekly or seasonal Jamaican males and prevent them from cycle. challenging the power structure. Thus, Street children, in contrast, live on the women's upward mobility is streets, in nooks and alley-ways, accompanied by men's downward abandoned cars, bus stops or anywhere mobility, and therefore does not constitute else they can find shelter. Although the structural change. In a later publication, problem is not so serious in the smaller Miller (1991) universalized this argument, islands, where such children are known adding data from the United States and and can be identified, it has caused enough the former Soviet Union. concern in larger countries such as Some commentators argue, however, Jamaica to prompt non-governmental that such data do not prove anything organizations to take action to rehabilitate pathological about the behaviour of males, street children. Virtually all street children only that they no longer consider are male, and many have been victims of education as an avenue for upward sexual abuse. mobility. To find out what men are doing, A second problem concerns single they say, one must look at the female heads of household, the type most small-business and informal sectors, prevalent in inner-city slums and ghettos. where many men are involved in high-risk Those who work often do so at the expense activities. Whether this argument is sound of their children's socialization; those who or not, the undeniable fact is that crime do not quite often are engaged in illegal rates have been increasing across the activities such as prostitution. It is Caribbean, and the main offenders are instructive to note that, according to a male, including juveniles. The leading survey, the most frequently cited place for 74 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. first sex among adolescents and young the population is Catholic, still retain the adults in Jamaica was the home before status of illegitimacy. parents returned from work. In some countries, such as Jamaica, the Third is the problem of abuse of Act also makes it possible for a woman women and children. Woman-beating, who has been a man's common-law though it is becoming less frequent, is spouse for at least five years to inherit his none the less still quite prevalent. Because assets should he die intestate. This it is culturally permissible, it seldom amendment of the Status of Children Act, prompts intervention by outsiders or therefore, represents a partial triumph of police. Rape, incest between fathers or cultural practices over colonial prejudices stepfathers and their daughters or —partial, in the sense that common law is stepdaughters, and carnal knowledge not fully recognized, for only a legally of non-related minors are offences that married wife, not a common-law spouse, have been attracting wide attention, may be entitled to support from her owing mainly to the effective lobbying husband's estate even if provision is made of women's movements in the to the contrary in his will. subregion. In other areas, women have won the right to maternity leave, which amounts to as many as three months with pay and F. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK three months without pay in some islands, such as Saint Kitts and Nevis and Jamaica. Over the past 15 to 20 years, some progress Other countries of the region observe this has been made in exposing the archaism right indirectly through national health of the laws and their inadequacy to insurance schemes. advance the interests of family members, Under British law as adopted by the particularly women and children. To cite anglophone Caribbean islands, a wife had one example, up to 1991 in Antigua the chattel status in relation to her husband. rape of a female under the age of 16 —the She could not by law refuse him sexual age of consent— was classified as indecent access. Women in Trinidad and Tobago assault. But whereas rape carried a have succeeded in making marital rape an maximum penalty of 20 years' offence punishable by law. Other imprisonment, indecent assault carried a countries are planning to follow suit. maximum of two years. Thus, the law The establishment of a family court in protected women but discriminated Jamaica has provided a forum for the against their daughters. settlement of family disputes through Many countries of the anglophone arbitration and counselling, in addition to Caribbean, stimulated by external as well force. as internal pressure, have used the Since the United Nations Decade for authority of their legislatures and Women, many countries have instituted government bureaucracies to protect bureaus of women's affairs or women's women. One of the most important desks to promote the general welfare of measures has been the Status of Children women at the level of political Act, which eliminated the status of decision-making. illegitimacy. Before its adoption, children Notwithstanding these advances, far born out of wedlock were classified as more needs to be done. In the area of such and could not inherit if their fathers employment, women throughout the died intestate. As Roberts stated, an Caribbean are paid at lower rates than "illegitimacy" rate of up to 70% in some men. Jamaica is the only country that has countries is an indication of nothing other instituted equal pay legislation. Some low than a mating pattern sui generis, rather rates may be justified by the menial status than a manifestation of pathology. A of many of the jobs performed by women, number of countries, however, but the differentials are too uniform not to particularly those where the majority of be discriminatory. One study showed STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 75

"that female-headed households in urban later in life, it is also true that they will get areas of Jamaica had an average monthly married only when they are confident income which was 22 percent less than the about their mutual compatibility. average monthly income of households African-Caribbean peoples regard headed by a co-resident couple" (Davies marriage as binding and permanent. and Anderson, 1986, p. 224). Thus, there is a need for counselling to Some countries still find it difficult to focus on the quality of relationships rather institute certain measures because of than on the forms the relationships take. strong religious barriers. For example, The aim should be not necessarily to family planning programmes have to be persuade couples to become legally downplayed in some islands. Saint Lucia, married, but to empower them to find where 85% of all live births take place appropriate solutions, especially with a outside marriage, has been unable to erase view to creating deeper and more lasting completely the distinction between bonds. legitimacy and illegitimacy: children born A second subject on which more in wedlock are entitled to maintenance of attention should be focused is the male. $75 per week; those born out of wedlock, Men's importance in fertility matters was to only $25 (Peters, 1991, p. viii). first recognized when women began citing their spouse as the source of their resistance to family planning. Further, the G. CONCLUDING REMARKS impetus given to the advancement of women by the United Nations Decade for The African-Caribbean family has Women, not least the general heightening represented a great challenge to social of awareness of the injustice of the status scientists and reformers over the past differences between men and women, has 60 years. One reason for this is that it has broadened gender concerns to include been approached according to the model males. of the Western nuclear family and In this regard, special mention should Western conjugal form. Indeed, during be made of the plight of the female-headed the 1940s, the wife of the colonial governor household. What has emerged clearly so spearheaded an attempt to raise the rate of far is that its incidence, beyond the levels legal marriage by providing couples with that are the normal result of death, divorce money to purchase wedding rings and or legal or voluntary separation, is directly host a big feast. Known as the mass related to poverty. However, the extent to marriage movement, it assumed that which men are reluctant to maintain when people said they did not have the functional relationships unless they can money to marry, they were referring to first maintain their primary role, that of these expenses. What they in fact meant providing, is not yet sufficiently was that they had not yet achieved the understood. It is generally assumed that economic status to make marriage the impoverished condition of households meaningful. It was not the inability to put headed by a single female is attributable to on a big feast that deterred people from male delinquency, but more research is getting married, but the inability to reach needed to find out whether male and maintain economic stability. The mass delinquency may not itself be linked to marriage movement failed. poverty. Kaztman (1992), reviewing data A more fruitful approach to the family for Latin America, makes a similar must begin with what is culturally proposal. If such a link exists, policies to normative. For example, there can be little alleviate the effects of structural doubt that conjugal forms are a function of adjustment, such as Jamaica's food stamp both economic stability and cultural programme, should target not only values. While it is true that people will get females, but males as well. They must also married only when they are economically seek to give both men and women the secure, a status which generally comes capacity to rise above their situation. 76 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

The problem of the outside child must a lack of economic resources, but from a also be addressed. The men in the study lack of contact as well, as many men by Brown and others (1993) who reported reported resentment on the part of their that they had been unhappy at the age of spouse. The solution is rooted in the ability 12 mentioned separation from a parent as of young men and women to postpone one of the reasons. As far as their current pregnancy. Given certain cultural satisfaction with their own fathering role regularities, the continued promotion of was concerned, there was consistently contraceptive use offers real prospects for greater dissatisfaction among those with reducing the number of children who, outside children than those without. That through no fault of their own, are dissatisfaction did not derive solely from separated from their fathers. STRESSES AND STRAINS: SITUATION.. 77

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Patricia and Michael Witter (1991), Crisis, Adjustment and Social Change: A Case-study of Jamaica, University of the West Indies (UWI). Boland, Barbara (1983), "Union status and its effects on fertility", Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania. Brody, Eugene B. (1981), Sex, Contraception and Motherhood in Jamaica, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press. Brown, Janet, Patricia Anderson and Barry Chevannes (1993), Report on the Contribution of Caribbean Men to the Family: A Jamaican Pilot Study, University of the West Indies (uwi). Charbit, Yves (1984), "Caribbean family structure: Past research and recent evidence from the WFS on matrifocality", WFS Scientific Reports, No. 65, Voorburg, Netherlands, International Statistical Institute. Chevannes, Barry (1985), "Jamaican men: Sexual attitudes and beliefs", Kingston, National Family Planning Board, unpublished. Clarke, Edith (1957), My Mother who Fathered Me: A Study of the Family in Three Selected Communities in Jamaica, London, George Allen and Unwin. Cumper, George (1958), "The Jamaican family: village and estate", Social and Economic Studies, vol. 7, No. 1. (1966), "The fertility of common law unions in Jamaica", Social and Economic Studies, vol. 15, No. 3. Dann, Graham (1987), The Barbadian Male: Sexual Beliefs and Attitudes, London, Macmillan. Davies, Omar and Patricia Anderson (1986), "The impact of the recession and adjustment policies on poor urban women in Jamaica", The Invisible Adjustment: Poor Women and the Economic Crisis, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Santiago, Chile, UNICEF. Frazier, E. Franklin (1951), The Negro Family in the United States, New York, The Dryden Press. Harewood, Jack (1984), "Mating and fertility: Results from three WFS surveys in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica", WFS Scientific Reports, Voorburg, Netherlands, International Statistical Institute. Henriques, Fernando (1953), Family and Colour in Jamaica, London, Eyre and Spottiswoode. Herskovits, Melville (1941), The Myth of the Negro Past, New York, Harpers. Herskovits, Melville and Frances Herskovits (1947), Trinidad Village, New York, Alfred A. Knopf. IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) (1992), Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1992 Report, Washington, D.C., October. Kaztman, Rubén (1992), "Why are men so irresponsible?", CEPAL Review, No. 46 (LC/G.1717-P), Santiago, Chile, April. Lightbourne, Robert, Jr. (1970), "Contraceptive use and desire for further children among working class Jamaican men", M.Sc. thesis, Mona, University of the West Indies (UWI). (1984), "Fertility preferences in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, from World Fertility Surveys 1975-1977: A multiple indicator approach", WFS Scientific Reports, No. 68, Voorburg, Netherlands, International Statistical Institute. Lightbourne, Robert and Susheela Singh (1982), "Fertility, union status and partners", Population Studies, vol. 36, No. 2, London. 78 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

MacFarlane, Carmen and Charles Warren (1989), Contraceptive Prevalence Survey: Jamaica 1989, Kingston, National Family Planning Board. Miller, Errol (1989), Marginalizatbn of the Black Male, Kingston, Institute of Social and Economic Studies. (1991), Men at Risk, Kingston, Kingston Publishers. Peters, Monica (1991), The Situation of Women in the Caribbean, Bridgetown, Barbados, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Powell, Dorian (1986), "Caribbean women and their response to familial experience", Social and Economic Studies, vol. 35, No. 2. Reddock, Rhoda (1989), "Historical and contemporary perspectives: the case of Trinidad and Tobago", Women and the Sexual Division of Labour in the Caribbean, Keith Hart (ed.), Kingston, Consortium Graduate School of the Social Sciences, University of the West Indies (UWI). Roberts, George (1955), "Some aspects of mating and fertility in the West Indies", Population Studies, vol. 8, No. 3, London. (1975), Fertility and Mating in Four West Indian Populations: Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent and Jamaica, Kingston, Institute of Social and Economic Research. (1979), The Population of Jamaica, Millwood, N.Y., Kraus Reprint Company. (1982), "Family unions in the West Indies and some of their implications", Nuptiality and Fertility, Lado T. Ruzicka (ed.), Liège, Belgium, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), Ordina Editions. Roberts, G.W. and L. Braithwaite (1961), "A gross mating table for a West Indian population", Population Studies, vol. 14, No. 3, London. (1962), "Mating among East and non-Indian women in Trinidad", Social and Economic Studies, vol. 11, No. 3. Roberts, George and Sonja Sinclair (1978), Women in Jamaica, New York, KTO Press. Robotham, Don (1991), Situation Analysis of Kingston Poor, University of the West Indies (UWI). Rubenstein, Hymie (1977), "Diachronic inference and the pattern of lower class Afro-Caribbean marriage", Social and Economic Studies, vol. 26, No. 2, June. Rubin, Vera (1978), "Introduction", Women in Jamaica, George Roberts and Sonja Sinclair, New York, KTO Press. Simey, T.S. (1946), Welfare and Planning in the West Indies, London, Oxford University Press. Smith, M.G. (1962), West Indian Family Structure, Seattle, University of Washington Press. Smith, Raymond T. (1956), The Negro Family in British Guiana, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. (1963), "Culture and social structure", Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 6, No. 1. (1970), "Caribbean kinship and family structure", paper presented at the Conference on Continuities and Discontinuities in Afro-American Societies and Cultures, 2-4 April. (1988), Kinship and Class in the West Indies: A Genealogical Study of Jamaica and Guyana, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Stycos, J.M. and K.W. Back (1964), The Control of Human Fertility in Jamaica, Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press. UNICEF/PIOJ (United Nations Children's Fund/Planning Institute of Jamaica) (1991), Situation Analysis of the Status of Children and Women in Jamaica, Kingston. Chapter IV

THE URBAN FAMILY AND POVERTY IN LATIN AMERICA

A. PRELIMINARY The Latin American economies have CONSIDERATIONS undergone a structural adjustment process which has involved changes and Without a doubt, the 1980s were a period transformations in domestic and family of change throughout Latin America. The economies. The division of labour, region's economies, the structure of consumption and patterns of household labour markets and the organization of organization have also been restructured. households underwent changes that have The restructuring of households and their left their mark on the evolution of Latin capacity to adapt and flexibly manage American societies. In the decades of scarce resources kept income in boom and growth (the 1960s and 1970s), working-class urban households from poverty decreased and the middle class falling as drastically as individual wages increased as non-manual jobs proliferated and income. The sense of collectivity and and wages rose. The crisis of the 1980s unity provided by the domestic group changed the course of the region's served to cushion the blow dealt by the societies and, to a large extent, reversed crisis, as individuals redoubled their the trends established in previous efforts, worked harder and increased their decades. One of the most alarming effects contributions, though not without of this change was the increase in poverty, significantly greater pressure, conflict and reflected in the larger number of trade-offs between household members individuals and families living in and the collective interests of the domestic precarious conditions, with very meagre group (Beneria, 1992; González de la resources on which to survive. In some Rocha, 1991). This seems to have been a countries, such as Argentina and Chile, discérnible pattern in most Latin poverty doubled in the 1980s (ECLAC, American cities (Fortuna and Prates, 1989; 1992a). Workers' real income in the Hardy, 1989; Ortega and Tironi, 1988; mid-1980s was similar to what it had been Pastore and others, 1983; Schkolnik and several decades earlier. That is why the Teitelboim, 1988). 1980s came to be known as the "lost i) Family and domestic responses to the decade". aggravation of poverty. This chapter

1 Indexes for measuring the extent of poverty vary according to the indicators used. The most appropriate are those used by ECLAC, Ortega and Tironi and other authors, which are based on the level of household income and its capacity to satisfy basic needs. This method, the "income method", is based on the calculation of poverty lines by analysing the ratio between the cost of a basic food basket and the level of household income (ECLAC, 1991; Ortega and Tironi, 1988). 80 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. analyses the mechanisms that households poor to survive in the persistent poverty have used to deal with the changes forced of Latin American cities, on them or generated by economic iii) Internal differentiation of domestic groups. policies. Some of the factors that enter into The approach taken in this chapter does the process of reproducing poverty from not presuppose a harmonious, one generation to another are also undifferentiated environment. There is explored, with the aim of forming a sufficient evidence to show that domestic sounder basis on which to design public groups are internally differentiated and welfare policy. Specifically, this chapter that power relationships exist between affirms the pressing need to provide individuals who hold different positions support to certain types of poor urban in the home. It has also been observed that households which, because of their relationships of domination and particular characteristics, are especially subordination, and processes of conflict vulnerable: very young, very old and and negotiation in the sometimes violent female-headed households. It also clashes between individual interests and suggests that the special needs of certain between individual and collective individuals within poor households interests, are based on a domestic —especially children and women, who hierarchy where gender and generation are in subordinate positions and receive are the most important criteria. fewer benefits— must be identified. Households, then, combine relations of Efforts to measure and promote solidarity, affection and cooperation well-being must take into account the —which facilitate their members' life heterogeneity existing within domestic together and enable households to units and the differentiated positions function as social units of labour, survival individuals hold within households and reproduction— with the clash of (Blumberg, 1991; González de la Rocha, interests, negotiation and conflict. In this 1986 and 1993). connection, and based on analyses done in ii) Households as active social units and notMexico , it seems that the crisis of the 1980s simply the objects of external processes, forcesaggravate d the contradiction between the and policies. Individuals are organized in solidarity, unity and cooperation among domestic groups2 and this organization is household members that are necessary for the basis for survival and reproduction in intensifying labour, on the one hand, and urban contexts, which, as described conflict and negotiation of individual and below, are characterized by a high family interests, on the other (González de incidence of poverty. The actions la Rocha, 1991). undertaken by individuals as part of the Even though individuals also responded organization of family and domestic life to the crisis by taking part in social have been described as "the resources of movements and mass protests, this chapter poverty" (González de la Rocha, 1986). contends that such responses largely took Implicit in these actions and in the social shape within the home, and accordingly organization of households is the describes the "privatization" of the crisis and dynamism and capacity for action and the measures taken to deal with it. resource management which, although Recognizing the dynamism of the limited, make it possible for the urban activities undertaken by household

2 The term "domestic group" (household or domestic unit) refers to a set of individuals who, whether or not they are related by kinship, share a residence and a common social and economic organization (shared consumption, division of labour, etc.). Although emphasis is placed on the need to distinguish between the concepts of "domestic group" and "family" to highlight the notions of shared organization of reproduction and co-residence, on the one hand, and kinship and family relations, on the other, the two terms are used interchangeably here. In this context, "family" does not refer to the social institution consisting exclusively of persons related by kinship ties, but to households, groups or domestic units that share a home. THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 81 members and understanding the bases of consumption and increasing the domestic domestic organization are important not labour of women and children, etc. only for elucidating how domestic groups While growth offered outside options organize and struggle to survive day in to the domestic group —particularly and day out. The dynamism and capacity employment options—, the crisis and the to act of domestic groups must be priority adjustment and restructuring measures elements to be taken into account in the narrowed the range of such options, with design and implementation of social the result that workers and their families policies if domestic groups are to act as had to put more pressure on "internal" vehicles of change and not only of resources such as the labour of adult males survival. and of women, children and adolescents, and took steps to reduce consumption by trimming family budgets and making B. TRENDS IN POVERTY AND changes in the use of individuals' time and PROFILES OF POOR HOUSEHOLDS the division of household labour. IN THE REGION Although domestic organization and modifications have a dynamic all their After two decades of more or less steady own, they are moulded and conditioned economic growth, Latin America in the by the external context. Not all urban 1980s was characterized by economic working-class households, however, are recession and the after-effects of the crisis. equally equipped to respond to situations Both the boom and the recession had a of prosperity and growth or of economic strong impact on the organization and hardship. There are households whose economy of domestic groups, owing to the vulnerability —in terms of their social conditions imposed on workers and their apparatus and their economic base, which families, in the one case, and the consists essentially of their manpower— opportunities available to them in the makes them less capable of "seizing" other. The era of economic growth had labour market opportunities that created new options and alternatives in arise in periods of prosperity and terms of both employment and working increased employment, and less capable conditions. Wage increases had led to of "defending" themselves against increased participation in the goods and plummeting wages and economic services markets, thereby increasing deterioration. consumption and consolidating the domestic market for manufactured 1. Economic growth and its impact on goods in each of the Latin American domestic organization countries. Employment and consumption opportunities moulded family and In the 1960s and 1970s, most Latin domestic survival and reproduction American countries experienced a process initiatives and strategies. of considerable economic growth, In times of economic growth, there is accelerated urbanization, increased greater dependence on factors external to employment and changes in occupational the domestic group that are vital to structures. Industrial activities were survival and reproduction. The opposite consolidated and acquired greater occurs in times of recession and scarcity, importance as sources of employment and when the available and "unavailable" income. Personal services, as well as members of households3 are forced to financial and productive ones, also grew increase paid labour, work longer hours, in importance as sources of employment partially withdraw from the goods and as mainstays of a flourishing and services markets by reducing industrial sector. Rural-to-urban

