Women, Natural Resources, and Grassroots Social Movements in Mexico

• In Event: Social Movements, Gender, and Colonialism

Abstract

In this presentation I will address the manner in which women with limited economic resources and political power undertook collective action in order to carved out their unique place within the fishing industry of North Western Mexico. Framed within a feminist political ecology approach I would trace the ethno-history of the movements, its challenges and its outcomes. I will explain how collective action led to women’s empowerment by enhancing their abilities to exercise agency and their rights to decent and viable livelihoods in order to improve their lives. The presentation concludes with a discussion on how natural resource management policies are not gender-neutral and why women are more vulnerable to such policies.

Author

• Maria L Cruz-Torres, Arizona State University