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it provides for women. Rachel and Ximena were important actors in making it acceptable for women to work seasonally in the grape economy. In the neighbourhood where they had grown up it was accepted that women would go out to work and so once they arrived in Tome Alto, they wanted to continue working. Although originally they went to find work without first asking their partners' permission, it soon became apparent that they could earn substantial amounts of money during a traditionally quiet period in the village and at the same time continue with their domestic responsibilities. In part it is the specific nature of seasonal work that has allowed women to move into the labour market and stay there. For example, the temporary nature of the work in export agriculture is seen as an advantage in that women perceive it as allowing them to combine their traditional role in the home with paid work, and the disruption of their domestic responsibilities is only for part of the year. This 'benefit' is reinforced by the wages they can hope to earn as a supplement to their male partner's income. The roles of campesina and temporera are therefore juggled by these women on a seasonal basis, although for them their traditional role is the primary one.

Alicia lives in the neighbouring settlement of Chanaral Alto, a village unlike Tome Alto, in that it has been the site of significant expansion of the grape economy. Alicia and her husband sold their own land in the early 1970s when tomato production became unprofitable. Her husband found work on the irrigation system while she stayed at home and raised their five children. Alicia first began to work in the grapes in 1983 and always chooses a farm where there are a lot of local people rather than migrant workers. She views the work in a very positive light for two main reasons. The first is the added financial security the extra wage provides - for example, with her money from the grapes she has been able to buy a washing machine, a radio and clothes. The second is the break in the domes- tic routine that her work gives her. Although the work is extremely arduous, with long working days, Alicia looks forward each year to her seasonal work:

He [her husband] gives me permission to work because he knows that I relax. I get better because I have all sorts of ailments, I should be worse through working, but instead I feel a lot better. So he leaves me in peace to get on with it. I don't see the children as much as I would like, but you know for my health I work. I feel better when I go to work. (Alicia)

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Alicia and her husband now run a bottle shop from the front room of their house, and Alicia has equal responsibility for the ownership and running of the business. In effect she is able to combine multiple roles as housewife, mother, self-employed shop owner and temporera in the grape economy. For her the work in the grape packing plants offers a chance to relax and let other family members take over the responsibility for the house. In this respect her husband has been rela- tively accommodating by helping to take care of the children when they were younger and helping with the household chores. In fact, Alicia feels that her husband is quite enlightened and moreover has learned something of the burden of the domestic routine: 'He realises that the role of mother is not easy, every day the same routine, but I'm lucky because he thanks me for the work I do.'

For Marta, who is 23 and lives with her parents in Chanaral Alto, her work in the grape economy has been economically vital and has become more so now that she has a small son. Her parents were originally from Carcamo, a remote and impoverished village, which still lacks many basic amenities. Her father arrived to work on the tomatoes in Chanaral Alto in 1968 and her mother followed soon after because there was no doctor in Carcamo to care for their chil- dren. Marta went to school in Chanaral Alto until year 8 and then fol- lowed the normal pattern by boarding in Ovalle. She completed a diploma in nutrition but has never had the opportunity to use her skills in her work. She first began to work on the grapes with a group of girlfriends during the summer school holidays when she was 16. She has always worked for the largest plant in Chanaral Alto. She used to enjoy her work in the packing plants, but recently has been less enam- oured of the hard, repetitive and pressurised working conditions:

I like my job, more or less, but lately I have not been enjoying it as much. I realise that the work in the grapes is the only possibility to earn a little bit more. You're on your feet all day long. Yes, on your feet because if you sit down you slow yourself down. And you can find that you are very, very tired, but you have to put the tiredness aside because if you stop, well it's fewer boxes, and fewer boxes means less money that you can earn, because out of 1,000 pesos, 100 is a lot to lose. (Marta)

In 1990 she became pregnant by a seasonal worker from the south. She is uncertain whether he even knows about his son - he certainly does not contribute to his upbringing. This increased the pressure on her to find employment and during the winter of 1993 she travelled

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north to Iquique in search of work. Through friends of her sister she found employment as a vendor. In total she was able to earn CH$70,000 (US$167), but this was reduced to CH$56,000 (US$134) after deductions. With the rent and the money she sent back each week to her mother who was taking care of her young son, she was unable to save very much.