3 "Unavailable" members are those under 15 years of age and elderly persons. For a more precise definition of available and unavailable members, see Pastore and others (1983, p. 18). 82 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. migration increased and the cities became change that took place in Brazil in the not only places where jobs were more 1960s and 1970s, which were marked by likely to be found and it was more continuous, fast-paced economic growth desirable to work, but also where life was and profound demographic changes. In more attractive and more viable. the 1970s, Brazil saw a decline in Growth was doubtless reflected in the demographic growth.5 population's levels of well-being. From The relatively lower percentage of 1970 to 1976, the extent of poverty young people and the growing percentage decreased considerably. The proportion of of adults were accentuated in the 1970s. In middle- and high-income families rose, the early phases of population ageing, the with the result that the middle classes available labour force increased and expanded and their patterns of high households had more members who consumption of sophisticated goods and participated in the labour market, which services were consolidated.4 Non-manual had been enlarged by the expansion of jobs increased and job mobility rates were manufacturing and services. Thus, the high. Although, in the case of Mexico, increase in Brazil's economically active growth was accompanied by the population in the 1970s was faster than proliferation of slums and urban settlements overall population growth (50% versus with substandard infrastructure where the 25%), owing partly to the stepped-up underprivileged settled, there are indications dissemination of the use of contraceptives that wages went up. among women of child-bearing age Despite the increase in certain indexes (Garcia and others, 1983). of well-being and growth in the 1960s and Another process observed in the 1970s, poverty —though it affected a region's societies, along with population smaller percentage of the total ageing, is the growing participation of population— remained a dominant women in the labour market. In the characteristic of the region. In the early decades leading up to the 1970s, a trend 1970s, 40% of the region's people were towards increased participation by living in poverty. In 1980, poor people women in the economy was already accounted for 35% of the Latin American becoming apparent. Women participated population (ECLAC, 1991). in the informal economy in undeclared The period of economic buoyancy, jobs in small industrial and service reflected in the overall figures, has also enterprises, but mainly, and increasingly, been emphasized in specific analyses of in formal employment, including well-being and family organization. Vital manufacturing and State-operated changes occurred in urban households. services. By and large, they were single Brazil, predominantly and irreversibly women without domestic responsibilities urban, and one of the countries with the and with above-average education, who region's highest indexes of poverty and doubtless represented a select type of social inequality, is an illustration of the working woman. This trend later reversed social changes that took place in urban itself somewhat when female households in the era of economic growth. participation in urban labour markets The Brazilian family, according to a study became a survival mechanism for by Pastore, Zylberstajn and Pagotto thousands of families impoverished by the (1983), was the true reflection of the huge crisis. The changes discussed below are

4 In Brazil, the proportion of middle-class families (with income higher than five times the minimum wage) went from 1 /20 in 1970 (963,300) to 1 /4 in 1976 (5,576,700) (Singer, 1986). The larger number of non-manual jobs and the higher rates of job mobility seem to have reflected a general trend. 5 García, Muñoz and de Oliveira (1983) described similar trends in their study on Brazilian cities. Subsequently, there was a slow-down in population growth (see Pacheco, 1993). THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN 83 particularly interesting because they households, especially among poor provide insights into how households families, and the relative decrease in respond to situations of prosperity and extended households. Nuclear house- economic growth. holds were in the majority and their relative proportion increased slightly a) Changes in household size and structure between 1970 and 1980 (from 68.4% to 68.9%). The vulnerability of female- The size of households shrank during headed households has been the subject of the 1970s. It seems that poor families many studies which analyse the reasons became smaller, while the size of more why their income levels are consistently well-to-do families did not decrease as lower than those of households headed much. Possibly, most of the families that by men. emerged from poverty in those years were large or medium-sized. It is well known that the size of domestic units is related to b) Participation in the labour market and the phase of the domestic cycle the family household economies is in, tending to be small in the early stage of expansion, when the couple begin their Household members' participation in life together and their reproductive life, the labour market increased. There was a and becoming larger in later stages. It is considerable decline in the number of also known that the phases of the households in which more than one domestic cycle are associated not only available member was unemployed or with the size of the household but underemployed and a rise in the number also with income-generating capacity of households in which all available and, therefore, with levels of economic members were working. The incor- well-being. Thus, consolidated house- poration of women —both housewives holds, where the children are grown and and single young women— into the are able to work, are often extended labour market increased (Garcia and households with greater income- others, 1982). Many of the jobs in the generating capacity, given their real tertiary sector, which expanded more than possibilities of sending a larger contingent any other in the 1970s, were secured by of individuals out to the labour market. women. Those already employed, Similarly, young or elderly households are however, also worked harder. The Pastore usually nuclear families with a large study found that the percentage of urban number of dependents. They are therefore families that showed signs of overwork (as unable to generate multiple incomes and, "unavailable" members began to work and in fact, their total and per capita income available members worked more hours) levels are lower (González de la Rocha, increased from 35% in 1970 to 49% in 1980. 1986). In other words, not all urban While it is true that this labour force ended households are affected alike in situations up mainly in the tertiary sector, and times of growth and economic employment opportunities in the prosperity, as their ability to take manufacturing sector also arose advantage of new options varies throughout the region. Therefore, the according to the internal characteristics increase in the participation of household of the households and the phase of members in the labour market during the the domestic cycle they are in. period of growth differed from the Consolidated, mature homes composed increase recorded in subsequent years in of individuals capable of entering terms of the kinds of jobs they found. labour markets were able to generate While so-called informal-sector jobs more income and thus to move out of existed in the 1970s, there were also the urban poor category. stable full-time jobs, which accounted Two noteworthy phenomena in the for a large proportion of total decade were the rise in female-headed employment. 84 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Per capita family income went up as unemployment, the downturn in formal a result of the intensification of work.6 The employment and government budget cuts rise in per capita income was a product not in social spending. Middle-class only of wage increases in that decade but households, which had benefited from the also of the aforementioned decrease in previous period of growth, also felt the household size. The sum total of negative effects of the crisis as their individual incomes and the contributions income levels and consumption patterns that individuals make to the household changed (ECLAC, 1991). depend on the number of available The result was a restructuring of workers, which, as noted earlier, depends family life and organization and a series of on the stage of the domestic cycle and on changes in low-income households the household's composition and (Benería, 1992; González de la Rocha, structure. The domestic cycle has an 1991). The fresh outbreak of poverty and important differentiating effect that the scarcity brought on by the economic sometimes (as in Mexico before the crisis placed new demands on the private crisis) is more important than wage capacity to respond. differentials —at the manual level— in In the 1990s, poverty in Latin America the demarcation and formation of is an urban phenomenon. In absolute different groups within the working class. terms, poor individuals and families who Thus, within the low-income urban live in cities greatly outnumber those who population, the phase of the domestic live in rural areas (ECLAC, 1992a and cycle —and not the head of household's 1992b). In 1990, poverty affected 34% of all occupational category within the working urban households, or nearly 23 million class— is what determines different levels households. Of the total urban population, of poverty. The implications of this 39%, or 116 million persons, lived in phenomenon are significant and have poverty. been discussed in other studies (see Groups that had not been in the urban González de la Rocha, 1986). poor category in the pre-crisis years entered the ranks of the poor during the 1980s. Studies on the impoverishment of 2. The crisis and major changes in the middle class have shown that, in the urban economies case of Mexico, the first half of the 1980s witnessed a process of "social equity by The economic crisis erupted in the midst impoverishment", in which the middle of a process of economic growth and class was very hard hit (Cortés and made the already precarious living Rubalcava, 1991). Data on other countries conditions of the urban masses even of the region tend to confirm that the worse. The urban poor were very hard unequal distribution of income was hit by the deterioration of real wages, aggravated in the 1980s.7

6 According to Pastore and his co-authors, while nearly 44% of Brazilian families survived on less than one fourth the minimum wage per capita in 1970 (7.3 million families), that percentage had fallen to 18% by 1980 (4.4 million families). As a result of this decrease, the proportion of families whose income equalled one half to one minimum wage per capita had risen from 16.6% in 1970 to 25.5% in 1980; those with one to two times the minimum wage, from 8.5% to 17.4%; and those with more than twice the minimum wage, from 5.7% to 16.2% (Pastore and others, 1983, p. 21). 7 In Chile, for example, while the wealthiest 20% of the population received 50% of total income and the poorest 40% received 12.9% in the period from 1970 to 1973, between 1982 and 1984 the former received 60% and the latter, 9.8%, of total income (Ortega and Tironi, 1988). In Brazil, where real GDP fell 3.8% between 1980 and 1983 and real per capita output decreased by 10.6% over the same period, the real minimum wage decreased by 8.8%. In 1982,46.2% of families were below the poverty line (defined as family income equivalent to twice the minimum wage) (Singer, 1986). THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 85

The cuts in social welfare subsidies C. STRATEGIES OF POOR URBAN and budgets were part of the new FAMILIES IN RESPONSE TO economic policies. Such measures had a ADJUSTMENT PROCESSES AND severe impact on households, essentially RESTRUCTURING OF THE STATE in three ways. First, the decrease in public AND THE ECONOMY social spending spelled the elimination of jobs formerly available in government This section discusses some of the most agencies. Second, public services declined important strategies that have been in quantity and quality and, if they had devised by households to cushion and been inadequate before the economic moderate the effects of the crisis. While crisis, they became very scarce and hard these changes may also be attributable to for the needy population to obtain once the ageing of households —in other the crisis had set in. Third, government words, the process of change that the subsidies to bring down basic food domestic cycle produces in household costs also decreased or even composition, structure and economy—, it disappeared, so that production costs 8 is safe to say that households have made were reflected in consumer price hikes. significant changes in response to both the The impact, then, was felt in the areas internal processes produced by the of employment, access to public domestic cycle and the external processes services and consumption of goods of economic change and deteriorating purchased on the market. living conditions. The crisis had a strong impact on urban employment, which fell in the manufacturing and public sectors and 1. Intensification of work rose in services, especially personal ones, First of all, increased unemployment since social services were subject to severe 9 among male heads of household has had budget cuts. Because of its link to an effect on the participation rates of other employee health insurance, the decline in members of domestic groups. Between employment in the public sector and in 1979 and 1987, economic participation by large firms affected access to public health female heads of household in services. Formal employment stagnated non-metropolitan urban areas of Brazil or fell and there were more part-time increased by 16%, and participation by workers with no benefits or legal women who were not heads of household protection (informal workers) and went up by 25%. Both increases were unemployed persons. The number of much greater than the increase in the self-employed workers increased in the participation rate of the population aged 1980s, in reaction to the stagnation or 15 and over, which stood at 9%. The same decline of wage-earning employment trend, with slight variations, was evident (ECLAC, 1991, p. 21). The worsening in the other countries as well. In employment situation, coupled with the Argentina, for example, women who were paltry sums workers earned in wages, heads of household and those who were created a situation in which individuals, not showed the same increase in economic organized in domestic units, faced a daily participation (10%) between 1980 and struggle to survive. 1986, but also followed the pattern

8 Social spending in Mexico as a percentage of gross domestic product fell from 7.6% in 1981-1982 to 5.6% in 1987-1988 (Cordera and González Tiburcio, 1991). Government spending on social services decreased in all countries of the region. Fortuna and Prates (1989) have drawn attention to what happened in Uruguay, where the Government reduced social spending and stopped providing low-income housing. Responsibility for the reproduction and survival of the workforce devolved almost exclusively on families and domestic units. 9 Only in Costa Rica was there no change in the employment level of wage-earners in the public sector. In the other countries, employment in this sector declined more sharply than in the private sector. 86 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. observed in the other countries, whereby as a proportion of the total number of women's participation increased more hours worked by all household members than that of the entire population aged (ECLAC, 1992b). The increase in workers 15 and over. In non-metropolitan was accounted for by those who took jobs Colombian cities, on the other hand, in small businesses and in the informal female heads of household increased sector, which afforded no security. In their participation in the economy more seven countries —representing 80% of the than did women who were not heads of region's total economically active household. The same occurred in population—, between 1980 and 1989 the metropolitan and urban Costa Rica and total number of persons employed in the non-metropolitan cities of increased much faster than the total Venezuela (ECLAC, 1991, table 3). population or the working-age Although urban labour markets are population. In the informal sector and still predominantly male, they have small-scale enterprises, employment grew witnessed a steady increase in the number at twice the rate of growth of the of women employed in recent years. working-age population and three times Research done in Mexico has highlighted the rate of total population growth (ECLAC, this process, and it has been suggested 1992a, table 4). that the determinants of female labour Qualitative analyses carried out in have changed, so that a growing number various Latin American countries have of women with children, little formal confirmed that urban households were education and a heavy domestic forced to increase their number of workload have entered urban labour working members and also their sources markets (González de la Rocha, 1991, and of income. As wage-paying jobs became Oliveira and García, 1990). Previously, it unstable and difficult to obtain, domestic may be recalled, the trend had been units diversified their sources of income so towards an increase in employment as not to depend solely or primarily on any among single, better-educated women single source. In so far as possible, with no domestic responsibilities. Existing however, families tended to send more of studies show that the crisis drove their members into the labour market. The housewives and mothers with heavy intensification of work, or what Pastore domestic workloads and little education and his co-authors have called into the labour market (González de la "overwork", mainly affected women, Rocha, 1986). Children, domestic chores although children and adolescents were and little formal education ceased to be also directly or indirectly involved in obstacles for women whose poverty it.10 This phenomenon kept total forced them to seek poorly paid jobs in the household income from sliding as informal sector or to become rapidly or as drastically as individual self-employed (Oliveira and Garcia, income. The total income of urban 1990). households in Venezuela shrank by 22%, As for the incorporation of non-heads whereas individual income fell by 34%. of household into the labour market, in The same occurred in urban areas of five of the six countries for which Uruguay and Costa Rica, where total comparable data are available for the early household income declined by 14%, and and late 1980s the number of hours individual income, by 22% (ECLAC, 1991, worked by heads of household went down pp. 23 and 41).

10 These groups are involved either directly through employment or indirectly through other types of activities. Women who work at home, for example, request help from their children when they return from school and over the weekends. The "errands" that children and young people do for their mothers, and the care of younger brothers and sisters (although this is done mainly by teenage and young girls) are common everyday tasks. It even seems that, in general, women have delegated more responsibility and work to their children as they themselves have had to take paid jobs (though this has not eliminated women's "double working day"). THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 87

Urban heads of household contribute paid and unpaid work, a growing no more than 80%, and in most countries interdependence among household no more than 60%, of total household members and an accentuation of domestic income (ECLAC, 1991). Existing conflict, all of which doubtless formed the information shows that the amount of basis for the survival of the urban poor. income contributed by other household These changes brought about members has risen in recent years. It significant changes in the structure of should be noted that these trends prevail household income as well. Generally despite the fact that, during the same speaking, salaries and wages decreased as period, heads of household also increased a percentage of total household income in their contribution as a percentage of their most urban households in the region. In own income. While it cannot be said contrast, the percentage of income from that men curtailed their individual self-employment and from retirement consumption in the interest of collective schemes and pensions rose. These changes consumption by the domestic group, the were especially marked among poorer need to increase household income did households (ECLAC, 1991, table 16). force male heads of household to increase Urban households in the 1980s were their contributions to collective characterized by an increase in the expenditure. The fact that these increased number of workers per household, the contributions nevertheless declined as a intensification of unpaid domestic work percentage of total household income and the growing importance of extended highlights the importance of the income households as a strategy for economizing contributed by the other members. on housing and incorporating more Despite the implementation of this members able to work. Sending out more strategy, total household income members of the household to seek paid decreased, by around 10% in most cases. jobs, however, was not sufficient to A study conducted in Guadalajara, mitigate the effects of inflation and wage Mexico, at various times during the deterioration. The following section decade showed that total household examines four phenomena: changes in income (deflated according to the inflation consumption patterns, increased rates for that period) dropped by 11% domestic services and labour as a result of between 1982 and 1985. However, reduced access to the goods and services considering that individual wages lost market, changes in household 35% of their purchasing power during that composition and changes in the time, the true importance of the family and participation of household members in the domestic unit in moderating poverty mutual assistance and solidarity and cushioning the blow of the crisis networks. becomes apparent. Between 1985 and the end of the decade, the number of workers 2. Consumption patterns per household returned to its 1982 level. This is probably why statistics for the Income levels do not automatically beginning and end of the decade do not determine consumption patterns, which show a major increase in the number of are culturally and historically defined, but workers. This finding, in turn, may reflect they do certainly establish the framework the fact that in most countries, the crisis which breeds certain tastes, preferences reached its height in the early 1980s. It is and product choices. As their income also possible that the cost of sending more levels increase, individuals have greater household members into the labour access to goods and services markets. market outweighed the benefits obtained, During the era of economic buoyancy, especially in urban areas where wages wage increases went hand in hand with an were very low and benefits were minimal. increase in the consumption of food, What is certain is that ethnographic clothing and shoes and more durable accounts reflect an intensification of consumer goods (household appliances, 88 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. etc.).11 The deterioration of the real and households vary widely. Qualitative wages of most Latin American urban studies have shown that portions and populations strongly affected consump- types of food are distributed according to tion patterns. each individual's position in the First, reduced access to goods and household. Thus, as a result of the gender- services markets prompted women to and age-based hierarchies prevailing in shoulder more responsibilities, such as the region's societies, women and children mending more clothes, preparing lunches are given what is left over in the pots after for working household members to take working males, especially adults, are fed to their workplaces, etc. Women were (González de la Rocha, 1986). thus forced to work harder on the home As real income decreased, households front in order to save and use those budgeted a higher percentage of their savings to maintain the level of basic income for food and, consequently, less food consumption, while household for other areas of consumption, such as expenditure on recreation, clothing, education, health and clothing. In Chile, between 1970 and 1985, the consumption education and eve10n health decreased. A domestic strategy thus became evident of wheat, sugar, rice, meat and dairy in which families stopped consuming products took such a plunge that per certain things in order to keep consuming capita levels of consumption of these other more important items such as food. items in the mid-1980s were lower than None the less, despite these protective they had been in the 1960s. Oil and maize measures, food consumption also seem to have been the only exceptions changed. (Ortega and Tironi, 1988, p. 44). The steps Typical food consumption patterns of taken to protect nutrition were the urban poor in the period of economic insufficient, and Chileans therefore had to growth and prosperity were deficient consume less. The information and primarily in terms of the products and analyses contained in studies done on quantities consumed. In Mexico, for consumption patterns among the example, the diet of poor families in the low-income population in Mexico paint a cities consisted mainly of carbohydrates very similar picture. The most significant and sugars that provided quick energy. changes in food consumption patterns However, it also included —albeit in included much lower intake of expensive meagre quantities— other, more animal products, which were replaced by expensive products to diversify the diet cheaper animal products such as eggs and and provide other types of nutrients, such entrails, whose consumption rose. Meat, as animal proteins. Efforts to ensure a which was seldom consumed at any time, more well-rounded, nutritious diet did was virtually absent from the tables of the not necessarily ensure equitable urban poor during the crisis years ("we consumption and more even distribution have become vegetarians"). The decisions of goods and food. The consumption taken by housewives at local marketplaces patterns of different members of families and in their homes were clearly reflected

