doctors and only bought those affordable by the family income. Since family welfare was

in a very risky situation, women were forced to find a source of an additional income.

Many of these women began to work as housekeepers in Quito, Tumbaco and Cumbaya

areas. Housekeeping was the first job women sought in the first wave of paid work

involvement during the mid 1980s, and was opted for only by those families in extremely

poor conditions. Since the housekeeping labor force offered during these years was

abundant, this activity was kept at a very low payment.12

 When the flower industry boom started in the early 1990s,13 it offered attractive

salaries. This salary was higher than those offered to women as housekeepers. So, women

decided to apply forjobs, leading to massive female involvement in flower work. Due to

appropriate climate conditions of the area, several plantations were set up in Pifo, where

Mulauco is located.

 The underlying motive that moved women from Mulauco to work in flower

plantations was exclusively the lack of income brought home by men. All the women that

started to work on flower plantations in the early 1990s were concerned about the

family's survival, and not in getting independence from men's influence or achieving a

better social status. Former female flower workers I interviewed said that they started

working in plantations with the idea of temporary work. They thought of their jobs as a

way to provide concrete temporary necessities of the family, such as to pay an overdue

loan, house repair, to increase the family land, and other specific expenses. This


12 During the 1980s and early 1990s, the difference of wages between housekeeping and flower work was
substantial: Housekeepers earned about US$ 40 and flower workers about US$ 100. Nowadays, such
difference is minor: housekeepers earn from US$120 to 140 monthly, and a flower worker earns from
US$140 to 280, including overtime. Due to work conditions, some women have withdrawn from flower
labor and now work as housekeepers (interview with Susana Quilumba).
13 As explained in Chapter 4, the boom of flower activity was generated due to governmental incentives and
the US government Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) signed into law on December 1991.