Women and land ownership in Salvatierra, Guanajuato

Abstract

This work was carried out in Salvatierra, Guanajuato, and answers the question of what has changed and what has remained in women's land ownership in the municipality of Salvatierra, Guanajuato? The objective was to study the historical, social and economic participation of women in land ownership, from the haciendas to the creation of the Industrial Agricultural Units for Women (UAIM) in the ejido system. In order to answer this question, the Historical Archive of Salvatierra, the General Archive of the Government of the State of Guanajuato, the General Agrarian Archive, archives of various UAIM and ejidos were reviewed, in addition to applying surveys to a sample of UAIM in the state. The ways that women have access to land are mainly through inheritance, purchase, UAIM and sometimes through state endowment, in addition to indirect access as wives, daughters or mothers of ejidatarios. The paper presents the female farm workers; the small landowners after the distribution and agrarian reform; the ejidatarias and the problems of succession and a brief analysis of the UAIM.