11 Singer notes that the purchase of household appliances (refrigerators, radios, televisions) rose considerably in Brazil, and that this trend also seems to have been reflected in the other countries of the region. Manufacturers of those goods had to expand and consolidate the domestic market for their products. According to information provided by Singer (1986, p. 36), between 1960 and 1970 the percentage of urban households with refrigerators increased from 23.3% to 42.5%, while the percentage with televisions also increased, from 9.5% in 1960 to 40.2% in 1970. 12 A number of qualitative studies have been done on such strategies, including the ones by Ortega and Tironi (1988), Schkolnik and Teitelboim (1988) and González de la Rocha and others (1991). The case studies presented by Schkolnik and Teitelboim (1988) describe the mechanisms employed by Chilean families, such as the use of more economical fuels (or none at all) instead of gas for home heating and meal preparation. Families stopped paying their electricity and water bills in order to maintain their level of food consumption. Similarly, the urban poor of Santiago, Chile, changed their mealtimes so that they ate two meals a day instead of three. THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 89 in the overall figures. It has been women's greater control over income and calculated that in Mexico, the cost of the the material bases of survival in those basic food basket as a percentage of the households (González de la Rocha, 1993). minimum wage increased from 34.7% in 1980 to 49.5% in 1987. As a result of 3. Changes in household composition housewives' difficulties in "stretching" their money, national per capita meat As noted earlier, the boom years consumption fell by five kilograms witnessed a trend towards the nuclear- between 1982 (when it amounted to 16.7 ization of households. This reflected the kilograms) and 1985 (when it was down modernizing urbanization process which, to 12.1 kilograms). Milk consumption hit among other things, led to the formation an all-time low in 1987. Even the of nuclear family structures and a decrease consumption of products such as rice, in other types of family and domestic beans and maize, which were part of the units. Qualitative studies have shown that traditional Mexican diet, went down in as part of the strategies undertaken by city those years (Cordera and González dwellers in the crisis years, extended Tiburcio, 1991, p. 33). The result, as might households increased as a means of saving be expected, was an undernourished money on housing and of retaining —in urban population. the case of children who remained in their Evidence and analyses on Mexico parents' home after marriage— and/or show that not all households sought to adding members able to engage in paid maintain their consumption patterns and domestic labour, such as equally or were equally affected. daughters-in-law or other co-residents. Extended households that had a large Although nuclear households still number of working members and were represent the majority (between 50% and in the consolidation or equilibrium13 68% in five countries surveyed by ECLAC, phase of the domestic cycle were better 1992b), extended and female-headed able to preserve their spending and households are common family consumption patterns, though with some structures in the region's societies. In modifications. Young households, on the fact, it has been estimated that even other hand, which were frequently though extended households are not as nuclear and comprised fewer workers, numerous as nuclear ones, they include were more vulnerable and altered their more of the population owing to their consumption patterns more drastically larger size. than other households. These analyses It must be recalled, however, that also indicate that female-headed different types of household structure are households, though poorer than not mutually exclusive. A single male-headed households, tended to be household may show features of both more equitable in the distribution of the nuclearization and extension over time, resources and goods purchased for and it has been observed that a structure consumption and to have more "balanced" with features of extension affords the food consumption patterns with more household greater flexibility, especially if fruits and vegetables in the daily diet, the additional household members are largely because female heads of fit and able to participate in the household budgeted a higher percentage income-generating strategy and in of income for food. In fact, per capita domestic labour. However, the emphasis consumption can even be higher in those on the economic benefits of extended households. It has been observed that such households should not obscure the fact alternative patterns are facilitated by that extension often entails increased

13 This phase of the domestic cycle is characterized by greater equilibrium between consumers and income-earners, higher levels of total and per capita income and a high proportion of extended households. 90 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. conflict between household members. For work and increased conflict and example, many married sons who live in negotiation within households. None the their parents' home continue to turn over less, the emphasis on the "private" nature their economic contributions to their of the strategies should not diminish the mothers, often to the great discontent of importance of mutual assistance networks their wives. Control over resources and among relatives, neighbours, godparents, the education of children or grandchildren friends and fellow workers, which have in multi-generation households are some been a source of income and resources for of the sorest areas of conflict among the Latin American urban poor. In fact, the members of extended households. validity of hypotheses about reciprocal Moreover, the legality of unions is not exchange and mutual assistance has been homogeneous. There is great diversity tested through analyses of deviant groups among the different countries of the that have no peer relationships. These region. Even where there has been an analyses have shown that social isolation increase in legal unions, the incidence of makes it harder for people to find jobs, consensual unions is very high, especially cope with emergencies and even deal with at certain stages of women's lives (mainly everyday obstacles in the daily struggle to between the ages of 15 and 24) and in the survive. poorest and least educated sectors (ECLAC, 1992a). D. MECHANISMS THAT TRANSMIT POVERTY FROM ONE GENERATION 4. Participation in mutual assistance TO ANOTHER networks The social responses discussed above are 1. Teenage pregnancy private in nature, as they are devised and implemented within the home. Although Teenage pregnancy is usually associated they are of great importance, survival and with dropping out of school, becoming reproduction are based on relationships a female head of household and that go beyond the domestic realm. The transmitting poverty from one generation rise in "collective kitchens" in Peru and the to another. Pregnancy among the "soup kitchens", "glass of milk" and teenage population occurs primarily in "March for Life" initiatives in Bolivia urban contexts marked by poverty, attested to the enormous capacity of poor unemployment and low wages, and inhabitants of those places to come up should be analysed within the framework with responses outside the home. In other of the family and the domestic group, as countries, however, responses were more social structures for mediation, survival private in nature. In Mexico, the measures and reproduction. taken to deal with the crisis were highly Few studies on teenage pregnancy privatized (Beneria, 1992; González de la have been conducted in the region. The Rocha, 1986 and 1991). The hypothesis research done by Mayra Buvini has that there had been an increase in doubtless been the most useful tool collective associations and organizations available for the detailed examination of was not borne out by the findings on various urban and rural contexts in Latin Mexico, which pointed instead to a America. Unfortunately, many of these population bent on survival, organized at studies are still in progress and their the level of the home with its own findings are not yet available. However, resources, and much more silent and some very important conclusions can be overwhelmed than in previous years. It drawn from them, including the has been pointed out that, surprisingly, following: social harmony prevailed in Mexico i) Teenage pregnancy, far from being on during the crisis years, and that social the rise, has declined sharply. According harmony and order were based on harder to Buvini and her co-authors, data on THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN. 91

Chile show that the teenage fertility rate terms of health, especially as concerns has gone down in recent decades, their nutritional status, but they have although not as much as the fertility rate pointed to a possible connection between for the non-adolescent population. the father's absence and poor school ii) The percentage of illegitimate births to performance. teenage mothers has increased. Buvini's Undoubtedly, there is a relationship calculations for Chile show that the between teenage pregnancy and proportion of illegitimate children born to unemployment among young men. This teenage mothers rose from 29% in 1960 to disadvantageous situation brands 60% in 1980. individuals who are in the "marriage iii) Most of these women live with their market". Becoming a teenage mother parents for six to eight years after the birth makes girls more vulnerable in the of their first child. Thus, not all teenage medium and long term. Studies have mothers immediately become female shown that women who begin their heads of household. The teenage mother's reproductive lives at an early age are more family and original domestic group plays likely to have a larger number of children a major role as a support institution and shorter intervals between during pregnancy, birth and in the early pregnancies. It is very probable that these years of the child's life. In Barbados, 71% women will become female heads of of the teenage mothers surveyed household without a steady partner, and continued to live with their parents during that they will therefore face serious that initial period; in Chile, the figure was obstacles in trying to pursue their studies; 50%. Apparently, economic necessity moreover, their job performance will be determines whether teenage mothers seriously affected by their large number of remain in their parents' home, since many children and deficient education. From of them would prefer to live on their own. this perspective, the benefits that these Women's desire for independence must young women derive from their be weighed against the advantages of immediate support group —their staying in their parents' home, which are household of origin— are insufficient and not limited to the benefits of belonging to inadequate, and in the medium and long a household where other members term, teenage pregnancy is one of the contribute their incomes and where factors that help to transmit poverty from domestic labour is shared among several one generation to the next. women. The information on Barbados indicates that a high percentage of teenage 2. Unequal distribution of resources. mothers remain in school, which would Households headed by women obviously be much more difficult if they versus households headed by a had the sole or primary responsibility for resident male earning income and doing domestic chores. Nearly 50% of young mothers in Reference has already been made to Chile and Barbados participate in the the vulnerability of female-headed labour market, which has a positive households. The approach that stresses influence on their children's nutritional the vulnerability of such households has status. If these women could not rely on recently been contrasted with another the economic and social infrastructure for which, without losing sight of the factors child care provided by their parents' that result in lower incomes, stresses the household, it would be much harder for positive features of female-headed them to begin or continue working, since households, such as more equitable low-cost day-care and child-care centres distribution of labour and of the are few and far between. resources and income it generates, less iv) Existing studies have not shown differentiated patterns of consumption any clear correlation between the father's and greater emphasis on food presence and the children's well-being in consumption (Buvini, 1991; Chant, 1985; 92 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

González de la Rocha, 1993). Therefore, children usually perform very poorly in while it can be said that the absence of a school and end up with fewer job male head of household increases the opportunities in the long run. likelihood of remaining poor, thereby turning female-headed households into a 3. Dropping out of school or permanent "residual category" of poor falling behind people, it is necessary to take an approach that offers insights into the existence of Available data indicate a correlation more balanced consumption patterns between school attendance and household (quantified in terms of the percentages of income: rates of absenteeism and falling income budgeted for the purchase of food, behind in school are higher among alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, clothing, lower-income households. Based on medicine, etc.), consumption practices empirical evidence furnished by ECLAC, that are less gender-determined and different levels of academic performance environments that are more conducive to can be linked to different family a fairer distribution of labour. structures. For example, female-headed The vulnerability of such women and households show higher rates of their children should be assessed through preschool attendance than other an analysis of per capita consumption households (probably because these levels and the subtler aspects of what women need to work) and higher rates of constitutes, facilitates or precludes falling behind and absenteeism among well-being (diet, health, education). It is a children between the ages of 6 and 14. On fact, however, that this type of household the other hand, children of consensual is mainly concentrated in the unions systematically fall behind in school lower-income levels and that its incidence more often than children of legalized has increased fastest in the poorest sectors. unions. Female-headed households and It has been suggested, however, that consensual unions are concentrated in the women and children in poor urban lower-income brackets and therefore lack households headed by men may be just as the conditions that encourage children to vulnerable, owing to unequal attend school regularly and to do well in relationships of domination and the classroom. As noted earlier, young and subordination fraught with gender and poor households tend to have more generational overtones (González de la children. Unequal food consumption in Rocha, 1993). Such relationships find those households does not work in their expression in unequal helpings of food favour, and child malnutrition has served to different members of the increased, as have diseases that are household and in differential access to directly or indirectly related to poverty educational and health care facilities. and malnutrition. Moreover, children Power and relations between genders and frequently combine their schooling with generations are evident in the different work, but most drop out of school because levels of well-being found among of a personal and family need to generate members of the same domestic group. additional income. Thus, the fact that a household's income Access to educational facilities (and level places it slightly above the poverty probably, also, levels of academic line does not mean that all the individuals performance) vary not only among belonging to that household enjoy similar different family structures but also among and equitable levels of well-being. different members of the same household, Differential consumption practices and depending on their position in the unequal access to resources and services domestic structure and the stage of their in the context of poverty give rise to high family's domestic cycle that coincides indexes of malnutrition, which erodes the with their school years. It is a physical and intellectual capacities of the well-established fact that the educational individuals affected. Undernourished levels of first-born children are much THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 93 lower than those of their brothers and need to supplement their household sisters, because they are the ones hurt by income, they have trouble finding jobs. the most difficult phase of the domestic Going out to work at an early age cycle: the expansion phase. The younger doubtless has an impact on educational children, on the other hand, benefit from a levels and on how such individuals will situation of greater economic prosperity integrate into the working world not only to which their older siblings often when they first go out to work, but also in contribute by earning income and their future working lives and in terms of carrying out domestic chores. Clearly, their medium- and long-term income access to education is differentiated, and levels. This situation makes it even harder the early years of the domestic cycle are for men to fulfil their traditional role as devoted primarily to economic providers. Women's increasing investment for a better future for the responsibility for the household economy younger children born later on, although and the rise in so-called "female economic there may not be any explicit plan to this heads of household" leave men caught in effect. The impact that differential access a contradiction between what is expected to education can have on the future of them and their limited opportunities to working life of these individuals is live up to such expectations (Kaztman, evident. The first-born have few 1992). opportunities for social mobility, while the younger ones will probably be better prepared to hold higher-paying jobs. E. SOME THOUGHTS ON POSSIBLE ACTION 4. Economic dependence on the family labour force Based on the elements discussed above, some points that should be considered in As indicated previously, in the context of designing public welfare policies are urban poverty, households base survival worth summarizing. Given the and reproduction on ties of mutual importance of the family and domestic dependence and on the use of internal units for survival and reproduction, any resources, chiefly labour. The model of the attempt to promote the welfare of the nuclear family that is supported by the urban poor must be based on an wages of the male head of household is understanding of family dynamics and of rarely reflected in reality. The vast the differentiated levels of well-being majority of poor households must found within urban households. Efforts to combine diverse sources of income, and identify risk groups should also look at more than one member must participate what happens within households, whose in the labour market. The work of women, most vulnerable members are children young people and children is a resource and women. Specifically, it is urgently that is exploited in cases of need, however important to recognize: small its contribution may be. i) The importance of women in the social Intra-domestic economic dependence processes of survival, reproduction and the increases as individual survival becomes promotion and maintenance of family more difficult. The consequences of this well-being. If there is anyone in the family phenomenon include dropping out of and in the household who is interested in school or falling behind, a double working promoting well-being —especially that of day for women and an overload of work children in terms of nutrition and general for all household members. The good health— it is, without a doubt, the limitations of this "strategy" are illustrated female home-maker. Women are artisans by its effect of increasing the number of of survival and reproduction and could young men between the ages of 15 and 25 become effective allies of social policies. who are neither in school nor working. On ii) The fact that women's control over their leaving basic education, driven by the own income translates into substantial 94 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. improvements in children's well-being, in veryv) The vulnerability of certain types of concrete areas such as nutrition, health andhouseholds. As has been shown, young education. There is evidence in various households, elderly households and countries that when mothers earn and female-headed households typically have have control over their own income, their lower incomes than other households children's nutritional levels increase. This because they are less likely to be able to suggests that there is a need for fresh send out a large contingent of individuals thinking about the criteria for granting in search of jobs. Moreover, they find it subsidies and loans; if they are to reach the harder to maintain their levels of population that needs them most, consumption during periods of economic women's crucial role in creating and slump. The vulnerability of young safeguarding family well-being must be households is particularly alarming seriously taken into account. because they are the social units where the iii) The need to boost female income and bulto k of the child population is narrow the gap bet-ween men's and women'sconcentrated . However, the poverty access to resources in the region's societies.indexe s of households headed by elderly Clearly, sex-differentiated wages are persons are also very high. The elderly typical of the countries' labour markets. population is increasing, and its needs in Changes are needed in the gender-based terms of health care and economic segmentation of labour markets and in the support will multiply. In addition, wage levels they offer. Society must female-headed households tend to be realize that women's wages are not just very poor owing to the gender-based "supplementary income" and that they inequalities in the income available on have become an important mainstay of the the labour market. family and household. Increasing vi) The special features of consensual unions women's wages and salaries will have and their impact on children's prospects in life. direct and rapid effects on the urban The sharp increase in such unions in the population's diet, access to medical care past decade, their concentration among and medicine, and housing conditions. poorer households and indications that iv) The need to expand and upgrade child careth e children of such unions do less well in centres, especially for young families andschoo l point to the urgency of studying single women. Studies on households in the this phenomenon further through region have shown that women who must systematic research that takes into account work outside the home often leave the diversity of marital unions, the children alone or in the care of an older different types of family structure and sister or brother because physically and children's well-being. economically accessible child care centres vii) Men's difficulties in fulfilling their are scarce. The few systematic studies traditional role in a context where there are no done on child malnutrition have revealed alternative models. This phenomenon is an increase in the percentage of "seriously part of a complex aggravation of the malnourished" children under two years contradictions that have developed within of age. This could have something to do the home. On the one hand, the crisis has with the fact that small children are more forced women to participate in gainful likely to be in very young households employment, though without releasing which are just beginning their expansion them from thei r domestic responsibilities; phase and which have had difficulty in on the other, the standards and values maintaining their pre-crisis levels of food culturally assigned to men and women consumption. It could also be related to have not changed. The conflict between the shorter nursing period necessitated by what men and women are supposed to be women's increased participation in paid and what they actually are has resurfaced, employment. It has also been associated and efforts to resolve it should rely on with children's lack of power and, solidarity and consensus rather than increasingly, their abandonment. confrontation and violence. THE URA FAMILY AND ETY IN.. 95

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benería, Lourdes (1992), "The Mexican debt crisis: restructuring the economy and the household", Unequal Burden. Economic Crisis, Persistent Poverty, and Women's Work, Lourdes Benería and Shelley Feldman (eds.), Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press. Blumberg, Rae L. (1991), "Introduction: the 'triple overlap' of gender stratification, economy and the family", Gender, Family and Economy. The Triple Overlap, Rae Lesser Blumberg (ed.), Newbury Park, Ca., Sage Publications. Buvini, Mayra (1991), The vulnerability of women-headed households: policy questions and options for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mujer y desarrollo series, No. 8 (LC/ L.611), Santiago, Chile, ECLAC. (1992), "Familias de madres adolescentes y pobreza intergeneracional en Latinoamérica y el Caribe", Information Bulletin, Washington, D.C., International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Buvini, Mayra and others (1991), La suerte de las madres adolescentes y sus hijos: un estudio de caso sobre la transmisión de pobreza en Santiago de Chile (LC/R.1038), Santiago, Chile, ECLAC. Chant, Sylvia (1985), "Single-parent families: choice or constraint? The formation of female-headed households in Mexican shanty towns", Development and Change, No. 16. (1991), Women and Survival in Mexican Cities. Perspectives on Gender, Labour Markets and Low-Income Households, Manchester, Manchester University Press. Cordera, Rolando and Enrique González Tiburcio (1991), "Crisis and transition in the Mexican economy", Social Responses to Mexico's Economic Crisis ofthel980's, Mercedes González de la Rocha and Agustín Escobar Latapí (eds.), La Jolla, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego. Cortés, Fernando and Rosa María Rubalcava (1991), Autoexplotación forzada o equidad por empobrecimiento, Mexico City, El Colegio de México. ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) (1991), La equidad en el panorama social de América Latina durante los años ochenta (LC/G.1686), Santiago, Chile, October. (1992a), Latin American poverty profiles for the early 1990s (LC/L.716(Conf.82/6)), Santiago, Chile, November. (1992b), Hacia un perfil de la familia actual en Latinoamérica y el Caribe (LC/R.1208; LC/DEM/R.153, series A, No. 247), Santiago, Chile, November. Escobar, Agustín and Bryan Roberts (1991), "Urban stratification, the middle classes and economic change in Mexico", Social Responses to Mexico's Economic Crisis of the 1980's, Mercedes González de la Rocha and Agustín Escobar Latapí (eds.), La Jolla, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego. Fortuna, Juan Carlos and Suzana Prates (1989), "Informal sector versus informalized labor relations in Uruguay", The Informal Economy. Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries, Alejandro Portes, Manuel Castells and Lauren A. Benton (eds.), Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press. Fresneda, Oscar (ed.) (1989), La pobreza en Colombia, 2 vols., Santa Fe de Bogotá, National Bureau of Statistics (DANE). 96 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.

