Mundo das mulheres no mercado de trabalho em Fortaleza/CE

Abstract

This study refers to an investigation about the relations between labour market and gender in Fortaleza (CE), focusing on occupational areas aiming at understanding how women are positioned, especially in 2001 and 2005. It is pertinent due to helping to show that positioning and circulating places addressed to women are still very much related to gender division. Its theoretical field is Cultural Geography, particularly a branch that has discussed, problematised and made use of a theoretical articulation’s fruitfulness in the poststructuralist perspectives, as it helps to understand that these relations are constructed in the cultural practices to position women and men in different occupational fields. We have sought to understand gender relations from the cultural practices. In this sense, gender relations are understood as those which bring into play (fe)male representations and symbols whose powers are directed to social practices to stay alive in the society’s value set. Therefore, gender use as the analysis focus lies at deconstructing, displacing meanings that were culturally constructed, and showing that when they are marked around gender difference, they can and should be issued, questioned and problematised. To understand these issues we have sought for the research data at the Censos do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Anuários Estatísticos do Sistema Nacional de Empregos, and Instituto de Desenvolvimento do Trabalho (SINE/IDT-CE) and da Relação Anual das Informações Sociais (RAIS) in 2001 and 2005, as they provided accessibility and updating. From the collection, some variables that allow us to understand the studied problematic, were observed: occupational field, age, instruction degree, salary, and working hours of the workers in Fortaleza. With the crossing of variables, we have constructed the theme thread for the research: local labour occupation and distribution, which provided discussions of the studied problematic. This has allowed us to reflect about and understand the configuration of the women in the labour market as cultural practices.