Alinhavando sonhos / construindo realidades: os significados do trabalho para mulheres do Município de Horizonte - Ce

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to analyze how the women who live in the community quilombola in the district of Horizonte-CE and participants of the social project “Sewing the Dreams / Building Realities”, mean the work, their participation in the Professional capacitating Project and their condition as women who live in a territory which is known as quilombola. From the 1970’s on, the capitalism crisis has been responsible for a series of transformations in the working world, characterized mainly by the flexibility in the processes of production and market, by condition and workforce precarization and by the reconfiguration of productive plants. The changes have contributed for a deep alteration in the methods of organization and the working and jobs’ dynamics which are reflected in the employers as well as in the employees attitudes and also in their representations concerning the work. The district at issue joins this scenario and faces deep changes due to the recent process of industrialization. The mentioned social project was elaborated according to the current public policies assumptions and had as a proposal to professionally qualify mothers who are household heads to generate work and income, priorizing the construction of a professional autonomy. The methodology used in the research was the qualitative approach using as techniques the participant observation and the semi-directed open interview involving seven women. The data obtained were analyzed from the following categories: work experience in plants, a matter of gender or race related to work; experience in the Project re-meaning the work. The dream of opening their own business or working by themselves which is present in the women’s speech is postponed by nowadays difficulties, by financial impossibility and by the values which are still scattered in the so called wage society. The interviews show how the work is important and central in the life of each of them.