Life models and rural women: social and labour mobility in Sierra del Segura

The stereotype of women who stay in rural areas tends towards a suggestion that they adopt traditional roles. Avoiding traditional roles has meant emigration to cities. The relative higher emigration of women in rural areas has been explained mainly by the hypothesis of enlightened flight : young highly educated women who emigrate because of their job aspirations which are strongly restricted in rural environments. A lower social recognition as individuals is one of the underlying mechanisms producing that flight. Nowadays, female emigrati on and enlightened flight dynamics persist in rural areas but they do not represent the only choice. Despite higher female emigration and masculinization in Spanish rural areas, there are many women who feel rooted to their villages and try to build a space of rupture with traditional rural women frameworks. These women remain in rural areas and adapt their spaces to their personal life trajectories, as for instance, commuting strategies (Camarero & Sampedro, 2008). However, other rural women inhabit life models which are little or not linked with socio-cultural transformative schemes and, even, maintain discourses of resignation and indifference (Sampedro, 2008). Between these extremes, there are many positions to be identified and characterised. So, this research aims to determine the main life models configured by rural women today. Life models refer to different life style pattern’ of women in relation with the diverse dimensions of life (economics, politics, society, gender roles, family, etc.) which can be explained through dynamic elements such as age, education level, residential trajectory or sociocultural schemes.