Resumo

HASEMANN LARA, Ana E.. La discriminación institucional de vendedoras ambulantes: los retos de una «pobre» madre pobre trabajando en la calle. Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2009, vol.4, n.8, pp.237-263. ISSN 1870-4115.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2009.8.177.

The particular circumstances for women who work as street vendors, their preference for working in the informal sector as street vendors and their experiences as mothers in the streets have not been seriously discussed as part of the urban context in Honduras. This paper takes an in-depth look into the question of how working as street vendors fits into the life experience of poor mothers, some single and others with partners, in a city characterized by economic insecurity and social exclusion. This paper assesses what it means to be a mother and a street vendor for two groups of women—thirteen women interviewed—participating in the field research preceding the study on which this paper is based. The author attempts to describe some of the justifications for women remaining in this economic activity—which directly threatens their status as mothers and workers. The author begins by studying the origin of conflicts between these women and the State, and the resulting institutional discrimination confronted by these working mothers. The author mentions examples of two public entities, the National Institute of Children and Family (Instituto Nacional de la Niñez y la Familia—IHNFA) and the capital city government, both of which actively engage in this institutional discrimination. This paper focuses particularly on the stigmatization of what is currently predominantly a space in which women work in Latin America—within the informal sector as street vendors. To address this topic, the author briefly discusses how markets function as institutions and, as such, how they are structured as gender carriers. It is suggested that these women are challenging and renegotiating the very social and cultural norms that have, structurally and institutionally, kept them marginalized and working in the informal sector.

Palavras-chave : Institutional discrimination; urban informal sector; street vendors; feminization of informal sector; social reproduction.

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