When the Mulauco's men were more involved in paid work, husbands used to give

women an amount of money every week for shopping for food. Although the

expenditures with this amount were the exclusive decision of women, this was so tied to

the household's needs that women in practice did not have any chance to make real

decisions over expenses. The continued devaluation of the Ecuadorian currency over the

last two decades, made the rural household acquisition power shrinks quickly. Women

had to manage to combine some household raised food products (mainly potatoes,

carrots, corn, and garden beans) with market obtained products (sugar, salt, rice, noodles,

bread, soap, oil etc.).

 The loss of economic control over the household due to the decline and

disappearance of the subsistence economy is one of the aspects of gender relations that

women most lamented in Mulauco. All the women interviewed explained that the goal

of "having some money in hand" is very important for them, because with money one

could manage many situations, especially those related to health and food necessities,9

without waiting for their husbands' arrival home.

 With the involvement of women in paid work, they manage their own money as

men do with their earnings. But in some cases it is customary to join the incomes of the

women and the men. They then decide what to do with the money. In other cases, there

are explicit agreements for deciding about certain kinds of expenses for women

(especially food, medicines, school supplies, etc.), and others for men (tools, home

improvement materials, utility bills, etc.). But expenses of great value are agreed upon

by both women, and men, especially for furniture, some appliances like stereos, TVs, and


9 Particularly painful for women is recalling situations when they had to control a high fever or even bone
fractures of their children at home because they did not have any cash to take a taxi or to buy medicines.