Abuelas, madres e hijas rurales. Conceptualización de lo femenino en los aquelarres de España y Chile. Estudio comparativo a través del método biográfico

Abstract

This investigation addresses how the concept of femininity is construed across three generations of rural women in Chile and Spain¿grandmothers, mothers, and daughters¿by studying their biographical trajectories and the sociocultural factors which shape their understanding of the concept. The theoretical and methodological framework aims to articulate femininity as a sociocultural construct, engage with feminist theory, comprehend women as a heterogeneous collective, and provide a qualitative strategy sustained on biographical methods such as interviews, which further examine the particularities of femininity from an intergenerational and territorial perspective. Based on an analysis of modernity¿s hegemonic models of femininity¿the domestic woman as the period¿s first female prototype and the new woman as an aspiring project¿we present two major results. First of all, we develop a comparative analysis of the women, identifying changes and continuities in their sociocultural patterns and biographical trajectories, as well as their relationship with rurality¿a dynamic and complex structure¿and the modernization processes in this area. Second of all, we offer a typology of femininity which includes five types of rural women in Chile and Spain: the rude woman, the devoted caretaker, the perpetual head of household, the woman of modernization with an evolving trajectory, and the invisibilized or elderly woman.