The seven roles of the peasant woman in the province of Gaza, Mozambique

Abstract

Abstract: The project “Education for family life in communal villages and women’s activities through social communication”, in which we participated during the civil war, or better, the war of destabilization, had, in its operational steps, an “attitudinal” approach with peasant women in the province of Gaza, southern Mozambique. The objective was to recognize the factors that could determine the full and productive acceptance of the introduction of new technologies of work, as well as the change of attitude regarding aspects of health, hygiene and family planning. Thus, we thought, and we continue to think, that the study of the roles played by those women within the social and cultural system in which it is inserted is fundamental for the understanding of the expectations regarding the explicit behaviors in the possible changes in a situation of social change. This approach allowed us to have access to information on power relations, tensions, coercions, conflicts, and, finally, the processes of social change then underway in a portion of the Mozambican society.