Overview

Many "Donas Marias" are rural women whose work has never been seen as more than help. These are the women who, when they don't know their names, are called "Dona Maria". Even though we sought to preserve the identity of each social actor in its essence, we tried to find out what these women have in common, whose lives are dedicated to family and agriculture. Thus, the main objective of this study was to historically analyze the lives of women as rural workers, the difficulties they have experienced and the need to exercise their rights and powers. Nowadays, we are faced with prejudice spreading and causing major deficiencies in the hiring of rural women workers, extorting from them basic rights to ensure the minimal qualities of honorable survival with the recognition that the contribution of women is not mere help, and therefore needs to be recognized and valued as work, as worthy and honest as that of any man.