“Empreendedoras” das confecções: um estudo sobre a implementação do MEI e o trabalho faccionado no agreste de Pernambuco.

Abstract

This thesis examines the implementation of the Micro Individual Entrepreneur Program and its rebates in the sexual division of labor, within the factions, at the Agreste Pernambucano Clothing Center. The Pole is located between the Zona da Mata and the Pernambuco Sertão, encompassing the municipalities of Caruaru, Santa Cruz do Capibaribe and Toritama, extending over another seven (7) municipalities of Agreste (conforming to the so-called Polo-10), acting in productive, commercial and service activities, being the factions one of its main productive units. The factions are productive units characterized by being subcontracted from factories and factories, dedicated to execute only part of the production. These represent about 43% of the existing production units in Polo-10. It is important to highlight that about 80% of the productive units are informal and that the factions have an even higher percentage, reaching 93% of informality. Our locus of research is located more precisely in the three main cities of the Polo, Caruaru, Santa Cruz do Capibaribe and Toritama, for having the manufacture as a fundamental part of its development, inextricably articulating the maintenance of the high degree of informality, the work. at home as a key element and women's productive and reproductive work as indispensable. Our analysis starts from the concept of sexual division of labor to understand how historically the principles of separation and hierarchy consolidates a conception of universal human-centered work, the man, impelling women to the gap of precarious, partial and unprotected work, which is configured as founding features of the Polo. It cannot be forgotten that women played (and retain) an important role in the development of clothing in the Polo, since sewing, considered [socially] as a feminine characteristic, developed within the scope of small family-based enterprises, acts as the main pillar. sustaining this economic development. The implementation of the MEI Program in this context made it necessary to analyze the possibilities of job reconfiguration, especially regarding the sexual division of labor and gender inequalities. Thus, we seek to understand how the elements signaled by such perceptions relate to the historical and current dynamics of informality in the Pole and how the formalization process interferes with gender relations and social protection of these women. For this purpose, we carry out bibliographical, documentary and field research. The latter was developed through two approaches: Interviews (with women formalized through the Program and not formalized) and Direct Observation through decentralized workshops promoted by the Voices of Fashion Project: Agreste 2030, which brought together “entrepreneurial” women from Polo.