Rural areas and co-operatives: women’s initiatives for development

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the contribution of women to rural development through cooperativism. To this end, we study the development of a group of cooperatives characterized by their female profile. The data are obtained from interviews with women who assume a key role on the selected entities, all located in the province of Teruel. The aim is to obtain information, from a historical perspective, of the evolution and perception of women about their future just at the time identified as the beginning of the economic crisis. The objective of this research is to examine whether cooperatives are a development tool that could prevent rural environments depopulation, encourage progress through female employment and support sustainability in deprived areas.