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This text was prepared on the basis of the documents submitted at the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Meeting Preparatory to the International Year of the Family (August 1993). Publication of the book was made possible by the valuable assistance of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Los resultados indican que el empleo estable y protegido se vincula a grados más elevados de confianza y que la precariedad laboral se asocia a una menor confianza en el acceso al intercambio de favores. El dinero y el tiempo son recursos clave para participar en dos distintos circuitos de ayuda: el de los favores monetarios y el de las permutas de ayuda en forma de cuidados.

A myth has come into being that the poor household/family is able to survive in spite of a lack of resources and the presence of macroeconomic policies that foster unemployment and poverty. It has an accompanying fable that tells of how the poor manage to implement survival strategies that are based on their endless capacity to work, to consume less and to be part of mutual help networks. This myth has become a useful tool for policy makers as they design more aggressive neoliberal economic adjustment policies. This contribution examines anthropological and sociological insights regarding the life of the poor and the organization of their households, in which women's paid and unpaid work is an integral part. Through the lens of a researcher in the field of urban poverty and household organization, the article re-examines the fable of the good survivor. Evidence debunks the myth, showing that the optimistic message of this fable does not match with the realities of the impact of economic change on women's lives. But the myth is sustained, as this more negative story is not one that supra-national policy actors want to hear.