O Papel das Mulheres no Desenvolvimento Rural: Uma Leitura para Timor-Leste

It has been a long way, until both gender and development were recognized as important issues in academic and political arena. Several fields of science, such as sociology, anthropology, and economy contributed to the knowledge in this area, in addition to recent developments in feminist and pos-colonial studies. As a result, there are different gender approaches to development. The first objective of this paper is to stress the role of women in rural development, identifying their roles, the main gender approaches to development and women status under international law framework. The second aim is to analyze the position of women in East Timor with respect to social aspects, namely the gender roles, the family, access to natural resources and women status under the legal system and the traditional law. This analysis used documental sources of information and observations made in East Timor in 2000 and 2003. The contribution of East Timorese women to the development is heavy constrained by the gender inequality present in traditional/customary law, in which unequal access to natural resources, in special land access, is relevant. The HRBA seems to be the best approach to a full integration of women in the development process, once it vindicates the right to equality and non discrimination and advocates training and empowerment as means to make women exercise their rights.