"When I started working in the fields, they asked my employer: what do we do, we put her as a cook?, and he answered by asking her where she is working, if she is in the kitchen or in the paddock. And he told them, put her as a pawn, because she is a pawn," says María Eugenia Bustos, a rural laborer at the La Tranquila ranch in the Olavarría area, where she was born and raised.
In these times, when gender barriers are beginning to collapse, María Eugenia is a clear example of how women can perform the same tasks as men, and, many times, more efficiently.
"My dad always worked in that field and I followed his example. I always lived in the ranch, with my dad, my mom and my sister, and there I went to the school that was 15 kilometers away, I also did high school and now I'm in college studying for a degree in administration, "Bustos described.
At the same time, he fulfills his tasks in the field: "I do the same tasks as any male laborer. I make mistakes, vaccinated, toured, calving, feeding the animals, changing their pastures. In calving time, with the cows of first service, I take care of it, because it is a more delicate job, and I take care of attending to those first-time animals, my chocolates, as I tell them. "
The gender difference ensures that it is not noticeable in La Tranquila, "thanks to my employer, my dad and my colleagues. Although I am a bit in charge of carrying out the stay because my employer is here, in Buenos Aires, we are a team. He tells me to look for people or tasks that need to be done, and the team is formed by me, and it's a team that respects me and takes care of me."
The field in which María Eugenia puts her mark has about 1500 hectares of mixed production. "In the livestock part we do everything with my dad and another laborer," he said. The Bustos family has another daughter, who "also grew up in the countryside, but chose to have a beauty cabinet," he said and added: "On the other hand, I always liked livestock very much and my employer was one of the pillars to be able to continue and gave me a place that not any employer offers you, like putting me in white, with a social work and have everything that the law marks, "he said.
María Eugenia's passage through the Rural Expo is related to her participation in Rural Women in Network, and in this sense she said: "The important thing is to know that women can do work in the field and do it well, equal to or better than a man."
See also