She is uncertain about the future, knowing that there is little for her in Chanaral Alto. Marta would ideally like to use her nutritional skills planning meals in a hospital, but realises that her biggest problem will be leaving her son. For her, Chanaral Alto has lost much of its charm. She no longer enjoys going out to parties and discos as she did when she was younger and suggests that there are many more things for men to do than for women. For Marta the seasonality of the work in the grape economy is the greatest problem, as she needs regular local employment to enable her to take care of her son. While she does not have to overcome opposition from a male partner in order to work, she feels keenly the problem of leaving her son behind to search for alternative work:

There's nothing here for me, so last year I went to Iquique and I still didn't find a job in what I learned and so I became a vendor and it went well. I don't know what I'll do next. They say that there are possibilities to work in the grapes further down the valley. I think it's in March and April so that's where I'll go and look for work, but as long as it's close to my son. Because when I was in Iquique, which is very far away, he lost his affection for me, because he now no longer calls me 'mama', he calls be 'auntie'. (Marta)

Patricia has two children (both girls) and lives with her partner in one of the larger houses in Chanaral Alto. She was born in Vina del Mar in central Chile and came to live in Chanaral Alto when her mother separated from her father. Her mother's family are from the region. Patricia was educated in a technical college in Ovalle and is a qualified nursery nurse. When she finished her education she was preg- nant and went to live in southern Chile with her boyfriend who was working for Soprole, a large company making dairy products. They came to visit her mother during one vacation and decided to stay because the village was expanding and there were opportunities to work on the grapes. Her partner works all year on the grapes while she works during the summer harvest, cleaning and packing the grapes. She estimated that during a good week she could earn CH$60,000 (US$143) and in a bad week CH$20,000 (US$48). For the rest of the

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year she works in the local government office dealing with the electoral roll. Although she earns only CH$1,500 (US$3.60) for a half day's work, she enjoys the security offered by the job compared to work on the grapes. It is also much more sociable and civilised compared to working in the fields all day 'where your face is burned and your hands freeze'. She described the rationale for her decision to work:

I work so as not be bored, not to waste any time. So with that job [in the packing plant] I have another salary and can buy other things for myself, small luxuries. On the other hand, with the job in the office I have more security, this is a government job so it is more secure. It's more like a job for the future. (Patricia)

Throughout 1993 she was able to combine her work with childcare because her daughter was at school while she worked in the office and they spent the afternoons in the house. The following year presented more problems because her older daughter would be at school out of office hours and she also had to care for her new baby. One solution was to have a female friend, also with young children, come to live with her and between them work out a system for taking care of each other's children while the other worked. Patricia had hoped to set up a childcare facility but was prevented by a combination of government bureaucracy and the opening of a temporary facility for the children of temporeras in the secondary school.

Patricia showed a keen interest in and observation of the changes that have occurred in the village. For her the most noticeable change has been the extension of the metalled road into the village making transport of grape trucks much easier. She has also seen the way the young people have increased their consumption of alcohol and 'soft' drugs. In her opinion though it is very much a problem introduced into the village by the migrants. But the local women are also involved in taking drugs and alcohol: 'The more mature women and the young women, they all take it, it's like a vice. So that also came with the grapes. A type of decline came with the grapes'.

At the same time positive changes have occurred, especially in the material condition of people's lives and also in the freedom that women have to go out to work, gaining independence and increasing family income:

Well the women here aren't as feminist as in other countries. You know, as recently in some countries women can live alone and do almost anything. It's not exactly like that here, but the women are

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not totally confined to the house. In spite of everything, the woman can have her own money and buy her own things. She can decide what to buy rather than relying on the men to give her money and tell her what to buy. (Patricia)

For Patricia her work on the grapes represents a possibility for an income when other work is not available. She has been fortunate in obtaining regular employment in the government sector, although she still harbours hopes of setting up her own childcare facility.

