ABSTRACT
This chapter describes research project on the political, social, and economic dynamics of rural Zambia. Some of the questions arising from this research have sharpened the interest in women. Because agriculture dominates rural socioeconomic change, the initial focus is on the position of women in agricultural change. The chapter provides the discussion to the railway region of Zambia, the area from Kalomo in the Southern Province to Kabwe in the Central. It presents this region because it has become the most involved in commercial farming. It is close to urban markets and to the main lines of communication, including the railway line. The position of women in a period of intensive agricultural change and dislocation as that of 1930-1970 in Northern Rhodesia, later Zambia, must be seen within the framework of capitalist penetration and its operations.
