Conditional cash transfers, empowerment and female autonomy: care and paid work in the Bolsa Família programme, Brazil
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 3 June 2020
Issue publication date: 4 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study addresses the importance of paid work for the autonomy of poor women in the Bolsa Família Programme (BFP), Brazil. The aim of this study is to consider the influence that BFP may have on women seeking paid work, by comparing the situation and the perceptions of women who receive Bolsa Família (BF) with those of women who fall within this same profile but are not included in the programme.
Design/methodology/approach
The aim of this study is to consider the influence that BFP may have on women seeking paid work, by comparing the situation and the perceptions of women who receive Bolsa Família (BF) with those of women who fall within this same profile but are not included in the programme. Data were produced from a case study, using a non-probability sample and structured individual interviews in a large city in the south of Brazil.
Findings
CCTs designed in the moulds of the BFP, despite its relevance for alleviating poverty, do not have the potential to empower women or for their autonomy, since they do not contribute towards tackling the barriers resulting from the interaction between paid and unpaid labour, and gender determinants in this interaction.
Research limitations/implications
The methodology adopted, with content analysis, allows the collection of the research group participants’ experiences and perceptions, considering the specific nature of the material and symbolic context investigated. However, it does not allow for broad generalizations on the relation between CCT programmes and these women`s paid labour. Within the limits of the inferences produced by the content analysis, this study does enable the theories of ‘laziness’ as a risk resulting from social assistance to be dispelled.
Originality/value
Given these findings, the paper reiterates the importance of taking a critical view of the family when drafting development policies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the State University of Londrina, which have provided us with the institutional conditions to carry out research for this paper. I am grateful to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Araucária Foundation to Support Scientific and Technological Development in the State of Paraná (Fundação Araucária). A special thanks goes to the students of the State University of Londrina, who at different times and stages contributed to our research: Lina Penati Ferreira; Lorena Ingred Moreira Pio; Agnes Félix Gonçalves; Lais Regina Kruczeveski, Samira do Prado Silva, Ana Paula Botão Pereira, and Luís Gabriel Ramiro Costa. I am grateful for the welcome of the municipal administrations and the teams of workers of the Reference Centers of Social Assistance of the Londrina, Paraná, where I also carried out the research. Without this set of support, this work would not have been possible.
Citation
Mariano, S. (2020), "Conditional cash transfers, empowerment and female autonomy: care and paid work in the Bolsa Família programme, Brazil", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 40 No. 11/12, pp. 1491-1507. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-03-2020-0093
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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