García, Brígida, Humberto Muñoz and Orlandina de Oliveira (1982), Hogares y trabajadores en la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, El Colegio de México/Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). (1983), Familia y mercado de trabajo. Un estudio de dos ciudades brasileñas, Mexico City, El Colegio de México/Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). González de la Rocha, Mercedes (1986), Los recursos de la pobreza. Familias de bajos ingresos de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, El Colegio de Jalisco. (1991), "Family well-being, food consumption, and survival strategies during Mexico's economic crisis", Social Responses to Mexico's Economic Crisis of the 1980's, González de la Rocha and Escobar Latapí (eds.), La Jolla, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego. (1993), "Household headship and occupational position. Notes towards a better understanding of gender and class differences in a Mexican urban context", paper presented at the conference "Engendering Wealth and Well-Being", San Diego, 17-20 February, organized by the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of California. Hardy, Clarisa (1989), La ciudad escindida. Los problemas nacionales y la Región Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile, Sociedad Editora e Impresora Alborada S.A. Kaztman, Rubén (1992), "Why are men so irresponsible?", CEPAL Review, No. 46 (LC/G.1717-P), Santiago, Chile, April. McFarren, Wendy (1992), "The politics of Bolivia's economic crisis: survival strategies of displaced tin-mining households", Unequal Burden. Economic Crisis, Persistent Poverty, and Women's Work, Lourdes Benería and S. Feldman (eds.), Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press. Oliveira, Orlandina and Brígida García (1990), "Cambios en los determinantes del trabajo femenino en México", Mexico City, El Colegio de México, unpublished. Ortega, Eugenio R. and Ernesto Tironi B. (1988), Pobreza en Chile, Santiago, Chile, Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo. Pacheco, Carlos Américo (1993), "Evolução recente da urbanização e da questão regional no Brasil: Implicações econômicas para a dinâmica demográfica", paper presented at the Fourth Latin American Conference on Population: Demographic transition in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico City, 23-26 March. Pastore, José, Helio Zylberstajn and Carmen Silvia Pagotto (1983), Mudança social e pobreza no Brasil: 1970-1980. (O que ocorreu com a família brasileira?), São Paulo, Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas/Livraria Pionera Editora. Schkolnik, Mariana and Berta Teitelboim (1988), Pobreza y desempleo en poblaciones. La otra cara del modelo neoliberal, Colección Temas Sociales series, No. 2, Santiago, Chile, Programme for the Economy of Labour (PET). Singer, Paul (1986), Repartição da renda. Pobres e ricos o regime militar, Rio de Janeiro, Jorge Sahar Editor. Wartemberg, Lucy (undated), "Separación conyugal y trayectoria laboral. Mujeres de sectores populares", Barranquilla, Colombia, unpublished. Chapter V

THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN LATIN AMERICA

A. INTRODUCTION Household and population surveys are only beginning to be conducted in rural In view of the vastness and complexity of areas. However, the many existing case this topic and the diversity of regional and studies are a very valuable source of national situations surrounding and information that partially fills these gaps. defining rural families, this chapter covers This chapter is divided into five only some general trends, based on sections. The first section outlines available information, focusing mainly on general aspects of the problem; the families of subsistence farmers and second presents a socio-economic small-scale producers. It does not analyse characterization of rural families; the families of medium- and large-scale third describes the main forms of producers in the region, on the organization of these families; the fourth assumption that they tend to be similar to identifies some of the processes that are medium- and high-income urban families. changing family behaviour; and the last However, they should be the subject of a offers recommendations for formulating specific study, which is outside the scope public policies focused on rural families. of this chapter. The basic aim is to analyse the B. CHARACTERIZATION OF RURAL interaction between the socio-economic FAMILIES IN LATIN AMERICA dynamics of rural families and their AND THE CARIBBEAN various manifestations in the areas of marriage and child care; the relationships between genders and generations that are 1. Rural population and families formed within households are therefore examined. Furthermore, a typology of The rapid rural-urban migration family situations in rural areas of the processes that began in the early 1950s as region is proposed, on the basis of which a consequence of macroeconomic policies a typology of rural families has been emphasizing the cities have changed the developed. population's territorial distribution. Existing information on rural families Whereas nearly 60% of Latin Americans presents a series of problems and and Caribbeans lived in rural areas in the limitations. Although demographic and early 1950s, the percentage fell to only 29% agricultural statistics are available, no in the early 1990s. Despite this change, the complete data has been gathered on the rural population is still growing in social characteristics of these families. absolute terms.

1 The population's rate of urbanization seems to have slowed in almost all the countries of the region. In Brazil, for example, the growth rate fell from 4.4% to 2.9% between the 1970s and 1980s. 98 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Further analysis of this data reveals 1980s, there were about 23 million rural great differences among the countries of households in the region, with an average the region. In almost half of them size of 5.3 people. A large proportion of (Barbados, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the them were in Brazil, the Andean Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El subregión, Mexico, Central America and Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, the Caribbean. However, average family Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay size varies by subregión: families are and various countries of the Organization smaller in the Southern Cone and larger in of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)), 40% or Central America. more of the population is rural. Some 79.8% of the region's rural The region's population is still families live in Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, growing, but at a slower pace that reflects Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti, the a drop in fertility rates in both urban and Dominican Republic and the Central rural areas. This drop was particularly American countries. Their proportion of steep in the last decade, when the rate fell all families, however, is smaller in from 4.1 in the early 1980s to 3.4 in the predominantly urban countries such as 1990s. The decline reflects lower birth Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru than in rates owing to more widespread use of the other countries, where rural families family planning to determine the number represent the largest segment of all of children born. Adult and infant families. mortality rates have also decreased. Even though the reduction in these 2. Indigenous families rates is widespread, there are marked variations among countries. Fertility rates The quantification of the indigenous are still high in countries such as Bolivia, population poses a series of difficulties El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, owing to both the indicators used to define Nicaragua and Paraguay; i.e., in some of a person as indigenous and the lack of the countries with the largest rural relevant information. In general, the populations. While information on rural indicator used is based on information on fertility is not available for the entire which language is used. As a result, region, this rate probably has also fallen to estimates vary considerably; in Ecuador, a similar degree, even in low-income for example, they range from one to three sectors, though from a higher initial rate. million people, depending on the source. These processes have affected average The actual figure is probably about family size in rural areas. At the end of the 1.4 million.

Table 1 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: RURAL POPULATION AND FAMILIES Percentage Percentage Persons Rural Subregión Rural of regional of regional per families or country population total total family

Brazil 35,570,000 29.0 6,587,037 28.7 5.4 Andean subregión 25,999,000 21.2 4,902,788 21.4 5.3 Mexico 24,238,000 19.8 4,406,909 19.2 5.5 Central America 14,696,000 12.0 2,520,301 11.0 5.8 Caribbean 12,950,000 10.6 2,381,906 10.4 5.4 Southern Cone 9,104,000 7.4 2,143,337 9.3 4.2

Regional total 122,557,000 100.0 22,942,278 100.0 5.3 Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The State of World Rural Poverty, 1990. THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN 99

According to the International Fund indigenous populations living in tropical for Agricultural Development (IFAD), there forests, which make up about 70% and 7%, were about 29 million indigenous people respectively, of all indigenous families. in the region around 1988. More recently, The rest live in cities or on reservations the Inter-American Development Bank (iLO, 1986). (IDB) estimated the figure at 40 million. The The vast majority of families of IFAD study, which appears more realistic, indigenous subsistence farmers have suggests that there are about 8.3 million limited access to land; they are indigenous families in the region, mostly smallholders who live in rural com- in the Andean and Central American munities, with agricultural activity, and to countries (Mexico, Guatemala and parts of a lesser degree handicrafts, as their main Honduras and El Salvador). Some 92% of economic activity. More recently, as a the region's indigenous families live in result of better economic integration, they Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru and have forged links with labour markets. Ecuador, and nearly 90% of them live in Indigenous small-farming com- rural areas. munities are traditionally organized on Indigenous families are not a the basis of family groups that are homogeneous group except in that they recognized as descendants of common belong to national minorities that usually ancestors, linked together by multiple are subject to some type of discrimination. kinship ties between their members. They comprise about 130 language Access to community resources is groups, but three large groups stand out: generally reserved for descendants of the the Aymaras of Bolivia and Peru, the founders or persons who enter the Quechuas of the Andean region, including community by virtue of ties of kinship.2 some groups in Argentina, and the Mayas Indigenous communities are not and Aztecs of Guatemala and Mexico, all closed groups, either economically or of whose societies were organized as socially. They maintain significant states at the time of the conquest. relationships with other communities, Indigenous people can be divided into especially those of the same cultural two groups on the basis of social and group, with whom they intermarry and economic traits and place of residence: trade not only labour and products but indigenous subsistence farmers and tribal also information and knowledge. They

Table 2 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: INDIGENOUS POUPULATION

„ , „ Percentage _ Indj n uPercentags e Percentage Subregion Rural o£regional ^ J° of regional of rural or country population ^ population M ^^

Brazil 35,570,000 29.0 150,024 0.5 0.4 Andean subregion 25,999,000 21.2 11,629,024 40.6 44.7 Mexico 24,238,000 19.8 12,000,000 41.9 49.5 Central America 14,696,000 12.0 3,791,000 13.2 25.8 Caribbean 12,950,000 10.6 72,004 0.3 0.6 Southern Cone 9,104,000 7.4 989,517 3.5 10.9 Regional total 122,557,000 100.0 28,631,569 100.0 23.4 Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The State of World Rural Poverty, 1990.

2 There is a great deal of literature on indigenous small-farming communities. See De la Cadena, 1986, and journals such as Allpanchis (Cuzco), Estudios rurales latinoamericanos (Bogotá), Ecuador debate (Quito) and Debate agrario (Lima), which continually publish articles on the subject. 100 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. also set up structured relations with presence is particularly significant in the subregional, regional and national (and, basins of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, increasingly, international) urban centres, and in the Darién, Chaco and Guajira where they buy and sell products, sell regions of Colombia and Venezuela. their labour, receive information and Although some of these groups have only develop ties with institutions such as sporadic contacts (often violent) with schools, churches, health centres, political national society, others, especially those parties and trade unions. The expansion of located at the foot of the Andes, in the communications infrastructure, including department of Petén and in some other not only highways but also radio and areas, have established stable relations, as television, has moved them even closer to in the case of the Shuar of Ecuador. mestizo society. Tribal indigenous families typically The community also provides a sense consist of a chief (usually a man), a group of identity and family membership, as of women and their descendants; they live well as a basic network of protection, even in a territory including an area for fishing, for migrants. To a large extent, this hunting and gathering (the men's security is grounded in membership in a responsibility) and they have another area family group and in a community, and for producing maize or yucca (the participation in productive activities (such women's responsibility). In general, they as growing maize and beans in a truck use systems of long fallow periods and garden), the diversified management of itinerant, slash-and-burn agriculture. resources and the symbolic practices Groups which have established ongoing surrounding them. This seems to explain, relations with national societies have in part, what has been called "a sense of adopted patterns of stable residence, with long-distance belonging", which permanent crops and livestock-raising, characterizes such groups as indigenous and are closer to the model of indigenous Mexicans who emigrate to the United subsistence farmers. Those who have not States, Bolivian Quechua subsistence made this transition and whose territories farmers transplanted to Buenos Aires, or have been threatened by settlers or by crafts dealers from Otavalo, Ecuador, petroleum or mining enterprises have scattered almost all over the world. retreated to increasingly remote areas, or else have become subordinate to the In many areas inhabited by enterprises and settler groups. indigenous small-scale farmers, confrontations have occurred between them and the landowners and 3. Rural families and poverty authorities, a number of which have turned into lengthy, violent conflicts. A substantial proportion of rural families Impoverishment is not unrelated to these are poor, judging from either income or conflicts, which have caused lasting the satisfaction of their basic needs. upsets in rural areas, including deaths, Estimates of the extent of rural poverty forced migrations and uprootings, and vary; the percentage of the rural incomplete families. In some places these population living below the poverty line conflicts are linked to the violence ranges from 54% (according to ECLAC) to generated by drug trafficking and the 63% (according to IFAD) to 67% (according cultivation of psychotropic substances, to IDB). In the late 1980s, the number of sometimes used for ritual consumption by poor rural families was estimated at 14.5 the growers. This violence adds to the million, 86% of whom lived in Brazil, the insecurity and instability to which Andean region, Central America and indigenous families are subject. Mexico. The indigenous populations of The rural poor represent slightly less tropical jungles are undoubtedly a diverse than half of all the poor people in the sector, consisting of a vast number of region, despite the marked urbanization small, isolated ethnic groups. Their process and the increase in urban poverty THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN... 101 during the 1980s. Poverty is more chronic Mexico, the uplands and mountains of the and structural in the countryside than in Andean countries, the hillsides of Central cities, where the number of poor people America, the mountainous areas of has grown because of decreased income. Guatemala, the central border area This is reflected, inter alia, by the number between the Dominican Republic and of rural indigent households (30% of the Haiti, and the jungles of the Amazon, the rural population) versus urban ones Orinoco, Darién and Petén. (11%).3 The geographical distribution of rural Rural poverty is characterized by a poverty coincides with the ethnic combination of low income and unmet distribution of the population, especially basic needs. In generad, the coverage of in the Andean and Central American basic services such as education or countries. Thus, in Mexico, with the electricity is inadequate in rural areas, exception of Querétaro, the nine states despite the efforts made in the past two with the highest levels of poverty and decades (Fresneda, 1991). It has been marginalization are those with the highest pointed out, in that connection, that proportion of indigenous people. Some poverty in rural areas reflects a 62.5% of Mexico's indigenous rural combination of factors related not only to population lives in these states, compared the low purchasing power of families, but to 18.5% of the non-indigenous rural also to the limited availability of basic population. The figures for Ecuador and services. Peru are similar. Not all rural poverty in Poverty is distributed unevenly the region is linked to ethnicity. Large among rural families, depending on the pockets of rural poverty among ecological and geographical areas in non-indigenous groups are found in which they live, their ethnic background, countries with or without indigenous the gender of the head of the family and populations. other socio-economic characteristics of Lastly, poor rural families share households. A high proportion of the certain socio-demographic features. In Latin American and Caribbean region's many countries, they are incomplete or poor families are found in north-eastern headed by women, especially in places Brazil, the central and southern states of where armed conflicts have torn families

Table 3 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: POOR RURAL FAMILIES p Poor Subregion Poor rural Percentage families/ or country families ° S rural y total families Brazil 4,808,519 33.15 73.00 Andean subregion 3,583,321 24.70 73.09 Mexico 2,247,455 15.49 51.00 Central America 1,526,312 10.52 60.56 Caribbean 1,585,983 10.93 66.33 Southern Cone 755,253 5.21 35.24

Regional total 14,506,843 100.0 63.21 Source: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), The State of World Rural Poverty, 1992.

