ABSTRACT
Nowadays, despite the incorporation of the concept of gender as a discursive element in the links between indigenous population, environment, poverty and development and in the discussions on sustainable development, integral policies have yet to be devised to ensure the wellbeing of rural domestic units that engage in participatory processes. Even less has been done to promote policies which, despite involving social actors as a whole, focus on indigenous women in impoverished rural settings. Despite the rural effervescence of the 1970s, it was not until 1986 that peasant women from the Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala were able to organize their first national encounter and discuss their own role in rural struggles. Despite their continuous marginalization, various women from a number of organizations have managed to open up a political space for devising projects and experiences that reflect their specific problems (Hernández, 2004). However, engaging in collective action in public and political spheres has not been easy. At this point, it is worth recalling some experiences of the 1990s, such as the First Meeting of Coffee Producing Women, organized by the Coordinadora Estatal de Productores de Café de Oaxaca (CEPCO), the San Cristóbal Women’s Group, the Chiltak Organisation.
