GENDER, RACE, AND GENERATION DIVERSITY IN BRAZILIAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

A TYPOLOGICAL PROPOSAL FOR ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article aimed to correlate the gender, racial, and generational profile of the social structure and the Board of Directors of agricultural cooperatives, in order to assess the role of cooperativism in promoting diversity. To this end, we considered cooperatives from Bahia, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, and Rio Grande do Sul, with data collected through a questionnaire sent between July and August 2023, resulting in 120 cases that constituted a database. This database and its variables were subjected to Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA). The research resulted in the development of 4 (four) functional types of agricultural cooperatives in relation to the proposed objective. The typology revealed significant percentages of the Black population in the social structure of cooperatives and in management positions in Types 1 and 2, which are mostly made up of family farming cooperatives in Bahia, Pará, and Minas Gerais. However, it also demonstrated that gender and generational diversity are major challenges for cooperativism, especially in Types 3 and 4, which have a proportional predominance of cooperatives from Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul.