Gender relations in people's cooperatives of the recycling segment: a way for the construction of self-management?

Author(s)

Ioli Gewehr Wirth

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Educação
• Defense date: 2010-06-18

Examining board members

Márcia de Paula Leite; Angela Maria Carneiro Araújo; Neusa Maria Dal Ri

• Advisor: Márcia de Paula Leite

Abstract

Within the context of labor's world transformations, this research addresses two experiences of associated work under the analytical perspective of gender. Two people's cooperative that select solid waste, in Campinas-SP, were analyzed, focusing on the production process, the sexual division of labor, the enterprise management and incubation. We also tried to look at these experiences in terms of the precarious place they occupy in the productive chain of recycling, a condition that limits their possibility of selfmanagement. In these cooperatives, the number of women exceeds that of men and there is a clear sexual division of labor. This study examined the consequences and the possibilities For changing this setting. Moreover, the research sought to understand the meaning of associated work for men and women through the occupational trajectories of 15 interviewed workers. Among the women interviewed it was possible to observe a contradictory sense of associated work, meaning on one hand a better possibility of articulation between the productive and reproductive activities and on the other, this flexibility combined with an greater level of exploitation. (AU)