3 The relative significance of rural poverty varies according to how it is quantified and the data sources used. The figures cited here are from IFAD. Indigence is measured on the basis of the percentage of households whose income is less than the cost of the basic food basket. 102 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. apart. In Guatemala, El Salvador and all activities forming part of the informal Nicaragua, such families constitute an sector. identifiable group of chronically poor Despite these changes, most Latin people.4 Likewise, the poorest households American rural families are still tend to be larger, with more children, most subsistence farmers, although a of whom live at home; moreover, the considerable proportion of them earn a parents have a lower level of education small income from agricultural activity. and usually obtain a considerable These families differ from entrepreneurial proportion of their income through units in three ways: i) they basically self-employment. perform the work themselves, while the latter rely more on hired workers; ii) in 4. Socio-economic activities of terms of the quantity and quality of the rural families resources they manage, since the most abundant resource of subsistence farming From a socio-economic perspective, rural units is labour, while those of families constitute an extremely entrepreneurial units are capital and land; heterogeneous sector in which the and iii) subsistence farming units can be demarcations between the different defined as units of production and groups are blurred, especially among the consumption, or of production and poorest groups. Around 1980, this sector reproduction, while these functions are consisted basically of subsistence farmers, clearly separate in entrepreneurial units. who made up nearly two thirds of the Small-scale farming families differ rural population; rural wage-earners, who among themselves with respect to their represented 29.5% of that population; and assets, sources of income and economic indigenous gatherers and other opportunities. Two basic types can be categories, who represented 4.2% (IDB, distinguished: i) smallholders, who farm 1992). small lots with the help of their families, Although recent developments are produce primarily to meet their own unclear for want of relevant information, consumption needs and obtain most of it seems that families with little or no land their cash income from non-agricultural and smallholders are probably growing at sources, wages and migration; and ii) a faster rate than other groups. In some small-scale producers, who derive their countries of the region, including not only income from the sale of agricultural Chile and Argentina but also Colombia, products. Costa Rica and Mexico, the increasing A great many intermediate situations number of landless agricultural workers exist between these two general types of points to a greater proletarianization of farming families, forming a kind of the rural working population. This trend, continuum between semi-subsistence however, is neither uniform nor universal. farming units and small-scale producers The number of agricultural employees with capital. The differences are has not increased only among stable rural attributable not only to the quantity of wage-earners; on the contrary, the most land, but also to factors such as proximity significant growth is among temporary to markets, available infrastructure (roads and casual workers, bóias frias, and irrigation) and linkage with credit and semi-proletarianized subsistence farmers technological institutions and producers' and the rural population occupied in organizations. These factors have been casual services and small-scale trade i.e., becoming more important for

4 This is not always the case; in areas with high international migration, households headed by women generally live on remittances from husbands, and tend to differ from complete families without migrants (Fletcher and Taylor, 1992). THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN.. 103 distinguishing various types of small- areas, located mainly in uplands, on scale farming families.5 hillsides and in tropical forests, to entrepreneurial areas, located in flat areas , a) Access to land among small-scale irrigated and with greater access to farming families markets. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of Today, in the early 1990s, there are smallholdings throughout the region about 17 million agricultural units in the increased by 46.6%, from 7.9 million to region, occupying 700 million hectares of 11.7 million. Smaller operations grew land6 and distributed very unevenly. especially fast in the Andean countries, Family farms consist of at least 11.7 million Central America, Mexico and Paraguay. In smallholdings and 4 million small contrast, the number of smallholdings in properties,7 representing, respectively, the rest of the Southern Cone countries 62.4% and 23.7% of all such units and decreased quite significantly. This occupying barely 3.3% and 9.1% of disparate evolution reflects the relative agricultural land. Large entrepreneurial importance of small properties, the ethnic operations, in contrast, constitute 2.4% of background of the farmers and the general the total, but control 57.4% of agricultural context in which agricultural activities are land. carried out. Where indigenous people Family farming predominates predominate, especially in the Andean throughout the region, representing 85.8% plateaus and on the Mexican and Central of all farms, compared to the 14.2% American hillsides, as well as in certain represented by operations with hired jungle areas, smaller farms have manpower. In the Andean region and multiplied. This phenomenon is even Central America, family farming exceeds more pronounced in places where farmers 87% of all operations, and covers a larger have few stable economic opportunities proportion of the total agricultural land outside agriculture. area. In contrast, the number of small- For the region as a whole, 72.5% of holdings stabilized or fell in areas with all family farming operations are sustained entrepreneurial expansion smallholdings and 27.5% are small and a statistically insignificant properties. In Central America and the indigenous population. In countries or Andean region, smallholdings represent areas where entrepreneurial agriculture over 82% of all family farms, while small predominates, many small units properties represent less than 18%. In disappeared, absorbed by the larger units. contrast, in Brazil, Mexico and the This is what happened in Chile and Southern Cone, at least 35% of all family Uruguay, but also in Colombia's Valle del farms are small properties. Cauca, the Ecuadorian coast, northern The ratio of smallholdings to small Mexico and south-central Brazil, where properties within a country tends to the number of family operations fell and approximate that of small-scale farming the concentration of land ownership rose.

5 While it is difficult to quantify accurately the various types of rural families, some approximations can be arrived at on the basis of agricultural censuses and household surveys. 6 These figures refer solely to the following countries, for the years indicated: Argentina (1988), Bolivia (1985), Brazil (1985), Chile (1987), Colombia (1984), Costa Rica (1984), the Dominican Republic (1981), Ecuador (1987), El Salvador (1987), Guatemala (1979), Honduras (1988), Mexico (1990, public land only), Nicaragua (1983), Panama (1990), Paraguay (1991), Peru (1984), Uruguay (1990) and Venezuela (1985). The definitions of small holdings and small properties vary by country. 7 Obviously, basing the distinction exclusively on size does not take into account small entrepreneurial units with intensive production or large holdings farmed communally by a number of families. These references should be taken as approximations. The figures do not include Cuba, Haiti or any of the English- and French-speaking Caribbean countries, which could represent at least another 400,000 family units, bringing the total to nearly 15 million family units. 104 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

The increase in small farms was poor soil containing low levels of nutrients accompanied, in most cases, by a decrease and dependent on rainfall for irrigation, in the average size of the smallest ones, susceptible to erosion and at high climatic especially where the increase did not risk. Crops are therefore grown in various reflect an expansion of the agricultural vegetation belts and microclimates, sown frontier. Except in Brazil, Argentina, at various times of the year and combined, Uruguay and Paraguay (and probably associated or rotated; and a multiplicity of Chile), the average size of the species and varieties of flora and fauna are smallholding shrank. This emphasizes raised. that the growth in their number was Smallholders live in rainy areas, since largely a result of the subdivision of they depend on precipitation to begin existing smallholdings, and not of access their agricultural cycle. Irrigation water is to land formerly controlled by larger almost non-existent and, when available, operations. It must be recalled that irregular in its flow. These farmers not redistribution initiatives have dwindled in only have little land, but also very few recent years. Currently, the region's (and usually only simple) production small-scale farming families have less facilities and farming tools, and no regular land, on average, than they had a decade access to mechanical means of ploughing ago. and preparing the soil. They rarely have access to credit institutions or technical b) Production strategies of small-scale assistance; even when they have, the latter farming families are ill-adapted to their needs. A large proportion of smallholder The agricultural activities of farm production is consumed by the small-scale farming families are highly family itself, although sales of farm concentrated in food products, mainly products are not insignificant. In general, maize, beans, yucca and potatoes, in many smallholders supply local or regional of the countries. However, production of markets. Production is used not only for agro-industrial crops such as rice, sugar consumption and earning money, but also cane, cotton, sorghum and soya is not for buying seeds or breeding stock insignificant among subsistence farmers (cuttings, seedlings), for paying workers and small-scale producers. Also and, in some cases, for family or important are some perennial crops, such community celebrations, often linked to as coffee and cacao, and small-scale communal projects. livestock-raising, including goats, sheep, Small-scale producers, in contrast to hogs, poultry and, increasingly, cattle. smallholders, are more specialized; they Recently, many small farms have begun to use "modern" technologies, complement produce garden vegetables, tropical fruits the family's labour by hiring workers and and, in some cases, coca and marijuana. sell a sizeable portion of their production In Central America, the Andean on the market. They also have or have region, Mexico and, to a lesser degree, access to more agricultural tools, Brazil and Paraguay, the agricultural implements, equipment and machinery. production of small-scale farming families Furthermore, their relations with credit is not specialized. However, it reflects and technological institutions are more complex systems of production permanent, which helps them increase the characterized by the simultaneous productivity of their agricultural activity. management of various crops —singly, in However, adjustment policies and the association with others or successively, scaling-down of the State have diminished according to long cycles of rotation and by access to such institutions. the use of simple technologies in which the Families of small-scale producers are family's labour predominates. This generally more vulnerable to the represents a way of adapting to economic risks associated with variations low-productivity ecological zones with in the prices of their products and of the THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN.. 105 inputs they must purchase on the market. inhabited by indigenous farmers. In the The current liberalization of agricultural first type, migration is accompanied by markets in the region has affected them processes of differentiation and social considerably, especially when they mobility, and involves the subdivision of compete with imported goods or when rural families and the departure of some their export products suffer from the of their members; in the second, migration effects of sudden price decreases. In many is one of the economic and survival cases, they are more vulnerable than other strategies of rural families, through which producers because they operate in they diversify the places of residence and oligopolistic markets. consumption of their members without sacrificing their economic unity. This 5. Income diversification and migration second type of migration may involve a transition to the first type after two or The vast majority of small-scale farming three generations. families combine agricultural and Traditionally, migrants from rural non-agricultural income, obtained both areas have moved to agricultural zones on and outside the family farm. Because where industrial plantations and of their limited access to land and enterprises are located and, increasingly, capital, these families need outside to the region's metropolitan areas. These income, largely from the sale of their migrations have affected both the most abundant resource: manpower. relative demographic weight of different Such income is earned in nearby zones and urban growth. North-eastern entrepreneurial operations, distant Brazil; northern Argentina; the Andean plantations, cities and even outside the uplands of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia; country. and the states of south-central Mexico, Although no detailed studies have among others, were the areas of origin of been done on the incomes of small-scale many migrants to south-central Brazil, farmers, data from household surveys the Argentine pampas, the Andean indicates that smallholder families are lowlands, northern Mexico and Mexico highly dependent on wages. City. Migration, which is a permanent The diversification of income sources resource for small-scale farming has led to ever-increasing international families, takes various forms depending migration. Members of rural families in on the type of rural area from which such diverse areas as Patzcuaro, Mexico; migrants come, the characteristics of Cañar, Ecuador; the border areas between rural families and the alternatives the Dominican Republic and Haiti; the available in the place of destination. Two Jamaican inlands; much of rural El basic types of migrants can be Salvador and Honduras; and even distinguished: permanent migrants, southern Brazil have migrated to other who break their ties with their areas and countries in search of additional income. families of origin, at least in economic Many of them went to the United States, terms, and integrate themselves into the but some went to their more prosperous place of destination; and migrants who neighbours, such as Argentina and Costa maintain active relations with the area of Rica. origin, without giving up the possibility In many rural areas, the income of returning. Between these two types obtained from international migration has are a series of intermediate situations replaced income generated in the country and a variety of sub-types. of origin. A study of the town of These two types of migration are Patzcuaro, Mexico, conducted by Taylor associated with two types of small-scale and Wyatt, found that the percentage of farming areas in Latin America and the families with members who had migrated Caribbean: those inhabited by farmers to the United States had risen from 17% to who are not ethnically different and those 34% between 1982 and 1988. In that 106 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. period, the town's income from domestic C. FORMS OF SOCIAL remittances had decreased from 24.1% to ORGANIZATION AMONG 3.7%, while that received from abroad RURAL FAMILIES had remained at 14%. These migrations had a considerable impact on local There appear to be at least two main income distribution (Taylor and Wyatt, systems of social organization among 1992). rural families in the region: nuclear International migration largely families and extended families.8 A third follows the internal migration patterns of type of system consists of apparently small-scale farming families, especially unstable family arrangements involving indigenous ones. It does not entail a multiple unions. Generally speaking, the rupture with the area of origin, with which first type is characteristic of families in the goods, money, information and contacts Southern Cone; the second, of families in continue to be exchanged. Furthermore, indigenous areas of the Andean and studies have found that the most Mesoamerican countries; and the third, influential factors in the rural population's of families in Central America and international migration are the quality of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.9 The land on the one hand, and membership in systems are distinguished by their more or a network of migrants and its extent over less nuclear character, the greater or lesser time on the other. These latter factors importance of networks of kinship and determine the amount of the remittances relationship and the family's degree of sent by migrants to their areas of origin, formalization and stability. which, as the families' migratory capital, These families, in turn, may be are a significant factor in the decision to classified in terms of their economic basis migrate. They often seem more important and activity level: families of landless than other factors, such as the family's re- agricultural workers, smallholder sources or education (Taylor and Wyatt, families, semi-proletarianized families 1992). and families of small-scale agricultural Both international and national producers. Obviously, the actual situation migration affect the composition, volume is more complex and comprises a series of and flow of rural families' incomes. At the intermediate and combined models. It beginning of the migratory process, should be emphasized that these family agricultural activity sustains migration; types are being transformed by the subsequently, the process is reversed. growing linkage of their productive and Resources from migration are largely income-earning activities to steadily devoted to agricultural activity, and often broadening markets, and by the effects of lead to its diversification. For example, changes in cultural models. resources may be used to buy livestock, fertilizers or even land. The flow o f income 1. Extended rural families integrated may also change depending on the into family networks relative well-being of rural and urban areas, as a consequence of macroeconomic Extended families of small-scale policies. farmers, generally found among the

8 The extended family consists of a nuclear family and other relatives (aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, in-laws, etc.). It usually forms part of a constellation of families with active processes of economic, social, informational and other exchanges. 9 These models are analytical constructions and do not correspond to specific national, regional or local situations. Other models exist, including tribal indigenous families and families in the English-speaking Caribbean, which will not be analysed here. The former, as noted earlier, are organized around a male chief, several women and their descendants. For information on the latter see chapter III. THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN.. 107 indigenous populations of the Andean called for large families. Children are and Mesoamerican countries, implement incorporated early into agricultural complex production systems through activities, through which their immediate forms of labour and technical cooperation socialization takes place. There is no within and between families. Community period of adolescence and youth, as organizations play an important role in defined in terms of urban life; children are practising crop rotation and simultaneous fundamental for acquiring new resources, production systems in the greatest working with those already available, possible number of vegetation belts in diversifying agriculture and adapting to Andean zones; in Mexico such the changing economic climate. organizations facilitate the management Large families are also important for of pasture areas (De la Cadena, 1986). obtaining additional income outside the However, rural migration and greater family farm. The family members who market integration are affecting the leave the farm (almost invariably men) functioning of these forms of co- maintain an economic obligation to those operation by taking away the manpower who remain behind. In many cases, the needed to carry out these agricultural extended family adapts to a diversified practices. As a result, the systems tend to economy, in which labour and become simpler; more labour-intensive consumption take place in geographically practices are abandoned, rotation periods different areas but are unified through the are shortened and farming in constant exchange of goods, money and higher-productivity microclimates is information, thus ensuring the intensified, at greater risk to the reproduction and, in some cases, the sustainability of these production capitalization of resources. In many of systems. these families, membership in kinship The management of these complex systems offers possibilities for broadening systems requires the cooperation of all economic activity while keeping much of family members, regardless of gender, the surplus income within the family from a very early age, and of relatives and network. neighbours. Extended small-scale farming Marriage, both civil and religious, is families normally include not only very widespread among families of spouses and their children, but also their indigenous subsistence farmers. parents and, in some cases, their brothers Intermarriage establishes formal alliances and sisters, nieces and nephews, and between families, and is therefore usually grandchildren. They typically form part of associated with complex methods of an interrelated complex of nuclear exchanging gifts, holding celebrations families, united by ties of kinship and a attended by various members of the strong sense of belonging. Tasks are community and obtaining the sanction of distributed among the family members civil and religious authorities. Marriage not only according to their physical traditionally takes place between capacities and skills, but also in line with members of the same community or cultural traditions. The gathering of neighbouring communities, setting up various plants, the pasturing of animals, family alliances. Only recently have the sorting of fruits, the selection of seeds people begun to marry irrespective of and the preparation of land, among other family ties, as a result of the families' more chores, are assigned to various family frequent external contacts, women's members. Each person performs a vital access to education, and other factors. function for family production and Women play an important role in reproduction, following culturally these systems, since they are involved in established patterns. both productive and reproductive The family, then, is a resource whose activities. They work not only on domestic labour can be used in a variety of tasks, especially the raising and combinations, which have traditionally socialization of children, but also on the 108 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. farm, in the garden and in caring for formalized and kinship relations do not animals. In many cases they sell their reflect common economic strategies. labour, either on neighbouring farms and In these families, the processes of ranches or in large agro-export enterprises capitalization and proletarianization that produce fruits, vegetables, flowers or operate within the immediate family. other crops. Capitalization is made possible through Traditionally, the status (Archetti, the linkage of subsistence farming families 1984) and role of women in subsistence- with dynamic markets; moreover, as a farming families are closely associated result of inexpensive technologies that with biological reproduction: bringing increase productivity, family labour is children (preferably male) into the world. gradually being replaced by hired labour. Usually all the women in the family group Often, this phenomenon is related to more share responsibility for the care and family planning, fewer children and a socialization of children; they also play a general tendency among new generations central role in transmitting indigenous to participate in other economic activities. languages, and are more likely than men Obviously, these changes are facilitated if to be monolingual because they have they are accompanied by changes in fewer contacts outside the family cultural norms and values, such as those group. concerning the roles of women and This role seems to be changing in rural children. Proletarianization of subsistence areas of the region as a result of women's farmers tends to take place when the greater incorporation into the labour children leave home and enter the market and their decisive role in labour market. In some cases, the entire agricultural production, as well as family may decide to migrate after changes in the family's demographic some initial contacts with the area of strategies, as reflected in falling fertility destination. rates. Other influential factors include Smallholders, the landless and women and children's growing access to temporary workers are continually school systems and the expansion of moving in search of work, often over great family planning systems. distances and following complex The speed of these changes is neither agricultural cycles. This entails the uniform nor unidirectional in the region. constant uprooting of the family. The For example, children tend to be better house, as synonymous with the home, is educated than their parents, but this has not established in a given spot; on the not induced them to break family ties. contrary, the home moves along with the Circumstances external to the family also work. Even when there is a house, the come into play: in many countries of the family as a centre of socialization and region, children's level of education emotional life is destabilized by the high appears to have diminished in the 1980s as mobility of the parents, who spend a good a consequence of families' greater part of their time outside the home, while economic needs. The economic and spatial the children are entrusted to neighbours diversification of sources of family income or relatives, which generates tension in the has given women a central role with family. There is evidence that in some respect to the movements and decisions of areas of temporary employment, the the family group. number of incomplete families is growing and the children leave home sooner. 2. Rural nuclear families Among these families, new forms of support and solidarity that are more In areas with no marked ethnic divisions, characteristic of the urban environment, such as the Southern Cone, the nuclear such as food cooperatives and group family model predominates, families are purchases of food, are taking on smaller, the partners are relatively stable, importance; neighbours or groups of marriage and filiation are usually families who share the same labour cycle THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN. 109 participate in these actions to meet relationships were constantly re-created common needs. as people moved from place to place. The social behaviour of rural families This situation of instability was in ethnically undifferentiated areas is further accentuated by armed conflicts, similar to that of working-class urban such as those in Central America, with families. Marriage is freely decided upon their aftermath of deaths, separations, by the prospective spouses on the basis of displacements and mass migrations. This affection; it is generally exogamous, entailed, inter alia, a rupture of family ties though membership in a certain social for more or less prolonged periods, and class is a determinant of eligibility. The the establishment of new households formalization of marriage is considered among people from different areas. important, and takes place before public Older women act as organizers, taking authority. Although the population is charge of children's education, health and aware of family planning methods, these general care. They are the most stable are used in a highly precarious context. members of the family, and play the Education is generally valued, and predominant economic role in both children are sent to school. Children's agricultural activities and the sale of level of schooling in this type of family is labour. They act as principal high. In Chile, for example, young people breadwinners, but the family's instability between the ages of 15 and 24 have had an limits their economic opportunities. average of 7.9 years of schooling, while the This situation has had various effects average in Guatemala (where the on rural families, and the following have indigenous population predominates) is been observed: large numbers of children, 3.1 years. low school attendance, poor educational performance, various forms of domestic 3. Family arrangements based on violence, little stability in support multiple unions institutions, etc. However, peace processes in the region have begun to help In certain parts of Central America, the families normalize their relations, predominant rural family models are although many of these situations will quite different from those described take years to correct. earlier, and are characterized by extreme instability of the family group during its D. CULTURAL CHANGES AND cycle of expansion. In her childbearing RURAL FAMILIES years, a woman may have offspring from various unions, which are not formalized until the partners have reached an The changes that have been taking place in advanced stage of their lives. The rural families reflect changes not only in socialization of children is the economic activity, but also in the responsibility of older people, usually predominant cultural models in the women living in the areas of origin. region. It can be argued that family This type of rural family is strongly behaviour is explained by how these two influenced by the former plantation processes are linked. The principal culture, in which farmers had to move changes in the cultural sphere include: constantly according to the demand for i) Greater secularization of rural societies labour and slash-and-burn production and changes in the messages transmitted systems were involved. It is also by religious authorities concerning the reinforced by a highly male-centred role and obligations of the family. On the culture in which a man's status was linked one hand, the Catholic Church has shifted to the number of unions he established its traditional emphasis, moving from and the number of children he fathered. upholding the patriarchal and The rural family had no ties with a farm or reproductive conception of the family to a stable, consolidated home; instead, social commitment. On the other, new 110 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN.. religious denominations have emerged These changes have not been taking and altered the content of traditional place in the same way or to the same messages on the family, the role of its degree in all rural areas of Latin America, members and conjugal responsibility. nor have they affected all the countries ii) Increasing emphasis on education as a simultaneously. This means, among other mechanism of personal fulfilment and things, that their effects on rural families social mobility. This is largely an effect of are diverse, even though they explain the the expansion of the educational system general trends described above. in rural areas and of the new demands Moreover, their impact is greater or lesser created by the modernization of depending on the strength of traditional agriculture. Despite continuing edu- cultures in the region. Recent studies have cational needs in rural areas, schools, highlighted how changes in fertility teachers and parents' associations have among rural families in Argentina or Chile begun to have a strong impact. This has differ from the patterns observed in changed cultural conceptions of Ecuador, Guatemala or Peru (Archetti, childhood and youth. 1984). iii) Spread of consumerism in rural areas, Many of these changes are hastened or mainly through the mass media. Access to slowed by the debilitation of the region's radio and television has brought urban systems of public health, education, social culture to rural areas and increased the security and production support, as a consumption of new articles not produced result of economic adjustment policies locally. and the scaling-down of the State. iv) Better health care owing to the wider Paradoxically, families must deal with the coverage of health care systems, which has above-mentioned changes without considerably modified the ideas of health institutional support. Rural families in and illness and strengthened awareness of Latin America not only are affected by family planning methods. these phenomena, but also are active v) Expansion of new ethnic, gender and agents of change. other identities in rural areas, which has given individuals self-esteem as active agents capable of changing their current E. FINAL CONCLUSIONS AND situation. RECOMMENDATIONS vi) Active voter registration efforts among small-scale farmers and an increase in One widespread characteristic of rural political participation, thereby generating families is poverty, regardless of the index a sense of belonging to larger social used to measure it. conglomerates. Inter-party competition Multi-ethnic and pluri-cultural for the rural vote has empowered countries are characterized by a large individuals to decide and elect. number of rural small farming families. vii) Presence of many new institutions in Many rural families are subsistence the countryside, with a wide-ranging farmers who have their own cultural supply of services that transmit new traditions and do not belong to the cultural values. Training which targets officially recognized institutional world; specific age, gender, ethnic and other however, new types of rural families groups is introducing new values and linked to unstable employment are knowledge. emerging rapidly. viii) Growing monetarization of the small These characteristics translate into farming economy and the impact of a stratified system in which close national economic problems, such as correlations exist between socio- inflation and changes in relative prices economic and cultural indicators that and costs, also involving the use of adversely affect rural families, placing arithmetic and necessitating more careful most of them at the bottom of the social economic planning. pyramid. THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN Ill

