Entre bordados, rodas e partilhas: avanços e desafios do trabalho associado e do empoderamento das mulheres da vila

Abstract

In the 21st century, with increased dissemination of information provided by the advent of the internet, many discussions and concepts of the human sciences that previously were restricted to certain environments, such as academia and activism, have become popular and reach people and groups not inserted in these environments. An example of this is the concept of empowerment, especially that of female empowerment, which was been searched on Google's platform four times more in 2017 than in 2012 by the Brazilian population with access to the internet. On the other hand, although women's participation in the labor market has increased significantly since the 1970s, women continue to earn less than men and work more precariously and deregulated than men. That said, this research deals with the female empowerment as an instrument of emancipation and its relation with women associated work. The issue main point concerns questioning to what extent women from the grassroots classes acting in labor associations, favors the construction and / or consolidation of female empowerment and community and political engagement. Therefore, the general objective is to identify possible articulations between the participation of women associated with the process of female empowerment and the socio-political involvement in their communities. To reach this goal, as part of the methodology, field research was conducted through participant observation, in addition to semi-structured interviews. Such procedures took place in the association Mulheres da Vila, a group of artisans and embroiderers living in the outskirts of Belo Horizonte and the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, between August 2017 and April 2019. The participant observation took place, in most cases, in the days in which the conversation circles occurred, with variable frequency between fortnightly, monthly or every two months. The data collected, both the field notes and the semi-structured interviews were treated through the Critical Discourse Analysis, in order to understand the ideological constructions, that is, the worldviews regarding their condition of woman and its various possible approaches, present in the daily life of the women subject of this research. The results of the research show that the conception of the world was revealed, in large part, in the exchanges and confrontations based on the questionings and the curiosity of the interlocutors about aspects of the life of the researcher. The work carried out by the association's women allows them a precarious insertion in the consumer society. On the other hand, in the personal scope, the association shows itself as an open, welcoming and safe space for reports and outbursts of situations experienced as poor and peripheral women. It was also observed that the relationship between the society and the association is dynamic, since the general conditions of Brazil today are generating instability that threatens the financial maintenance of the group and the very existence of it.