Documentary Analysis of Public Policies with a Gender Perspective in Rural Territories of Ecuador: Articulations between Health, Rights and Social Development

Introduction: gender-focused public policies have become increasingly relevant in global rural development agendas. However, in Ecuador, limited research has been conducted on how these policies are addressed in rural contexts from a social sciences perspective. Methods: qualitative, interpretative and analytical study was conducted through documentary research. A bibliographic search was carried out on the Scopus-Elsevier platform using the descriptor "public gender policies", limited to scientific articles in the fields of social sciences, arts and humanities published between 2020 and 2025. A total of 3,624 articles were obtained and analysed using VOSviewer 1.6.20 software.Results: the bibliometric maps identified several thematic clusters, with central nodes such as "gender equality", "rural development", "women", "public health", "intersectionality" and "policy implementation". These concepts revealed significant gaps in literature related to local adaptation and territorial articulation of gender policies in rural settings.Conclusions: the study evidenced a fragmented and heterogeneous academic approach to gender policies in rural Ecuadorian contexts. It highlighted the need to strengthen the theoretical and methodological integration of the rural perspective in gender policy analysis. The findings offer a foundational reference for future research and for the design of inclusive, context-sensitive public strategies.