Expanding Women’s Agency in the Built Environment: Understanding How Employment Has Impacted Women’s Access to Space in Rural Andean Ecuador

For centuries women’s agency in the built environment of their homes, communities and workplace was limited by an absence of ownership and control of these spaces. Even as women gained equal rights to land ownership, their capacity to develop that land was limited by social and cultural structures. Access to employment changed for women living in rural areas when the rose industry developed, especially around Cayambe and Cotopaxi, creating jobs near their home communities. Over fifty-one percent of current industry jobs are held by women, with higher number in the early years. Using participatory research methods, women employed at four rose farms in Andean Ecuador were invited to take photographs from a list of questions. These prompts centered on themes of home, community and workplace. The photographs served as a springboard to in depth interviews to study the participant’s levels of agency at home, in their communities and at work. The research builds a picture of the impact employment in the formal job market has created for women. Beginning with access to credit lines, training and education at work, these women have been able to break cycles of gender violence. The photographs, taken by participants, and narrative interviews give us a unique perspective into these women’s agency in their built environment. Most significantly perhaps, is the impact of hearing their experiences recounted and documented from their perspectives. This paper will record and disseminate those experiences to a greater audience.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.108.132

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ISBN
978-1-944214-26-5