ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the neo-liberal model of development has affected rural women's productive work, social participation, and living conditions. It summarizes the principal theoretical premises underlying the neo-liberal model, the steps taken to implement it, and its effect upon the rural sector. The chapter describes how the model has affected rural women in the five different regions of the country. The neo-liberal model has guided the Chilean economy. By minimizing state intervention and allowing comparative advantage to orient growth, it has produced significant social and economic changes. The basic features of the new model as applied in Chile included the liberalization of prices and markets, free trade and foreign financing, and reduced state intervention to enable capitalist enterprises to become the motor force of the economy. Producer confidence in the model lasted from 1973 to 1979, and agricultural production expanded for those products having a comparative advantage in international markets.
