Gendering the Urban Social Movement and Public Housing Policy in São Paulo

Abstract

A deteriorating economic scenario, a critical mass of unmarried female heads of households, and the institutionalization of the São Paulo housing movement in the 2000s contributed to women’s taking on a new public role within the movement. The strong presence of women at different levels of this social movement was a necessary but not determining factor in generating public awareness about gender-differentiated needs and claims for access to housing. Female leadership and a strategic alliance with the women’s movement and with nongovernmental organizations and local elected officials contributed to the development of gender-specific public housing policies. O cenário de deterioração econômica, a massa crítica de mulheres solteiras na qualidade de chefes de família, bem como a institucionalização do movimento por moradia em São Paulo no início deste século contribuíram para que as mulheres desempenhassem um novo papel nessa ação. A forte presença de mulheres em diferentes esferas desse movimento social foi um fator necessário, embora não determinante, para gerar consciência social sobre o acesso à moradia baseado em diferenças de gênero. A liderança feminina e a aliança estratégica do movimento das mulheres, além da participação de organizações não-governamentais e de políticos eleitos, auxiliaram no desenvolvimento de políticas públicas para moradias com base na especificidade de gênero.

Toward a life with dignity:

“…As both a moral category and a political signifier, the concept of dignity enables Chile's poor urban residents to form themselves as ethical subjects capable of addressing rights‐based claims to the state. The discursive centrality of dignity among housing activists reveals itself particularly in the everyday experiences of female allegadas , since they tend to more actively engage in housing protests than men (Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ; Murphy ). They are, in fact, the focus of this article.…”

“…According to the organization's register of members, 762 of the 880 people enrolled were women (86.6 percent), most of whom were unmarried. Women have long worked in housing organizations in Chile (Murphy ; Paley ; Valdés and Weinstein ) and elsewhere in Latin America (Caldeira ; Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ). This is because homeownership has been traditionally seen as central to women's social role as mothers and caregivers (Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ), especially in countries like Chile, where single‐parent, poor households are mostly headed by women (Espinoza and Colil ).…”

“…Women have long worked in housing organizations in Chile (Murphy ; Paley ; Valdés and Weinstein ) and elsewhere in Latin America (Caldeira ; Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ). This is because homeownership has been traditionally seen as central to women's social role as mothers and caregivers (Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ), especially in countries like Chile, where single‐parent, poor households are mostly headed by women (Espinoza and Colil ). In Chile, in fact, the number of poor households headed by women increased from 32.3 percent in 2006 to 49 percent in 2015 (Ministerio de Desarrollo Social ).…”

“…This explains why allegadas are so visible in the Don Bosco housing assembly. Compared to men, women not only participated more enthusiastically in public events, such as street marches, demonstrations, and assemblies (see Figure ), but many more of them held leadership positions, even though women generally tend not to assume leadership roles in urban popular movements (Levy, Latendresse, and Carle‐Marsan ). Four of the five leaders were women.…”

Housing today

“…Questions regarding housing are always questions about race, gender, social class, sexuality and age among other factors of social differentiation (Oswin, 2010;Elengold, 2015;Levy, Latendresse & Carle-Marsan, 2017). Housing is not some neutral quantity that we all only consume to maximize our utility -it is socially constructed and historically contingent.…”