Mineração também é lugar de mulher!: desvendando a (nova?!) face da divisão sexual do trabalho na mineração de ferro

Abstract

Among the main changes that happened in the world of work in the last years, the increasing participation of women in public and productive spaces - besides the domestic space, historically occupied by them -, presents itself in an intense and constant way. The division of work between men and women is something old. What is new are the "new faces this sexual division of labor presents in certain industrial segments where predominates the masculine or feminine labor. Concerning Iron Mining, despite its historical, economical and social importance for Brazil, are still rare the researches on the work at this industrial segment, especially addressing questions related to the social sexual relations and to the sexual division of labor. The present thesis results from a research carried at a large mining situate at the Iron Quadrangle at the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Having background the challenges and possibilities for women in the labor market in this industrial segment, we sought to unveil the new face of the sexual division of labor in this mostly masculine environment. We have problematized the insertion, permanence and career advancement of women at areas and functions historically masculine; the development and evaluation of competences supposedly naturals of women; the impact of technological innovations of the sector and of the increasing schooling and training of women in their work relationships. We have sought also to show how the female workers have articulated the remunerated work and the home work, as well as the strategies of fight and resistance of those women. Finally, we have sought to show the changes and continuities, displacements and permanencies present at the sexual division of labor at iron mining in the present moment. In view of the inherent contradictions of that process, the present work was anchored in the contributions of the following researchers: Kergoat (1982 to 2010), Hirata (1993 to 2010), Le Doaré (1994), Izquierdo (1990), Bruschini and Lombardi (2003, 2008); Louro (1996, 2008), Segnini (1998), Saffioti (2000), Souza Lobo (1991), Carola (2002), Castilhos and Castro (2006), Machado (2008), Neves (1994, 2000, 2004) among others. The quail- quantitative data was gathered from the statistical of IBGE (2000,2010), IPEA (2008), Fundação Carlos Chagas (2008), Observatório Brasil de Igualdade de Gêneros [Brazil Observatory of Equality of Gender] (2009, 2010), IBRAM (2008) and others; from the documental analyses, from the content of the depth interviews carried with managers and female workers active in technical-operational charges and the enterprise investigated and from the observation of real work situations. The results point to several displacements and changes in the sexual division of labor in iron mining, but also to situation of continuity and permanency. The boundary between the work of men and women at this industrial segment are also moving, becoming thinner and flexible, but yet far from being overcome. We underline, however, that an advance of the policies of equality of opportunities offered by the mining enterprise - what can correct, in part, traditional discriminatory practices -, as well as the strategies of struggle and resistance of women, who are finding in the heavy, dirty and inhospitable environment of iron mining, in functions and charges historically masculine, opportunities, possibilities and options of insertion and permanence at the remunerated labor market.