Women and Rural Development in Contemporary Estonia

A great deal has been written in recent years concerning the role and changing status of women in the context of rural development, and especially in the countries of the so-called Third World. Attention has been paid to the impact of cash-cropping and labour migration upon rural women (cf. Boserup, 1970: ch.3 and passim; Murray, 1981), to the failure of development agencies properly to appreciate their role in agriculture (cf. Swantz, 1985; Nelson, 1979), to the special burden which they carry in situations of famine and times of stress (Sen, 1983; Vaughan, 1987; ch. 5 and passim), and, as in other contexts, to the differences between women in different sections and strata of society (Moore, 1988: 79–82 and passim).