This paper centers on the possibility of re-interpreting past research data in the light of Complexity Theories, connecting them to present data to yield more understandable explanations. From such data of my research about rural-urban environments as: quantitative data from the Census in rural settlements in the State of São Paulo as for parents' expectancies about boys and girls schooling (in the 90s); qualitative data of a research on school writings conducted in the region of Araraquara in the early 80s. Linking both situations, the central argument is that the issue of girls in the rural environment should be discussed taking into account the rural-urban relationship and exceeding this dichotomy under the prism of the recent History of Brazil. It is then observed that the transformations the national society has been through reflect in the countryside. Besides, the connection between the two moments in focus (90s vs early 80s) reveals that the germs of such changes can already be found in the essays of some girls who criticized the overload of housework on their shoulders and especially on their mothers' shoulders.
Girls; Housework; Aspirations to be schooled; Rural-urban environments; Social changes in the countryside