Despite the above-mentioned variety consolidate and/or generate an inclusive of processes of change and types of rural institutional structure that helps to families, which range from the traditional strengthen social organization and patriarchal model to new models whose cohesion, to redefine economic, political profiles have not yet been clearly and social rights and to develop the delineated, some general features can be capacities of rural family members. identified, which are more or less evident The strategy requires the identi- according to the national realities in fication of key areas and special question. These include: programmes of action in which State — Rearrangement of roles among participation and resources are linked to spouses, parents and children and community organizations' initiatives. between the immediate family and These areas are listed separately below; blood relatives. however, they can be effective only if they — A tendency among both female and are coordinated. male family members to seek i) Access to productive, economic and well-being and advancement through institutional resources. In general, these migration and employment in cities, include measures to promote rural and even in foreign countries. development in micro-regions with the — The forging of identity-affirming participation of small-scale farmers; processes involving work, income and policies on access to and use of land and learning through secondary relations water; development of credit and financial in new environments. systems in rural areas; public investment — The re-creation of ties of kinship and in physical, road and institutional solidarity to enable individuals to infrastructure; and strengthening of perform in various institutional grass-roots organizations, modernization environments and to leave them when of local governments and linkage between they limit individual opportunity. the two. — A growing emphasis on emotional ties, solidarity and identity within the ii) Overhauling and reinforcement of family, though not without tensions models of socialization, child-rearing, and contradictions. psycho-emotional development and health care. This involves actions such as These changes among families and raising public awareness through the their members are accompanied by mass media, family training programmes contradictions, uprootedness, high conducted by non-governmental and psychological and emotional costs and grass-roots organizations and health unmet needs of all types. However, they programmes emphasizing family point to a wealth of social energy, participation. operating independently of theoretical considerations, which has helped to iii) Development of intellectual, critical redesign the social fabric and redefine the and expressive capacity, and training in cultural values of rural, and in many cases operations, logic and mathematics; national, societies. In view of the crisis incentives for aesthetic, technical and observed in traditional models, one of the ethical creativity; and cultivation of region's greatest challenges is to find ways human and political rights and respect for of linking the new family types and differences. The educational system gender, generational and conjugal roles should play a central role in this process with the new conceptual and institutional by transmitting new skills, capacities and models being designed. values. From the foregoing, it appears that a iv) Sexual and generational division of basic task of public institutions in roles and social equity. Contemporary response to the processes which rural definitions of masculinity and femininity families are undergoing is to coordinate in childhood, adolescence and adulthood; social and economic policies, in order to rights, responsibilities and opportunities 112 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN within and outside the family with and families whose head of household is respect to specific situations and constantly involved in itinerant activities. dynamics, linkages with society, and Special attention should be given to the requirements of the modern establishing family counselling centres, world. Non-governmental and social promoting grass-roots mutual aid organizations can play a catalytic role in organizations and creating reporting and these actions, complementing the role of protection centres for members of rural the educational system. families, mainly women and children. v) Establishment of conditions and Educational policies, mass campaigns and institutions that promote the development grass-roots and non-governmental of national solidarity and loyalty, based on organizations should make local organizations and authorities aware of the family, community and ethnic loyalties, so need to prevent and combat domestic that citizens can develop practical (and not violence. only legal) standards concerning the expression of rights and non-exclusion on Lastly, a number of areas require the basis of gender, age or ethnic careful attention and more research, background. The decentralization and including: de-concentration of the State can further i) The prevalence of civil marriage this goal, as can legislative changes to (regulated by the State) among rural ensure the recognition of diversity. families and the consequences of its These five areas require the observance or non-observance for the establishment of plans of action, partners and children. coordinated between the State and the ii) The forms of marriage recognized by community, with the assignment of rural families, and their regulations and responsibilities, spheres of competence, prescriptions. resources and short-term goals. The emphasis placed on each aspect will iii) The differences between forms of rural depend on conditions in each country, marriage and the prescriptions of State regional diversities within countries and legislation in terms of the age of the family types. spouses, inheritance systems and The aim is not to develop specific responsibility for children. policies for the family, but rather to integrate iv) The models of marriage prevalent into macroeconomic, social and sectoral among rural families, and how they policies the material and symbolic establish the rights and duties of spouses requirements for developing the capacities and children. The sources of these models: of families and of each of their members. the Church, the State, the customs of the The actions should combine public local community, the mass media? policy strategies with mobilization of v) The interactions among different community organizations and insti- models and between them and the living tutions, at the national, regional and conditions of rural families. micro-regional levels. Since most rural families are integrated into micro-regional vi) The relationship between productive societies, it is important to design and aspects and personal development, execute action strategies at this level. emotional life and security in rural Plans of action involving immediate families. social compensation measures should be vii) The role of local and national loyalties implemented for the most vulnerable in rural families, and the mechanisms that rural families, such as poor families guarantee, reinforce or debilitate these headed by women, itinerant rural families loyalties. THE RURAL FAMILY AND ETHNICITY IN... 113

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archetti, E. (1984), "Rural families and demographic behaviour: some Latin American analogies", Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 26, No. 2. Aristízabal, G., J. Echeñique and R. de Villalobos (1992), "Combatiendo la pobreza rural en América Latina y el Caribe: Una nueva estrategia de desarrollo rural", Washington, D.C., Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). De la Cadena, M. (1986), "Cooperación y mercado en la Organización Comunal Andina", Revista andina, vol. 4, No. 1, July. ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) (1992), Major Changes and Crisis. The Impact on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (LC/G.1592-P), Santiago, Chile. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.90.II.G.13. Espinosa, C. (1992), "Implicaciones del género en el proceso de cambio técnico en sistemas de producción andinos", Revista peruana de ciencias sociales, vol. 3, No. 1. Fletcher, P. and J.E. Taylor (1992), "Migration and the Transformation of a Mexican Village House Economy", paper presented at the Conference on New Perspectives on Mexico-US Migration, University of Chicago, 22-23 October. Fresneda, O. (1991), "La pobreza colombiana en el contexto latinoamericano", Pobreza, violencia y desigualdad: retos para la nueva Colombia, O. Fresneda, L. Sarmiento and M. Muñoz, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Regional Project to Alleviate Critical Poverty, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), November. Fresneda, O., L. Sarmiento and M. Muñoz (1991), Pobreza, violencia y desigualdad: retos para la nueva Colombia, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Regional Project to Alleviate Critical Poverty, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), November. Jazaiiy, I., M. Alamgir and T. Panuccio (1992), The State of World Rural Poverty: An Inquiry into Its Causes and Consequences, Rome, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). IDB/nCA (Inter-American Development Bank/ Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture) (1993), "La política del sector agropecuario frente a la mujer productora de alimentos en Centroamérica y Panamá: conclusiones y recomendaciones", document presented at the thirteenth Regular Meeting of the Regional Agricultural Cooperation Council, San José, Costa Rica, March. ILO (International Labour Organisation) (1986), Rural development Report II, document presented at the twelfth Conference of the States Members of the International Labour Organisation, Geneva, March. Izco, Xavier (1986), "Comunidad Andina: persistencia y cambio", Revista andina, vol. 4, No. 1, July. Meillassoux, C. (1978), Mujeres, graneros y capitales: economía doméstica y capitalismo, Mexico City, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, S.A. Stolen, K.A. (1987), A media voz. Relaciones de género en la sierra ecuatoriana, Quito, Social Planning and Study Centre (CEPLAES). 114 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

Taylor, I. and T. Wyatt (1992), "Migration, assets and income inequality in a diversified household farm economy", Davis, University of California, unpublished. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (1990), La pobreza en el Perú: diagnóstico y propuestas de política, Regional Project to Alleviate Critical Poverty, Santa Fe de Bogotá, UNDP. Annex I

CARTAGENA DECLARATION

The representatives of the Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting at Cartagena, Colombia, on 12 and 13 August 1993 on the occasion of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the International Year of the Family, Considering: That the General Assembly of the United Nations, by its resolution 44/82 of 8 December 1989, proclaimed 1994 as International Year of the Family, with the theme "Family: resources and responsibilities in a changing world"; The international declarations and treaties on human rights and the rights of children, women and the family, in particular the Declaration of the International Year of the Family in 1983, proclaimed by the Organization of American States; That, for several decades, the Governments of Latin America and the Caribbean have, in different forums, recognized the family as the basic unit of society and as the core of social organization; That Governments have recognized the importance of providing the highest degree of protection and respect to the different forms assumed by the family; That the well-being of family members is the joint responsibility of families, society and the State; That in the context of the preparation and holding of the forthcoming world meetings on population in 1994, social development in 1995 and women in 1995, and of the agreements signed by Heads of State and Government at the Ibero-American Summit held in Salvador da Bahia, the family has taken on special importance;

Recognizing: 1. That the Latin American and Caribbean family, as an institution, is undergoing a rapid process of transformation that shows similar tendencies throughout the region, including smaller family size, fewer and later marriages, and increases in teenage pregnancy, consensual unions, broken marriages, single-parent and one-person households and reconstituted families, among others. 2. That the region is characterized by great ethnic diversity and cultural heterogeneity, as well as a wide range of family structures and dynamics. 3. That in most Latin American and Caribbean countries, population dynamics have generated a high proportion of families in the expansive stage of the life cycle, creating 116 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

a greater demand for services to support them in their socialization and child-rearing functions. 4. That the region is advancing in democratic and peace processes, providing new opportunities for social participation in which the family is recognized as an important social actor. 5. That in some countries, economic adjustment processes have failed to take social processes into account, affecting certain sectors of the population and influencing in various ways the ability of families to carry out their functions. 6. That women's mass incorporation into the labour market and changes in gender relations are a central factor in the transformation of family life. 7. That in many countries of the region, violence has placed many families in situations of crisis and extreme vulnerability including, inter alia, forced fragmentation, displacement and disintegration. 8. That various factors such as an increase in poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, disorders such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), domestic violence and violence in the mass media, inter alia, are affecting the family's constitution, structure and ability to perform its functions. 9. That most economic and social policies and programmes do not address family issues comprehensively or consider the impact of their actions on the family's structure, functioning and quality of life. 10. That in many countries of the region, the development of public and private institutions for the family is characterized by poor coordination and insufficient installed financial and technical capacity to address family problems adequately. 11. That there is a significant lack of qualitative and statistical information on the situation of families and of valid, relevant indicators for its measurement. 12. That cooperation among the countries of the region and support from international agencies and non-governmental organizations are of particular importance for the advancement of policies, plans and programmes benefiting the family. 13. That sharing a framework of action helps to consolidate the regional integration processes under way in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Agree to: 1. Promote the formulation and consolidation of integrated family-oriented public policies, taking into account the diversity and cultural identity of families. 2. Review, update, promote and implement a legal framework which will contribute to the overall protection of the family, eliminating all forms of discrimination and violation of its rights. 3. Maintain a suitable balance between the fulfilment of the State's functions and the limitations deriving from families' privacy rights. 4. Encourage the development of decentralized institutional structures, of a high technical and political level, with the participation of civil society, in order to integrate actions in the areas of prevention, protection and family development within a framework of proper coordination and linkages. 5. Support policies, plans, actions and services designed to create the necessary conditions for strengthening the family's ability to provide for its own welfare and integrate itself into a network of relationships based on equity, solidarity, affection and respect. ANNEX II.. 117

6. Design strategies which will transform the family into a prime agent of programmes aimed at specific population groups, incorporating the dimensions of gender, age, status, ethnic origin and level of vulnerability. 7. Reinforce programmes designed to satisfy the basic needs of families and, in particular, facilitate their access to health services, education, nutrition, environmental sanitation, housing, recreation, employment and income generation. 8. Promote research in the area of the family to support the formulation of policies and assess their impact on the overall development of the family. 9. Improve the production of indicators on the family in national statistical systems and ensure that they are widely disseminated. 10. Promote broader opportunities for participation and coordination among non-governmental organizations working for the family and encourage their participation in the Global Forum to Launch the International Year of the Family, to be held from 28 November to 2 December 1993 at Valletta, Malta. 11. Call on financialorganization s and multilateral and bilateral cooperation agencies to provide technical and financial support to government efforts to comply with signed agreements. 12. Place due emphasis on the observance of the International Day of the Family. 13. Pledge our efforts, in the context of regional integration processes and with a view to consolidating a Latin American and Caribbean position on the International Year of the Family, to furthering actions under the Regional Proposal attached to this Declaration. Annex II

REGIONAL PROPOSAL FOR THE ELABORATION OF ACTION GUIDELINES FOR THE BENEFIT OF LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN FAMILIES

1. BACKGROUND

The General Assembly of the United Nations, by its resolution 44/ 82 of 8 December 1989, proclaimed 1994 as International Year of the Family, with the theme "Family: resources and responsibilities in a changing world". In the region, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted by the Ninth International Conference of American States in 1948 at Bogotá, and the American Convention on Human Rights of 1969, also called the Pact of San José, stress the importance of the family as a natural and basic element of society and the duty of society and the State to protect it. The Organization of American States, at its eleventh regular session, proclaimed 1983 as Inter-American Year of the Family, at the initiative of the Inter-American Commission of Women. That same body adopted the Inter-American Declaration on the Rights of the Family. The Inter-American Children's Institute called on Governments to implement those rights at its Sixteenth Congress, held in 1984. In proclaiming the International Year of the Family, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the major activities for the observance of the Year should be concentrated at the local, regional and national levels and assisted by the United Nations system. To that end, it designated the United Nations Commission for Social Development as the preparatory body and the Economic and Social Council as the coordinating body for the Year. ECLAC, the economic commission for the region, was designated as the focal point for promoting the Year in the region. As part of regional activities, ECLAC held two technical meetings in 1991 and 1992: the first, held in Chile, analysed the situation of the family, and the second, held in Mexico, discussed methodologies for its analysis. The third regional activity was the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the International Year of the Family, held from 9 to 13 August 1993 at Cartagena, Colombia. Bearing in mind this background information and the analytical study of the family in the region prepared by ECLAC, the following objectives and action guidelines are presented.

* ECLAC, Situation and prospects of the family in Latin America and the Caribbean (LC/L.758(CONF.84/3)), Santiago, Chile, 1993. 120 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

2. OBJECTIVES

2.1 General objectives 2.1.1 To promote the overall development of the family at the regional level, strengthening its ties of solidarity and ensuring the means for its welfare through a comprehensive, responsible pooling of efforts between government and society. 2.1.2 To consolidate the necessary political sociocultural and economic conditions for improving the situation of families in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a view to encouraging, sustaining and developing its strength as a basic network of social relations and ensuring respect for the human rightso f all its members.

2.2 Specific objectives

2.2.1 To make operational the principles enshrined in the Cartagena Declaration. 2.2.2 To propose action guidelines for the development of national policies, plans and programmes to benefit families. 2.2.3 To promote joint working mechanisms to support regional integration processes in this regard.

3. AREAS OF ACTION

3.1 Family and public policies 3.1.1 To analyse the place of the family in the formulation of public policies. 3.1.2 To evaluate and promote the inclusion of the family as a policy target. 3.1.3 To evaluate the impact of public policies on the family. 3.1.4 To promote the development of policies that consider the family as a unit of action. 3.1.5 To stimulate the inclusion of the family approach in different population and sectoral plans and programmes. 3.1.6 To harmonize economic adjustment processes with social processes that promote stability of the family and the performance of its functions. 3.1.7 To promote mechanisms that ensure the preservation of the origins and roots of each family, consistent with its ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic characteristics. 3.1.8 To incorporate the principles of sustainable development into family-oriented programmes for promoting production and social development, in order to ensure that society as a whole reaps the benefits of development and that these benefits will be shared by future generations.

3.2 Legislation and family rights

3.2.1 To review legislation that has an impact on the family and amend it as necessary, in order to ensure a coherent, flexiblelega l framework consistent with the relevant international instruments. ANNEX II.. 121

3.2.2 To ensure that family legislation incorporates conciliation mechanisms and norms designed to prevent and combat violence and discrimination and the exploitation of members of the family group. 3.2.3 To promote the specialization of judicial bodies in family matters and the specific training of their human resources. 3.2.4 To broaden the coverage and the possibility of access to them by families and their members, of legal and registry services, and to promote a decentralized, interdisciplinary structure adapted to the conditions of the population. 3.2.5 To ensure and promote the proper dissemination and understanding of the rights and duties of individuals, society and the State in relation to family functions.

