“Women Enlace”: Interweaving Women to Make Collective Action Possible

Abstract

This study engages with the contemporary debate on women's collective action through the lens of commons governance. Drawing on the theory of collective action in the management of common-pool resources (CPRs) and on feminist ethnography with a group of rural extractivist women in the Cerrado—a vast tropical savanna biome in Brazil's Central-West region, rich in biodiversity—I identify an institutional element that precedes those described by Elinor Ostrom and that conditions the very possibility of collective action in this group. Named women enlace, it refers to a network of mutual care and the redistribution of domestic and caregiving responsibilities among women and their families. It is neither an affective bond nor a political identification as suggested by concepts such as “sisterhood,” but a set of practical and functional arrangements that allow women to move beyond unpaid, home-bound care work into productive, organizational, and political spheres. In the group studied, this interweaving of care and shared responsibilities makes collective action possible, enabling the women to act together in an organized way. Far from large urban centers and opportunities for formal education or waged employment, these women—organized in an extractivist association—have achieved economic, social, and personal emancipation while at the same time generated environmental benefits and defended their territories. Still under construction, the concept of women enlace contributes to theoretical discussions on women's collective action, particularly in forest resource management. Its recognition calls for further study to capture the nuances of this shared-care institution and to understand how it shapes women's participation in organizations and social movements.