“The Reality of Today Has Required Us to Change”: Negotiating Gender Through Informal Work in Contemporary Argentina

Abstract

Within Argentina and beyond, the characteristics of work are changing as work becomes increasingly informal and precarious. Drawing on interviews conducted with informal workers in Buenos Aires in 2002, this article analyzes the ways that the informalization of work during the economic crisis in Argentina shaped the interplay between normative and practiced manifestations of gender, including masculinity and femininity. I argue that although normative understandings of gender in Argentina remain largely uncomplicated by economic restructuring and crisis, the activity of informal work interacts very differently with the performances of these norms, depending on the class and sex of the worker. In particular, I demonstrate that among workers in the popular classes, the characteristics of informal work serve to mediate tensions resulting from women's engagement in paid work, while constituting an obstacle to men's performance of the hegemonic masculinity of the provider. Among middle-class workers, however, engaging in informal work does not result in the same types of tensions between gender norms and performances. I conclude by questioning the long-term nature of changes in gender relations resulting from this crisis and stressing the importance of intersectionality on understanding impacts of economic change. In addressing the question of how an increased dependence on informal work has affected gender relations in Argentina, this article seeks to contribute to wider discussions regarding the malleability of gender systems and the need to understand the effects of global restructuring on local gender relations, including performances of masculinity.

Pyrrhic nationals: The promise and pitfalls of masculine civic belonging in Argentina

“…Moving from socially privileged to subaltern men, while maintaining the link between masculinity and power, Whitson (2010) examines informal workers’ gender norms following the millennial economic crisis. Whitson (2010, 171) shows that where economic insecurity prevented working‐class men from performing the role of “provider,” these men challenged the hegemony of this role through a discourse that equated masculinity with ideals that characterized informal labor: autonomy, independence, and mobility. Archetti (1999) argues that these same ideals were promoted by dominant masculine archetypes that sit outside of Argentine norms of morality and claims that the figures of the soccer star, the tango musician, and the polo player offered alternative scripts for performing hegemonic masculinity in Argentina because of their national significance.…”

“…Many authors discuss the place of masculinity in high‐prestige social settings; for example, Badaró (2015) in the military, Mendoza (2020) with Patagonian park rangers, and Fuentes and Guinness (2019) with elite rugby clubs. Moving from socially privileged to subaltern men, while maintaining the link between masculinity and power, Whitson (2010) examines informal workers’ gender norms following the millennial economic crisis. Whitson (2010, 171) shows that where economic insecurity prevented working‐class men from performing the role of “provider,” these men challenged the hegemony of this role through a discourse that equated masculinity with ideals that characterized informal labor: autonomy, independence, and mobility.…”

Seasonal masculinities: seasonal labor migration and masculinities in rural western India

“…It also accounts for how the 'rural' is discursively produced as the virtuous 'other' in comparison to the cities, filtered through patriarchal assumptions of where women would become 'corrupted' and where they could be better controlled. The connections between women's decision on where they choose to migrate and their ability to participate in social reproduction have been explored by feminist geographers (Whitson 2010). Migrants in rural Maharashtra prefer rural destinations for women migrants, i.e.…”

“…In several countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of informal sector employment is around 90 percent (Chen 2005); yet, informal work may not readily map onto masculine constructs. In some instances, informal work is 'real' enough to affirm a valid performance of masculinity, while in other cases, it is not (Whitson 2010). Not all work is made the same; 'it is work, albeit work that is "suitable" for a man, that confers and confirms the central attributes of masculinity ' (McDowell 2003, 833).…”

A Sociological inquiry on women's well-being and waged-work

“…Underlying this disenchantment is that an inescapable tendency toward proletarianization has proven to be highly doubtful because the recent industrialization processes in the developing countries has barely created the anticipated the formal proletariat. Instead, the global restructuring precipitates the formation of a highly segmented and heterogeneous labor force (Portes, 2004;Sassen, 2008, Standing, 2009, Whitson, 2010. In stark contrast to the formal proletariat, the highly feminized labor force of the global era lacks the resources to increase its bargaining power since with the increasing mobility of capital, established labor relations have been dismantled, labor unions have lost much of their power, protected industrial sectors that used to employ most of the formal labor force have downsized, and employment relations have been increasingly causualized.…”