3.3 Institution-building

3.3.1 To promote the strengthening of governmental and non-governmental institutions that support the family, improving the quality of their services, expanding their coverage and increasing coordination between the two sectors. 3.3.2 To strengthen and promote the capacity of families to organize and form associations to promote their own interests and meet their own needs as self-managing units. 3.3.3 To evaluate the relationship between the supply of services and the satisfaction of family needs.

3.4 Socialization and cultural identity

3.4.1 To foster conditions that strengthen the family's socializing function, especially in transmitting values and cultural identity emphasizing the importance of affection and promoting a sense of belonging and respect among family members. 3.4.2 To promote policies that emphasize: a) Recognition of and respect for cultural diversity, and support for and protection of the various forms of family organization; b) Reconciliation of the family's collective development with the individual development of its members and with social demands; c) The basing of family relationships on affection, cooperation and respect rather than on relations of production and consumption; d) Greater flexibility in gender-based roles in the family, in a context of relations of equity, shared responsibility and affection. 3.4.3 To emphasize the responsibility of the mass media in family dynamics and make them aware of the need to encourage, sensitize and mobilize the community to achieve the above-mentioned objectives.

3.5 Family resources and services

3.5.1 To ensure a fair distribution of the benefits of economic growth, reflected in a better quality of life for families, and to promote equitable access to and control over such resources by all members of the family group. 122 FAMILY AND FUTURE: A REGIONAL PROGRAMME IN..

3.5.2 To promote employment and income-generation policies that allow families to meet their basic needs in a dignified and equitable fashion. 3.5.3 To extend the coverage of urban development and housing programmes, incorporating environmental aspects and the aspects relating to the quality of life of families. 3.5.4 To promote and reinforce health and nutrition programmes and services, incorporating the family approach and giving priority to preventive aspects. 3.5.5 To consolidate educational programmes that have an impact on the growth and development of children, giving priority to children during the first year of life, pre-school children, school-age children and adolescents, while reinforcing the transmission of collective values and emphasizing the importance of affection in family relations. 3.5.6 To promote and consolidate programmes of formal and non-formal education, information and services for responsible parenting, family life and sexuality. 3.5.7 To promote and consolidate educational programmes that respect the diversity of cultures and beliefs and promote democratization in family relations. 3.5.8 To promote mechanisms that make it possible to implement social security and social welfare systems targeting the family. 3.5.9 To promote programmes that focus on families in special situations of high-risk and extreme vulnerability. 3.5.10 To ensure that programmes directed at specific target groups are preventive in nature and complement, rather than replace, family functions. 3.5.11 To promote, in coordination with civil society, a system of family support services which makes it possible to reconcile employment obligations with the performance of family functions. 3.5.12 To help families enjoy leisure time and opportunities for sharing activities and interests.

3.6 Research and human resources training

3.6.1 To design and implement a policy of supporting research and human resources training intended to learn more about the situation of the family, its dynamics and the impact of various policies on it. 3.6.2 To include families in national statistical systems as a unit of observation, and to incorporate series of specific, relevant family indicators into statistical bulletins in order to support the formulation of policies and programmes. 3.6.3 To promote specific, interdisciplinary training of professional and technical staff, officials and community workers employed in family-related fields. 3.6.4 To define a set of baseline indicators on the basis of existing national information sources and to ensure the necessary conditions for their processing and dissemination. 3.6.5 To foster the widespread, mass dissemination of information on the family in order to make it accessible to the entire population. ANNEX II.. 123

3.7 International cooperation and regional integration

3.7.1 To call on regional and subregional bodies to strengthen their capacity for technical and financial cooperation in areas relating to the protection and development of Latin American and Caribbean families, and to invite the regional offices of international agencies to do likewise. 3.7.2 To promote the creation and development of a Latin American and Caribbean cooperation network among institutions providing services to the family. 3.7.3 To evaluate the impact of regional integration processes on the situation of families. 3.7.4 To identify areas for possible cooperation among the countries of the region and to formulate programmes to promote the sharing of experiences and methodologies, calling on international agencies to support them in these efforts. 1987, 692 pp. 1987, 685 pp. 1988, 741 pp. 1988, 637 pp. 1989, 821 pp. 1989, 678 pp. 1990, vol.1 260 pp. 1990, vol.1 248 pp. 1990, vol. II 590 pp. 1990, vol.11 472 pp. 1991, vol.1 299 pp. 1991, vol.1 281 pp. 1991, vol. II 602 pp. 1991, vol.11 455 pp. 1992, vol.1 297 pp. 1992, vol.1 286 pp. ECLAC 1992, vol. II 579 pp. 1992, vol.11 467 pp. 1993, vol.1 289 pp. publications 1993, vol. II 532 pp.

