This article has two parts: the first is a proposal for the analysis of the role of women in the economy and in the peasant social organization, in the second the reader is offered the analysis of a case study, using to the extent of the elements mentioned in the first part as much as possible. We did not use them in their entirety since the data that make up the case study were not collected within the context of a specific investigation on peasant women.

Andean communities appear to us as dynamic groups that allow the reproduction of their parts, that is: domestic units, extended families, ayllus, neighborhoods, etc. These groups are not isolated, but are inserted into regional economies and are linked to both the national market and the world market. These markets have specific historical characteristics, of which perhaps the most important is their generalizing potential, fundamentally due to the way in which values ​​are assigned to each of the factors of the production process that are understood as universally interchangeable, that is, as merchandise