Women traditionally work in several important sectors of the village economy including agricultural production, forest gathering, craft production, and marketing. In the last two decades rural women’s traditional economic activities and bases of power have been affected by changes in policy and economy, first with socialist reorganization, and then with economic liberalization. Similarly, women’s balance between productive activities and reproductive activities may have shifted in response to these changes in policy and economy. My general questions, then, for each potential arena of female economic power are the following:

Have rural women maintained power or autonomy in this traditional economic arena during socialist reorganization and economic liberalization?

Has this arena expanded with changed social, political, and economic policies, practices, and structures? Or has this arena contracted as changed opportunities and policies enabled other groups to encroach on this traditional aspect of rural women’s power and autonomy?

Has rural women’s domestic and reproductive work impeded women’s production in this economic arena more or less during the socialist and liberalization periods than before?

Have women from different ethnic groups responded differently to changes in policy and economy?