Women’s Cooperatives in Greece: An On-going Story of Battles, Successes and Problems

Abstract

Women’s cooperatives are the most original type of cooperatives in Greece in terms of planning, organization and management, aimed at increasing their family income and upgrading their social status. In most cases, national or European Union projects financed the cooperatives. The aim of this article is to examine the women’s cooperatives and identify the factors that exhorted farm-women to join them, the effects of such a decision on their lives, as well as the problems they faced during their operation. Forty out of seventy-one cooperatives were examined by means of a structured questionnaire in February 2000. The results indicate that the participation of farm-women in these cooperatives provided them a source of income and gave them independence, power of control and self-esteem. However, efforts must be made in order that their members consider them as enterprises that can operate, survive and develop in a competitive environment.Women’s cooperatives, Women’s agrotourist cooperatives, Farmwomen, Greece., Agribusiness,