Being father and mother at the same time: domestic organization, family strategies and social networks of women who are monoparental household heads

Author(s)

Carla Sabrina Favaro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2009-06-23

Examining board members

Elisabete Doria Bilac; Maria Coleta Ferreira Albino de Oliveira; Paula Miranda Ribeiro

• Advisor: Elisabete Doria Bilac

Abstract

This dissertation inserts itself in the studies about families and the changes in their interior and it has as general aim to analyze the family strategies of low-income homes headed by women who live in monoparental arrangements, in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. In more specific way, it tries to seize the home woman-heading constitution process, its domestic organization and the insertion or not of these women in social networks, as a source of support and it obtaining information. The work was developed through a quality survey, taking deep interviews and collecting life stories of twenty-two women who are monoparental households and one who is responsible of a secondary core in the interior of a woman-headed home. From the analysis of the collected material it was possible to verify that the chiefwomen interviewed are the main pillars of their families, holding the biggest part or total responsibility for them. However, this fact has happened even before they became the chiefs. For the maintenance of the homes, these women count on considerable social networks formed mainly by their female relatives, like mother and sisters, and neighbors, to whom they fall back on in the moments of the biggest privation. The family networks are big sources of support which the chiefs can count on for taking care of the children and for provision. The neighbors also appear as an important source of support, yet less in provisions and more in taking care of the kids and sharing information about social programs. Despite the financial problems that these women suffer, the possibility of managing and organizing their homes with their own resources and efforts proportions considerable autonomy and independency degree to these women. (AU)