Work and intersectionality: a study with elderly women living in the rurban space of a small municipality

Abstract

The article aims to understand, from the narratives of elderly women who live in the rurban context of a small town, which are the different social markers that intersect with the marker work, and how these intersections are expressed in the lives of these women.  This is a qualitative, descriptive, field research, which was developed in the municipality of Coxilha, state of Rio Grande do Sul. The methodology adopted for data collection was the application of 10 semi-structured interviews with elderly women residents of the municipality, preceded by a literature review on the theme. As an analytical concept, intersectionality is used to explore how gender, generation, and territory create fundamentally different experiences, but also inequalities. The main axes for grouping the data are the sexual division of labor, care as work, and rural work. According to the results, we can assess the singularity that the territory creates in the formation of the work experiences of the group of elderly women. Despite being a group where different social markers are present (such as race, social class), rural work, care work and the sexual division of labor are expressed in the same way in this group of women. There is the permanence of asymmetrical relations between men and women (gender) in relation to work, which are configured through their relationship with the studied territory. The findings indicate that the social markers identified (gender, generation, race, and religion) are directly crossed by the manifestations of the territorial context, more specifically, that the social marker of the territory is a catalyst for the other markers.

DOI: 10.56238/homeinternationalanais-067