societies. Although multiple cases of inequality in gender relations have been reported in

Andean areas, Hardman (1979) explains that in some cases there is a distortion in the

analysis due to the theoretical frame used, which employs European patterns to

conceptualize social situations. Observers tend to utilize patterns, values, and prejudices

from their own cultural background societies, and as a result, what Andean women have

preserved from their own culture has been obscured by a foreign framework of analysis

or simply ignored (Hardman 1979).

 Gender Relations in Mulauco: An Overview

 Mulauco is an indigenous community, but the local culture is not entirely

traditional. During the field research carried out in this Comuna, I found what I could

call both equal and unequal gender relations. Although Mulauco's way of life has been

greatly affected by the proximity of urban areas, including Quito, which is about a one

hour and a half bus trip, it still shows strong accents of the indigenous background of its

population. Due to economic transformations in Ecuador, Mulauco's society has been

slowly absorbed into the mainstream society of this country in the last decade. The fact

that now practically all the families depend on earnings that come from outside the

community, explains how integrated this community is with the national society. This

reality also explains some mixed cultural features regarding gender relations in which is

possible to observe traces of traditional indigenous dualism / complementarity, and an

urban type of unequal gender relations.

 As explained in Chapter 5, when Muluaco's economy was based on subsistence

agriculture, women and men equally controlled the household. Both women and men

were in the same decision-making level regarding the household's wealth and work

responsibilities though there was a specialization on some tasks. In an interview