For Alicia, Marta and Patricia, the strategies they employ to manage their domestic responsibilities and wage-earning opportuni- ties are complex. For all these women the grape economy is just one waged activity they undertake. Alicia runs the botelleria, Patricia works in the government office and Marta has had a variety of jobs. Yet none of these women mentioned having any traditional responsibilities in small-scale family farming. While the parents of these women (or in the case of Alicia, her husband), had originally earned their living from small-scale tomato production, it appears not to be an option that is now considered by the women. This contrasts dramatically with the opinions expressed by Rachel, Ximena and Maria, who view traditional small-scale production as the central aspect of their income-generating activity and the grapes as an addi- tional opportunity to earn their own money. In Tome Alto the women still regard themselves as campesinas first and foremost, and their role as temporeras as being of secondary importance. This contrast between the women from the two villages highlights the heterogeneity of the temporeras.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

It is difficult to summarise the situation vis-a-vis employment in the modern agro-export sector for the populations of the agricultural communities. It represents both a new possibility for employment in an area traditionally characterised as having very limited job opportu- nities. It has also provided rural women with a new wage-earning potential and the freedom to move beyond the domestic sphere and traditional agriculture. However it has bought with it dramatically new systems of labour organisation, especially in areas where agribusiness dominates, or indeed has marginalised, traditional production and labour systems.

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The contradictions inherent in seasonal work in the agricultural sector of the Guatulame are experienced by both women and men. The very limited duration of much of the work in the grape economy means that it offers few meaningful opportunities for personal advancement. The work is arduous, repetitive and poorly paid; it is also the only alternative source of income outside small-scale tradi- tional agriculture. The women, especially those working in the packing plants, have the burden of the double day and extremely long working hours. On the other hand, the work provides income during periods of severe work scarcity in traditional agriculture. For many women it is the first opportunity they have had to earn substantial amounts of money and have it paid directly to them. It also allows them to escape the routine drudgery of the home. To this extent it has the potential for empowering women through increasing their independence, if only for a short period each year.

In both Tome Alto and Chanaral Alto the changes brought by the grape economy have been evident in the social life and organisation of the villages. The alterations in land tenure and labour organisa- tion have had ramifications that cut deep into the social fabric of the traditional agricultural communities. While in one village small- scale production has continued with only superficial changes, the other has experienced the development of an active land market and many small-scale producers have disposed of their land and become more reliant on waged labour. In both villages there has been a fundamental reworking of labour market organisation with large numbers of both women and men being incorporated into the export grape economy as either permanent or temporary waged workers. With the importance of female labour to the successful production of high quality products, women have been leaving the domestic sphere and family farm to undertake predominantly seasonal paid work.

This has had ramifications for the organisation of household pro- duction and reproduction, frequently physically removing women from the location of much of their regular responsibilities, especially domestic work and childcare. While the women may be preoccupied with the problems of neglecting their children and work an extended double day, it also accustoms men to female family members working and may sometimes spur them to take up some of the slack by helping out in the household. The composition of the household and the level of household income are important factors in determining women's labour force participation. However, it is apparent that these factors

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are closely intertwined with the cultural perceptions of gender roles and how both partners interpret these.

The heterogeneity of the temporeras is underlined in this case study by the combining of traditional and modern, both in terms of income generation as campesinas and household responsibilities. This reflects the uneven and partial integration of modern agribusiness into this region of rural Chile, providing an example of the way production for the domestic market is interwoven with export activities. The season- ality of output and variations between the peaks of output of different produce facilitate the multiple roles of women combining different types of agricultural work and their domestic responsibilities. However, women are caught at the interface between the traditional and modern, and at the interface between production on the land and the industrial process of the preparation of fruit for export. This has con- tradictory effects on the women themselves as they juggle their multi- ple roles and identities. At one level the burdens on them are increased, but at another there is an element of empowerment as their ability to generate independent income is enhanced. How individual women mediate these contradictions depends to a large extent on their personal circumstance. However, changes in gender and social relations through the extension of agribusiness have been only partial, perpetuating traditional aspects of the subordination of women in ways that facilitate their permanent availability as a seasonal work- force when required by the agro-export sector.

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