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In neoliberalism, rural Mexican women have diversified their work. The policies to promote productive and reproductive labor are associated with an instrumental perspective of development. The paper discusses critiques to development, identify alternatives in rural women organization and suggest clues to strengthen it, drawing on public policies. Long-term rural women's productive experiences are analyzed, and the local indigenous cooperative practices is deepened. The strategies highlight gender as process. Agency, shared-responsibility and autonomy are crucial in cooperatives' continuity, although time-poverty for women increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the economic and institutional deficiencies of the most vulnerable inhabitants of indigenous communities in Mexico -women, children and the elderly-, they have formed social organizations to face the challenges imposed by contemporary productive development, these organizations are based on the ecofeminist and other positions of socio-environmental empowerment. The objective of this paper is to analyze the development and evolution of ecofeminism and its influence on the political and economic agendas of government agencies with the intention of indicating whether there has been any benefit for rural populations in Mexico through public or private support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]