The Fragility of Women’s Work Trajectories in Chile
Abstract
:1. The Chilean Labor Market
2. Methodology
2.1. Sample
2.2. Materials and Procedure
2.3. Analysis Strategy
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Typology of Female Work Trajectories
I find that you have to be really comfortable with what you do, and not just do it thinking about a sacrifice … you don’t live to work … I don’t define my life based on work either, I mean, for me it is super important, but tomorrow it may occur to me to stop doing this and do something totally different.(ID1)
I feel that they pay me well and my boss makes sure that I am happy because I have been there for so long and I know all the goings-on in the area, so every time I want my salary to go up, I tell him that I’m going to change to a different area, and he fixes my salary so that I can stay … I am very comfortable where I am, happy.(ID19)
I started now because, well, firstly, because I was already bored at home and secondly, because my son had finally started full-time [at school] … For twelve years I was without working, at home … spending all day at home, the only thing that you do is wash, iron, clean, make lunch … so it’s a constant routine.(ID10)
Like when I can’t take it anymore, I leave or they lay me off or they go bankrupt … it’s a little unstable, because I’m 24 years old, and I’ve gone through five jobs plus an internship, which would be six. So, it’s kind of unstable.(ID7)
… apart from that I do more than what… I mean, I sign a book saying that I enter at 9 in the morning and leave at 6:20 in the afternoon, Monday to Friday and on Saturday I work from 9.00 to 12.00. But my actual hours are from 8.30 to 6:30 in the afternoon, and on Saturday I work until 1:00 p.m. Therefore, I give away for free almost half a day from the schedule. Then, on top of that staying late without being paid.(ID20)
I was there for a very short time. I was there for about two months … because there were a lot of mine-diggers or construction workers, who were nasty, lascivious, and I couldn’t take it, I collapsed. It was a lot of stress. Because you can’t treat them badly or answer them harshly and like I collapsed. That was like the difficulty I had there, that’s why I quit.(ID6)
I worked at [university] for 17 years as cleaning and administrative assistant. I am 69 years old. I started selling chocolates, cheese and olives seven years ago when I retired; the Director allowed me to stay around selling these things. So I make a living based on what I get here and with the little pension, because it is not much, it is $152.000 CLP.(ID40)
3.2. Dynamism and Vulnerability within Labor Trajectories
My thing, that was going well, very well, but in order to raise her [child] … I was an agricultural technician, they sent me to different places in Chile and my thing was going very well. But when she was born, I couldn’t do that anymore, because I had a little girl, a baby, so I gave up working there. And I went to work in the sales world, which I did not like at all because it is a world that is a lie, a lie. You have to lie to attract customers, and I didn’t like that very much. It still met my income expectations, because in sales you earn good money, but then there was an economic downturn, and there I had to talk to the employer to get them to lay me off. And not being able to do anything and with a super high Dicom [debt] I had to give up work to pay a little bit of those debts [with the settlement], and I was still in Dicom, I had no options to look for a good job and I threw myself to sell on the street, lunches, without that I have nothing else to do. It was my only option at that moment … And that was a job that marked my life a lot, because it was very sad because I was faced with something that I never thought I was going to do, which was working on the street selling lunches … Humiliations … The police approached you with great arrogance, they took you to jail, they threw away your merchandise, and you still had to bring home the food, since I had a little daughter.(ID18)
4. Fragile Work Trajectories under the COVID-19 Pandemic
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Age Group | Professionals | Non-Professionals | Total | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Waged Worker | Independent Worker | Out of the Labor Market | Waged Worker | Independent Worker | Out of the Labor Market | ||
20–35 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
36–45 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
46–60 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
61–75 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
76+ | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
Total | 13 | 3 | 9 | 13 | 6 | 6 | 50 |
Number of Children | Professionals | Non-Professionals | Total |
---|---|---|---|
0 | 9 | 5 | 14 |
1 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
2 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
3 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
4 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
5 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
6+ | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Total | 25 | 25 | 50 |
Type of Work Trajectory | Self-Realization Work Trajectory | Assured Work Trajectory | Work Trajectory Depending on the Family | Improvised Work Trajectory | Retired | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Education | Profesional | 100% | 47% | 17% | 0% | 62% | 50% |
Non-profesional | 0% | 53% | 83% | 100% | 38% | 50% | |
Subtotal | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
Age group | 20–35 | 56% | 0% | 50% | 29% | 0% | 20% |
36–45 | 22% | 27% | 33% | 29% | 0% | 20% | |
46–60 | 22% | 27% | 17% | 43% | 0% | 20% | |
61–75 | 0% | 40% | 0% | 0% | 31% | 20% | |
76+ | 0% | 7% | 0% | 0% | 69% | 20% | |
Subtotal | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
Marital status | Single | 44% | 13% | 0% | 43% | 31% | 26% |
Divorced | 22% | 20% | 17% | 29% | 8% | 18% | |
Cohabiting | 11% | 0% | 33% | 29% | 0% | 10% | |
Married | 22% | 47% | 50% | 0% | 15% | 28% | |
Widowed | 0% | 20% | 0% | 0% | 46% | 18% | |
Subtotal | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
Age of children | 1 or more children <6 years old | 0% | 7% | 50% | 29% | 0% | 12% |
Only children >5 years old | 33% | 73% | 50% | 43% | 77% | 60% | |
No children | 67% | 20% | 0% | 29% | 23% | 28% | |
Subtotal | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
Number of children | 0 children | 67% | 20% | 0% | 29% | 23% | 28% |
1–2 children | 22% | 27% | 67% | 71% | 31% | 38% | |
3–4 children | 11% | 47% | 17% | 0% | 31% | 26% | |
5+ children | 0% | 7% | 17% | 0% | 15% | 8% | |
Subtotal | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
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Undurraga, R.; Gunnarsson, J. The Fragility of Women’s Work Trajectories in Chile. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 148. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050148
Undurraga R, Gunnarsson J. The Fragility of Women’s Work Trajectories in Chile. Social Sciences. 2021; 10(5):148. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050148
Chicago/Turabian StyleUndurraga, Rosario, and Jóna Gunnarsson. 2021. "The Fragility of Women’s Work Trajectories in Chile" Social Sciences 10, no. 5: 148. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050148