CHAPTER 1
 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 Research Question

 For centuries, women were simply nonexistent as a socioeconomic factor. When

governments around the world implemented development programs based on the theory

of modernization, women were neglected. Because women were responsible for

subsistence activities at home, women's work was not considered relevant. Although

such subsistence responsibility is an enormous contribution of women to development

efforts in all countries, this work was ignored in official statistics. This is what feminist

literature calls the invisibility of women.

 Feminist concerns about the lack of real work opportunities for women, are

experiencing a change. In the last two decades, women (especially peasant women) have

been involved in waged work in most of the less-industrialized countries. For that

reason, the invisibility of women has evolved into "women as a target of development,"

the focus of my study. My study aimed to determine whether the available work

opportunities contribute to bettering women's situation and their social and family

environments.

 Framed in these concepts, my study examined the impact of the Ecuadorian flower

agribusiness on the gender and family relations of peasant women workers. My

hypothesis was that income from labor in the flower industry promoted socio-economic

participation of women and caused some changes in gender and family relations; but it