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE (Issues for previous years also available) CARIBBEAN Casilla 179-D Santiago de Chile Anuario Estadístico de América Latina y el Caribe / Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean (bilingual) PERIODIC PUBLICATIONS 1980, 617 pp. 1988, 782 pp. 1981, 727 pp. 1989, 770 pp. CEPAL Review 1982/1983 , 749 pp. 1990, 782 pp. CEPAL Review first appeared in 1976 as part of the 1984, 761 pp. 1991, 856 pp. Publications Programme of the Economic Commission 1985, 792 pp. 1992, 868 pp. for Latin America and the Caribbean, its aim being to make 1986, 782 pp. 1993, 860 pp. a contribution to the study of the economic and social 1987, 714 pp. 1994, 863 pp. development problems of the region. The views expressed in signed articles, including those by Secretariat (Issues for previous years also available) staff members, are those of the authors and therefore do not necessarily reflect the point of view of the Libros de la C E P A L Organization. 1 Manual de proyectos de desarrollo económico, 1958, CEPAL Review is published in Spanish and English 5th. ed. 1980,264 pp. versions three times a year. Manual on economic development projects, 1958, 2nd. ed. 1972,242 pp. Annual subscription costs for 1994 are US$16 for the América Latina en el umbral de los años ochenta, Spanish version and US$18 for the English version. The 1979,2nd. ed. 1980,203 pp. price of single issues is US$10 in both cases. Agua, desarrollo y medio ambiente en América Latina, The cost of a two-year subscription (1994-1995) is 1980,443 pp. US$30 for Spanish-language version and US$34 for Los bancos transnacionales y el financiamiento English. extemo de América Latina. La experiencia del Perú, 1980,265 pp. Transnational banks and the external finance of Latin America:the experience of Peru, 1985, Estudio Económico de Economic Survey of 342 pp. América Latina y el Latin America and 5 La dimensión ambiental en los estilos de desarrollo Caribe the Caribbean de América Latina, Osvaldo Sunkel, 1981,2nd. ed. 1984,136 pp. 1980, 664 pp. 1980, 629 pp. e La mujer y el desarrollo: guía para la planificación de 1981, 863 pp. 1981, 837 pp. 6 programas y proyectos, 1984,115 pp. 1982, vol.l 693 pp. 1982, vol.l 658 pp. 6 Women and development: guidelines for 1982, vol. II 199 pp. 1982, vol. II 186 pp. programme and project planning, 1982, 3rd. ed. 1983, vol.l 694 pp. 1983, vol.1 686 pp. 1984,123 pp. 1983, vol. II 179 pp. 1983, vol. II 166 pp. 7 Africa y América Latina: perspectivas de la 1984, vol.l 702 pp. 1984, vol.1 685 pp. cooperación interregional, 1983,286 pp. 1984, vol. II 233 pp. 1984, vol.11 216 pp. 8 Sobrevivencia campesina en ecosistemas de altura, vols. I y II, 1983,720 pp. 1985, 672 pp. 1985, 660 pp. 9 La mujer en el sector popular urbano. América 1986, 734 pp. 1986, 729 pp. Latina y el Caribe, 1984,349 pp. 10 Avances en la interpretación ambiental del desarrollo 31 Sustainable development: changing production agrícola de América Latina, 1985,236 pp. patterns, social equity and the environment, 11 El decenio de la mujer en el escenario 1991,146 pp. latinoamericano, 1986, 216 pp. 32 Equidad y transformación productiva: un enfoque 11 The decade for women in Latin America and integrado, 1993, 254 pp. the Caribbean: background and prospects, 1988, 33 Educación y conocimiento: eje de la transformación 215 pp. productiva con equidad, 1992, 269 pp. 12 América Latina: sistema monetario internacional y 33 Education and knowledge: basic pillars of financiamiento externo, 1986,416 pp. changing production patterns with social equity, 12 Latín America: international monetary system and 1993, 257 pp. external financing, 1986,405 pp. 34 Ensayos sobre coordinación de políticas macro- 13 Raúl Prebisch: Un aporte al estudio de su econômicas, 1992, 249 pp. pensamiento, 1987,146 pp. 35 Población, equidad y transformación productiva, 14 Cooperativismo latinoamericano: antecedentes y 1993,158 pp. perspectivas, 1989,371 pp. 35 Population, social equity and changing 15 CEPAL, 40 años (1948-1988), 1988,85 pp. production patterns, 1993, 153 pp. 15 ECLAC 40 Years (1948-1988), 1989,83 pp. 36 Cambios en el perfil de las familias. La experiencia 16 América Latina en la economía mundial, 1988,321 pp. regional, 1993, 434 pp. 17 Gestión para el desarrollo de cuencas de alta montaña 37 Familia y futuro: un programa regional en América en la zona andina, 1988,187 pp. Latina y el Caribe, 1994, 137 pp. 18 Políticas macroeconômicas y brecha extema: América 39 El regionalismo abierto en América Latina y el Latina en los años ochenta, 1989,201 pp. Caribe, 1994, 109 pp. 19 CEPAL, Bibliografía, 1948-1988,1989,648 pp. 39 Open regionalism in Latin America and the 20 Desarrollo agrícola y participación campesina, 1989, Caribbean, 1994, 103 pp. 404 pp. 40 Políticas para mejorár la inserción en la economía mundial, 1995, 314 pp. 21 Planificación y gestión del desarrollo en áreas de expansión de la frontera agropecuaria en América MONOGRAPH SERIES Laí/Via, 1989,113 pp. 22 Transformación ocupacional y crisis social en América Cuadernos de la C E P A L Latina, 1989,243 pp. 23 La crisis urbana en América Latina y el Caribe: 1 América Latina: el nuevo escenario regional y mundial/ reflexiones sobre alternativas de solución, 1990, Latin America: the new regional and world 197 pp. setting, (bilingual), 1975,2nd. ed. 1985,103 pp. 24 The environmental dimension in development 2 Las evoluciones regáñales de la estrategia internacional del desarrollo, 1975, 2nd. ed. 1984, planning I, 1991, 302 pp. 73 pp. 25 Transformación productiva con equidad, 1990,3rd. ed. 2 Regional appraisals of the international 1991,185 pp. development strategy, 1975, 2nd. ed. 1985,82 pp. 25 Changing production patterns with social equity, 3 Desarrollo humano, cambio social y crecimiento en 1990, 3rd. ed. 1991,177 pp. América Latina, 1975, 2nd. ed. 1984,103 pp. 26 América Latina y el Caribe: opciones para reducir el 4 Relaciones comercmles, crisis monetaria e integración peso de la deuda, 1990,118 pp. 26 Latin America and the Caribbean: options to económica en América Latina, 1975,85 pp. reduce the debt burden, 1990,110 pp. 5 Síntesis de la segunda evaluación regional dela 27 Los grandes cambbs y la crisis. Impacto sobre la estrategia internacional del desarrollo, 1975,72 pp. mujer en América Latina y el Caribe, 1991, 271 pp. 6 Dinero de valor constante. Concepto, problemas y 27 Major changes and crisis. The impact on women in experiencias, Jorge Rose, 1975,2nd. ed. 1984,43 pp. Latin America and the Caribbean, 1992, 279 pp. 7 La coyuntura internacional y el sector extemo, 1975, 28 A collection of documents on economic relations 2nd. ed. 1983, 106 pp. between the United States and Central America, 8 La industrialización latinoamericana en los años 1906-1956,1991,398 pp. setenta, 1975,2nd. ed. 1984,116 pp. 29 Inventarios y cuentas del patrimonio natural en 9 Dos estudios sobre inflación 1972-1974. La inflación América Latina y el Caribe, 1991,335 pp. en los países centrales. América Latina y la inflación 30 Evaluaciones del impacto ambiental en América importada, 1975,2nd. ed. 1984,57 pp. Latina y el Caribe, 1991,232 pp. s/n Canada and the foreign fiim, D. Pollock, 1976,43 pp. 31 El desarrollo sustentabie: transformación productiva, 10 Reactivación del mercado común centroamericano, equidad y medio ambiente, 1991,146 pp. 1976,2nd. ed. 1984,149 pp. 11 Integración y cooperación entre países en desarrollo 29 La política monetaria y el ajuste de la balanza de en el ámbito agrícola, Germánico Salgado, 1976, pagos: tres estudios, 1979, 2nd. ed. 1984,61 pp. 2nd.ed. 1985,62 pp. 29 Monetary policy and balance of payments 12 Temas del nuevo orden económico internacional, adjustment: three studies, 1979,60 pp. 1976,2nd. ed. 1984,85 pp. 30 América Latina: las evaluacbnes regbnales de la 13 En tomo a las ideas de la CEPAL: desarrollo, estrategia internacional del desarrolb en bs años industrialización y comercio exterbr, 1977, 2nd. ed. setenta, 1979,2nd. ed. 1982,237 pp. 1985,57 pp. 14 En tomo a las ideas de la CEPAL: problemas de la 31 Educación, imágenes y estilos de desarrollo, industrialización en América Latina, 1977, 2nd. ed. G. Rama, 1979, 2nd. ed. 1982,72 pp. 1984,46 pp. 32 Movimientos internacionales de capitales, R. H. 15 Los recursos hidráulicos de América Latina. Informe Arriazu, 1979, 2nd. ed. 1984,90 pp. regional, 1977,2nd. ed. 1984,75 pp. 33 Informe sobre las inversiones directas extranjeras 15 The water resources of Latin America. Regional en América Latina, A. E. Calcagno, 1980, 2nd. ed. report, 1977,2nd. ed. 1985,79 pp. 1982, 114 pp. 16 Desarrollo y cambio social en América Latina, 1977, 34 Las fluctuaciones de la industria manufacturera 2nd. ed. 1984,59 pp. argentina, 1950-1978, D. Heymann, 1980, 2nd. ed. 17 Estrategia internacional de desarrollo y 1984,234 pp. establecimiento de un nuevo orden económico 35 Perspectivas de reajuste industrial: la Comunidad internacional, 1977, 3rd.ed. 1984,61 pp. Económica Europea y bs países en desarrolb, 17 International development strategy and establishment of a new international economic B. Evers, G. de Groot and W. Wagenmans, 1980, order, 1977,3rd. ed. 1985,59 pp. 2nd. ed. 1984,69 pp. 18 Raices históricas de las estructuras distributivas de 36 Un análisis sobre la posibilidad de evaluar la solvencia América Latina, A. di Filippo, 1977, 2nd. ed. 1983, crediticia de bs países en desarrolb, A. Saieh, 64 pp. 1980,2nd. ed. 1984,82 pp. 19 Dos estudios sobre endeudamiento externo, C. 37 Hacia los censos latinoamericanos de los años Massad and R.Zahler, 1977, 2nd.ed. 1986,66 pp. ochenta, 1981,146 pp. s/n United States - Latín American trade and s/n The economic relations of Latín America with financial relations: some policy recommendations, Europe, 1980, 2nd. ed. 1983,156 pp. S. Weintraub, 1977,44 pp. 38 Desarrolb regional argentino: la agricultura, J. Martin, 20 Tendencias y proyecciones a largo plazo del 1981,2nd. ed. 1984,111 pp. desarrollo económico de América Latina, 1978, 39 Estratificación y movilidad ocupacional en América 3rd. ed. 1985,134 pp. Latina, C. Filgueira and C. Geneletti, 1981, 2nd. ed. 21 25 años en la agricultura de América Latina: rasgos 1985,162 pp. principales 1950-1975,1978,2nd. ed. 1983,124 pp. 40 Programa de acción regional para América Latina en 22 Notas sobre la familia como unidad socioeconómica, bs años ochenta, 1981,2nd. ed. 1984,62 pp. Carlos A. Borsotti, 1978,2nd. ed. 1984,60 pp. 40 Regional programme of action for Latin America in 23 La organización de la información para la evaluación the 1980s, 1981, 2nd. ed. 1984, 57 pp. del desarrollo, Juan Sourrouille, 1978, 2nd. ed. 1984, 41 El desarrolb de América Latina y sus repercusiones 61 pp. en la educación. Alfabetismo y escolaridad básica, 24 Contabilidad nacional a precbs constantes en América 1982, 246 pp. Latina, 1978,2nd. ed. 1983,60 pp. 42 América Latina y la economía mundial del café, 1982, s/n Energy in Latin America: The Historical Record, 95 pp. J. Mullen, 1978,66 pp. 43 El ciclo ganadero y la economía argentina, 1983, 25 Ecuador: desafios y logros de la política económica en 160 pp. la fase de expansión petrolera, 1979, 2nd. ed. 1984, 44 Las encuestas de hogares en América Latina, 1983, 153 pp. 122 pp. 26 Las transformaciones rurales en América Latina: 45 Las cuentas nacionales en América Latina y el Caribe, ¿desarrolb social o marginación?, 1979, 2nd. ed. 1984,160 pp. 1983,100 pp. 27 La dimensión de la pobreza en América Latina, Oscar 45 National accounts in Latín America and the Attimir, 1979,2nd. ed. 1983,89 pp. Caribbean, 1983,97 pp. 28 Organización institucional para el control y manejo de 46 Demanda de equipos para generación, transmisión la deuda extema. El caso chileno, Rodolfo Hoffman, y transformación eléctrica en América Latina, 1983, 1979,35 pp. 193 pp. 47 La economía de América Latina en 1982: evolución 62 The evolution of the Latin American economy in general, política cambiaría y renegociación de la deuda 1987,1989,84 pp. extema, 1984,104 pp. 63 Elementos para el diseño de políticas industriales 48 Políticas de ajuste y renegociación de la deuda externa y tecnológicas en América Latina, 1990, 2nd. ed. en América Latina, 1984,102 pp. 1991,172 pp. 49 La economía de América Latina y el Caribe en 1983: 64 La industria de transporte regular internacional y la evolución general, crisis y procesos de ajuste, competitividad del comercio exterior de los países 1985,95 pp. de América Latina y el Caribe, 1989,132 pp. 49 The economy of Latín America and the Caribbean 64 The international common-carrier transportation in 1983: main trends, the impact of the crisis and Industry and the competitiveness of the foreign the adjustment processes, 1985,93 pp. trade of the countries of Latin America and the 50 La CEPAL, encamación de una esperanza de América Caribbean, WW, 116 pp. Latina, Hernán Santa Cruz, 1985,77 pp. 65 Cambios estructurales en los puertos y la 51 Hacia nuevas modalidades de cooperación económica competitividad del comercio exterior de América entre América Latina y el Japón, 1986,233 pp. Latina y el Caribe, 1991, 141 pp. 51 Towards new forms of economic co-operation 65 Structural Changes in Ports and the between Latin America and Japan, 1987,245 pp. Competitiveness of Latin American and Caribbean 52 Los conceptos básicos del transporte marítimo y la Foreign Trade, 1990,126 pp. situación de la actividad en América Latina, 1986, 66 The Caribbean: one and divisible, 1993, 207 pp. 112 pp. 67 La transferencia de recursos extemos de América 52 Basic concepts of maritime transport and its Latina en la posguerra, 1991, 92 pp. present status in Latin America and the Caribbean, 67 Postwar transfer of resources abroad by Latin 1987,114 pp. America, 1992,90 pp. 53 Encuestas de ingresos y gastos. Conceptos y métodos 68 La reestructuración de empresas públicas: el caso de los puertos de Amér'ica Latina y el Caribe, en la experiencia latinoamericana. 1986,128 pp. 1992, 148 pp. 54 Crisis económica y políticas de ajuste, estabilización y 68 The restructuring of public-sector enterprises: crecimiento, 1986,123 pp. the case of Latin American and Caribbean ports, 54 The economic crisis: policies for adjustment, 1992, 129 pp. stabilization and growth, 1986,125 pp. 69 Las finanzas públicas de América Latina en la 55 El desarrolb de América Latina y el Caribe: escollos, década de 1980,1993,100 pp. requisitos y opciones, 1987,184 pp. 69 Public Finances in Latín America in the 1980s, 55 Latin American and Caribbean development: 1993, 96 pp. obstacles, requirements and options, 1987,184 pp. 70 Canales, cadenas, corredores y competitividad: un 56 Los bancos transnacionales y el endeudamiento enfoque sistêmico y su aplicación a seis productos extemo en la Argentina, 1987,112 pp. latinoamericanos de exportación, 1993, 183 pp. 57 El proceso de desarrollo de la pequeña y mediana 71 Focalización y pobreza, 1995,249 pp. empresa y su papel en el sistema industrial: el caso de 73 El gasto social en América Latina: un examen Italia, 1988,112 pp. cuantitativo y cualitativo, 1995,167 pp. 58 La evolución de la economía de América Latina en 1986,1988, 99 pp. 58 The evolution of the Latín American Economy in Cuadernos Estadísticos de la C E P A L 1986.1988, 95 pp. 59 Protectionism: regional negotiation and defence 1 América Latina: relación de precios del intercambio, strategies, 1988,261 pp. 1976,2nd. ed. 1984,66 pp. 60 Industrialización en América Latina: de la "caja negra" 2 Indicadores del desarrollo económico y social en al "casillero vacio", F. Fajnzylber, 1989, 2nd. ed. América Latina, 1976,2nd. ed. 1984,179 pp. 1990,176 pp. 3 Series históricas del crecimiento de América Latina, 60 Industrialization in Latín America: from the 1978,2nd. ed. 1984,206 pp. "Black Box" to the "Empty Box", F. Fajnzylber, 4 Estadísticas sobre la estructura del gasto de consumo 1990,172 pp. délos hogares según finalidad del gasto, por grupos 61 Hacia un desarrolb sostenido en América Latina y el de ingreso, 1978,110 pp. (Out of print; replaced by Caribe: restricciones y requisitos, 1989,94 pp. No. 8 below) 61 Towards sustained development in Latin America 5 El balance de pagos de América Latina, 1950-1977, and the Caribbean: restrictions and requisites, 1979,2nd. ed. 1984,164 pp. 1989,93 pp. 6 Distribución regional del producto interno bruto 62 La evolución de la economía de América Latina en sectorial en los países de América Latina, 1981, 1987.1989, 87 pp. 2nd. ed. 1985,68 pp. 7 Tablas de insumo-producto en América Latina, 1983, 4 Estilos de desarrollo, modernización y medio ambiente 383 pp. en la agricultura latinoamericana, 1981, 4th. ed. 1984, 8 Estructura del gasto de consumo de los hogares 130 pp. según finalidad del gasto, por grupos de ingreso, 5 El desarrollo de América Latina en los años ochenta, 1984,146 pp. 1981,2nd. ed. 1982,153 pp. 9 Origen y destino del comercio exterior detos países de 5 Latin American development in the 1980s, 1981, la Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración y del 2nd. ed. 1982,134 pp. Mercado Común Centroamericano, 1985,546 pp. 6 Proyecciones del desarrollo latinoamericano en los 10 América Latina: balance de pagos, 1950-1984,1986, años ochenta, 1981,3rd. ed. 1985,96 pp. 357 pp. 6 Latin American development projections for the 11 El comercio exterior de bienes de capital en América 1980s, 1982,2nd. ed. 1983,89 pp. Latina, 1986,288 pp. 7 Las relaciones económicas extemas de América Latina 12 América Latina: índices del comercio exterior, entos años ochenta, 1981,2nd. ed. 1982,180 pp. 1970-1984,1987,355 pp. 8 Integración y cooperación regionales en tos años 13 América Latina: comercio exterior según la ochenta, 1982,2nd. ed. 1982,174 pp. clasificación industrial internacional uniforme de 9 Estrategias de desarrollo sectorial para bs años ochenta: todas las actividades económicas, 1987, Vol. I, industria y agricultura, 1981,2nd. ed. 1985,100 pp. 675 pp; Vol. II, 675 pp. 10 Dinámica delsubempleo en América Latina. PfíEALC, 14 La distribución del ingreso en Colombia. Antecedentes 1981,2nd. ed. 1985,101 pp. estadísticos y características socioeconómicas de los 11 Estilos de desarrollo de la industria manufacturera y receptores, 1988,156 pp. medio ambiente en América Latina, 1982, 2nd. ed. 15 América Latina y el Caribe: series regionales de 1984, 178 pp. cuentas nacionales a precios constantes de 1980, 12 Relacbnes económicas de América Latina con bs 1991, 245 pp. países miembros del "Consejo de Asistencia Mutua 16 Origen y destino del comercio exterior detos países de Económica", 1982,154 pp. la Asocición Latinoamericana de Integración, 1991, 13 Campesinado y desarrollo agrícola en Bolivia, 190 pp. 1982, 175 pp. 17 Comercio intrazonal de los países de la Asociación de 14 El sector extemo: indicadores y análisis de sus Integración, según capítulos de la clasificación fluctuaciones. El caso argentino, 1982, 2nd. ed. 1985, uniforme para el comercio internacional, revisión 2, 216 pp. 1992, 299 pp. 15 Ingeniería y consultoria en Brasil y el Grupo Andino, 18 Clasificaciones estadísticas internacionales 1982,320 pp. incorporadas en el Banco de Datos del Comercio 16 Cinco estudios sobre la situación de la mujer en Exterior de América Latina y el Caribe de la CEPAL, América Latina, 1982,2nd. ed. 1985,178 pp. 1993, 313 pp. 16 Five studies on the situation of women in Latin 19 América Latina: comercio exterior según la America, 1983,2nd. ed. 1984,188 pp. clasificación industrial internacional uniforme de todas 17 Cuentas nacionales y producto material en América las actividades económicas (CIIU) - Volumen I - Latina, 1982,129 pp. Exportaciones, 1993, 285 pp. 18 El financiamiento de las exportaciones en América 19 América Latina: comercio exterior según la Latina, 1983,212 pp. clasificación industrial internacional uniforme de todas 19 Medición del empleo y de bs ingresos rurales, 1982, las actividades económicas (CIIU) - Volumen II - 2nd. ed. 1983,173 pp. Importaciones, 1993, 291 pp. 19 Measurement of employment and income in rural 20 Dirección del comercio exterior de América Latina y el areas, 1983,184 pp. Caribe según principales productos y grupos de 20 Efectos macroeconômicos de cambios en las barreras productos, 1970-1992,1994,483 pp. al comercio y al movimiento de capitales: un modelo de simulación, 1982,68 pp. 21 La empresa pública en la economía: la experiencia Estudios e Informes de la C E P A L argentina, 1982,2nd. ed. 1985,134 pp. 22 Las empresas transnacbnales en la economía de 1 Nicaragua: el Impacto de la mutación política, 1981, Chile, 1974-1980,1983,178 pp. 2nd. ed. 1982,126 pp. 23 La gestión y la informática en las empresas ferroviarias 2 Perú 1968-1977: la política económica en un proceso de cambio global, 1981,2nd. ed. 1982,166 pp. de América Latina y España, 1983,195 pp. 3 La industrialización de América Latina y la cooperación 24 Establecimiento de empresas de reparación y internacional, 1981, 170 pp. (Out of print, will not be mantenimiento de contenedores en América Latina reprinted.) y el Caribe, 1983,314 pp. 24 Establishing container repair and maintenance 48 Development of the mining resources of Latin enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean, America, 1989,160 pp. 1983,236 pp. 49 Las relaciones económicas internacionales de 25 Agua potable y saneamiento ambiental en América América Latina y la cooperación regional, 1985, Latina, 1981-1990/Drinking water supply and 224 pp. sanitation in Latín America, 1981-1990 (bilingual), 50 América Latina y la economía mundial del algodón, 1983,140 pp. 26 Los bancos transnacionales, el estado y el 1985,122 pp. endeudamiento externo en Bolivia, 1983,282 pp. 51 Comercio y cooperación entre países de América 27 Política económica y procesos de desarrollo. La Latina y países miembros del CAME, 1985,90 pp. experiencia argentina entre 1976 y 1981, 1983, 52 Trade relations between Brazil and the United 157 pp. States, 1985,148 pp. 28 Estilos de desarrollo, energía y medio ambiente: un 53 Los recursos hídricos de América Latina y el Caribe y estudio de caso exploratorio, 1983,129 pp. su aprovechamiento, 1985,138 pp. 29 Empresas transnacionales en la industria de 53 The water resources of Latin America and the alimentos. El caso argentino: cereales y came, 1983, Caribbean and their utilization, 1985,135 pp. 93 pp. 54 La pobreza en América Latina: dimensiones y políticas, 30 Industrialización en Centroamérica, 1960-1980,1983, 1985,155 pp. 168 pp. 55 Políticas de promoción de exportaciones en algunos 31 Dos estudios sobre empresas transnacionales en países de América Latina, 1985,207 pp. Brasil, 1983,141 pp. 56 Las empresas transnacionales en la Argentina, 1986, 32 La crisis económica internacional y su repercusión en 222 pp. América Latina, 1983,81 pp. 57 El desarrollo frutícola y forestal en Chile y sus 33 La agricultura campesina en sus relaciones con la derivaciones sociales, 1986,227 pp. industria, 1984, 120 pp. 58 El cultivo del algodón y la soya en el Paraguay y sus 34 Cooperación económica entre Brasil y el Grupo derivaciones sociales, 1986,141 pp. Andino: el caso de los minerales y metales no ferrosos, 59 Expansión del cultivo de la caña de azúcar y de la 1983,148 pp. ganadera en el nordeste del Brasil: un examen del 35 La agricultura campesina y el mercado de alimentos: la papel de la polñica pública y de sus derivaciones dependencia extema y sus efectos en una economía económicas y sociales, 1986,164 pp. abierta, 1984,201 pp. 60 Las empresas transnacionales en el desarrollo 36 El capital extranjero en la economía peruana, 1984, colombiano, 1986,212 pp. 178 pp. 61 Las empresas transnacionales en la economía del 37 Dos estudbs sobre poltica arancelaria, 1984,96 pp. Paraguay, 1987,115 pp. 38 Estabilización y liberalización económica en el Cono 62 Problemas de la industria latinoamericana en la fase Sur, 1984,193 pp. crítica, 1986,113 pp. 39 La agricultura campesina y el mercado de alimentos: el 63 Relaciones económicas internacionales y cooperación caso de Haití y el de la República Dominicana, 1984, regional de América Latina y el Caribe, 1987,272 pp. 255 pp. 63 International economic relations and regional 40 La industria siderúrgica latinoamericana: tendencias y co-operation in Latin America and the Caribbean, potencial, 1984,280 pp. 1987,267 pp. 41 La presencia de las empresas transnacbnales en la 64 Tres ensayos sobre inflación y políticas de economía ecuatoriana, 1984,77 pp. estabilización, 1986,201 pp. 42 Precios, salarios y empleo en la Argentina: estadísticas económicas de corto plazo, 1984,378 pp. 65 La industria farmacéutica y farmoquknica: desarrollo 43 El desarrollo de la seguridad social en América Latina, histórico y posibilidades futuras. Argentina, Brasil y 1985,348 pp. México, 1987, 177 pp. 44 Market structure, firm size and Brazilian exports, 66 Dos estudios sobre América Latina y el Caribe y la 1985, 104 pp. economía internacional, 1987,125 pp. 45 La planificación del transporte en países de América 67 Reestructuración de la industria automotriz mundial y Latina, 1985,247 pp. perspectivas para América Latina, 1987,232 pp. 46 La crisis en América Latina: su evaluación y 68 Cooperación latinoamericana en servicios: perspectivas, 1985,119 pp. antecedentes y perspectivas, 1988,155 pp. 47 La juventud en América Latina y el Caribe, 1985, 69 Desarrollo y transformación: estrategia para superar la 181 pp. pobreza, 1988,114 pp. 48 Desarrollo de los recursos mineros de América Latina, 69 Development and change: strategies for 1985,145 pp. vanquishing poverty, 1988,114 pp. 70 La evolución económica del Japón y su impacto en 85 Inversión extranjera y empresas transnacionales América Latina, 1988,88 pp. en la economía de Chile (1974-1989). Proyectos 70 The economic evolution of Japan and its de inversión y estrategias de las empresas impact on Latin America, 1990,79 pp. transnachnales, 1992, 257 pp. 71 La gestión de los recursos hídricos en América Latina 86 Inversión extranjera y empresas transnacionales en la y el Caribe, 1989,256 pp. economía de Chile (1974-1989). El papel del capital 72 La evolución del problema de la deuda externa en extranjero y la estrategia nacional de desarrollo, América Latina y el Caribe, 1988,77 pp. 1992, 163 pp. 72 The evolution of the external debt problem in Latin 87 Análisis de cadenas agroindustriales en Ecuador y America and the Caribbean, 1988,69 pp. Perú, 1993, 294 pp. 73 Agricultura, comercio exterior y cooperación 88 El comercio de manufacturas de América Latina. internacional, 1988,83 pp. Evolución y estructura 1962-1989,1993,150, pp. 73 Agriculture, external trade and international 89 El impacto económico y social de las migraciones co-operation, 1989,79 pp. en Centroamérica, 1993,78 pp. 74 Reestructuración industrial y camba tecnológico: 90 El papel de las empresas transnacionales en la consecuencias para América Latina, 1989,105 pp. reestructuración industrial de Colombia: una 75 El medio ambiente como factor de desarrollo, 1989, síntesis, 1993,131 pp. 2nd. ed. 1991,123 pp. 92 Reestructuración y desarrollo productivo: desafío y 76 El comportamiento de los bancos transnacionales y la potencial para los años noventa, 1994, 108 pp. crisis internacional de endeudamiento, 1989,214 pp. 93 Comercio internacional y medio ambiente. La 76 Transnational bank behaviour and the international discusión actual, 1995, 112 pp. debt crisis, 198 pp. 77 Los recursos hídricos de América Latina y del Caribe: planificación, desastres naturales y contaminación, Serie INFOPLAN: Temas Especiales del Desarrollo 1990,266 pp. 77 The water resources of Latin America and the 1 Resúmenes de documentos sobre deuda externa, Caribbean - Planning hazards and pollution, 1990, 1986,324 pp. 252 pp. 2 Resúmenes de documentos sobre cooperación entre 78 La apertura financiera en Chile y el comportamiento de países en desarrollo, 1986,189 pp. los bancos transnacionales, 1990,132 pp. 3 Resúmenes de documentos sobre recursos hídricos, 79 La industria de bienes de capital en Amérca Latina y el 1987,290 pp. Caribe: su desarrollo en un marco de cooperación 4 Resúmenes de documentos sobre planificación y regional, 1991,235 pp. medio ambiente, 1987,111 pp. 5 Resúmenes de documentos sobre integración 80 Impacto ambiental de la contaminación hídrica económica en América Latina y el Caribe, 1987, producida por la Refinería Estatal Esmeraldas: análisis 273 pp. técnico-económico, 1991,189 pp. 6 Resúmenes de documentos sobre cooperación entre 81 Magnitud de la pobreza en América Latina en los años países en desarrolto, II parte, 1988,146 pp. ochenta, 1991,177 pp. 7 Documentos sobre privatización con énfasis en 82 América Latina y el Caribe: el manejo de la escasez de América Latina, 1991, 82 pp. agua, 1991, 148 pp. 8 Reseñas de documentos sobre desarrollo 83 Reestructuración y desarrollo de la industria automotriz ambientemente sustentable, 1992, 217 pp. mexicana en los años ochenta: evolución y 9 MERCOSUR: resúmenes de documentos, 1993, perspectivas, 1992,191 pp. 119 pp. 84 La transformación de la producción en Chile: cuatro 10 Políticas sociales: resúmenes de documentos, 1995, ensayos de interpretación, 1993, 372 pp. 95 pp. V- >Ua yll vQl j. U» • y ^>11 jjj, wLiJi j- J* J>—» J~. • i„K y jr» r-" r"v' J'

HOW TO OBTAIN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be' obtained Irom bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nations, Sales Section, New York or Geneva.

COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UN1ES Les publications des Nations Unies sont en vente dans les libraries et les agences dépositaires du monde entier. Informez-vous aupres de voire librairc ou adrcssez-vous à : Nations Unies, Section des ventes, New York ou Geneve.

KAK nOJiyiHTb H3AAHHH OPr AHH 3AU.HH OBT>EaHHEHHWX HAUHH HAA&HHH OpraHH3&UHH 06N»EAHHEHHBIX HAUMFT MOMCHO KYNHTB i XKHXHUX Mart- 3HHftx H areHTCTBftX BO BCfcX paAOHftX MHpa. H&BOAMTP CnpaBKH 06 H3A&HHMX I aauueM KHHMHOM Mara3HHe H.TH nmuHTc no aapecy: OpramiaauHfv OS^CAHMCHRUX HamiA, CcKUKit no npoaawe NSAINHA, Hbjo-PIopK HAH >KeHeBa.

COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Las publicaciones de las Naciones Unidas están en venta en librerías y casas distribuidoras en todas paites del mundo. Consulte a su librero o diríjase a-. Naciones Unidas, Sección de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra.

Publications of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and those of the Latin American and the Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES) can be ordered from your local distributor or directly through:

United Nations Publications United Nations Publications Sales Section, — DC-2-866 Sales Section New York, NY, 10017 Palais des Nations USA 1211 Geneve 10, Switzerland

Distribution Unit CEPAL — Casilla 179-D Santiago, Chile LIBROS DE LA CEPAL

First edition Printed in United Nations - Santiago, Chile - 94-8-1093 - March 1995 - 1 500 ISBN 92-1-121192-1 - E.94.II.G-6