To Care and to Produce: Community Participation and Care Economy Among Women in Mexico’s Sembrando Vida Program

Cynthia Cruz-Carrasco, Armando Luna-Fuentes, Baldomero Hortencio Zárate-Nicolás, María Eufemia Pérez-Flores () and Arcelia Toledo-López
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Cynthia Cruz-Carrasco: Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Hornos 1003, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán C.P. 71230, Mexico
Armando Luna-Fuentes: Dirección de Equidad de Género, Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, Oaxaca C.P. 68120, Mexico
Baldomero Hortencio Zárate-Nicolás: Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Hornos 1003, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán C.P. 71230, Mexico
María Eufemia Pérez-Flores: Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Hornos 1003, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán C.P. 71230, Mexico
Arcelia Toledo-López: Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Hornos 1003, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán C.P. 71230, Mexico

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: This study, conducted in Cajón de Piedra, Santo Domingo Tehuantepec, analyzes women’s participation in Sembrando Vida (PSV), Mexico’s flagship reforestation and rural development program, through the lenses of community engagement and feminist care economy frameworks. The research employed convenience sampling and participatory workshops with 27 participants (20 men and seven women). Using innovative mixed methods, the study maps gendered labor divisions and PSV’s impact on women’s daily lives. The results reveal that while PSV enhances women’s productive labor visibility, it simultaneously exacerbates time poverty due to unpaid care work burdens and infrastructural deficits. The program’s contribution to community resilience is tempered by its reinforcement of traditional gender roles. These findings underscore the urgent need for intersectional policy design in rural development initiatives, highlighting the importance of this research in shaping future policies.

Keywords: gender; care economy; rural development; Sembrando Vida; participatory methods; feminist political economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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