The numerous limitations faced by women, particularly in rural areas, have compelled them to look for alternative options in other places. For example, in Latin America, a great part of the migrations from rural areas during the 1960s and 1970s was made up of women seeking better opportunities as maids in cities (Villarreal 1996). In recent decades, rural women have continued to migrate to urban areas and, besides domestic work, they are also employed in export assembly plants or maquilas, particularly in Central America (Vargas-Lundius 2007, 221-27). With the liberalization of markets, small farmers from developing countries have not only seen themselves forced to compete with imports from a highly productive and subsidized agriculture sector.
