Juventude, trabalho e gênero: um estudo de trajetórias de ex-alunos/as do Instituto Federal de Educação da Bahia

Abstract

This paper analyzes, from a gender perspective, the trajectories of young workers who have undergone the experience of Vocational Education at Secondary Level, in the form of Integrated Secondary Education, since 2006/2007, when Integrated Secondary Education began to be offered by the Federal Institute of Bahia. The Federal Institutes are institutional heirs of the former Federal Technical Schools, which were once an important training space in the creation of an industrial working class in the country. Thus, the thesis questions the existence and persistence of gender asymmetries in the labor market, especially in the industrial market, as well as in professional careers, based on literature on labor and gender in the field of sociology, which leads to intense reflection on the sexual division of labor in capitalism and its consequences on the living conditions of individuals. The selected campuses are Salvador and Simões Filho, two campuses consolidated in the offering of courses linked to technological axes related to industry, but which are located in different urban spaces in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador. It is observed that the young people whose reports were analyzed are inserted in two specific contexts of debate: gender issues and transformations in the world of work, with intensification of precariousness, productive restructuring, outsourcing and economic crises. At the same time, these young people are experiencing the expansion of policies for higher education in public and private institutions (a scenario in force until mid 2016). The objective is to understand how gender relations (representations, expectations and identity assumption) are (re)designed and contribute to (re)configuring the trajectories of young people coming from technical education in view of their possibilities (broader or more restricted) of choices related to continuing their academic life and/or professional insertion. To this end, the gender category is taken as the analytical thread guiding the problem, understanding that it intersects with other social markers, such as race, class and youth, creating specific situations of subordination or even empowerment of the subjects. This perspective accompanies the investigative process of the research, which is constituted through a qualitative approach through the conducting and analysis of interviews with former students of the institution in the state of Bahia. The results of the research point to the effect of gender dynamics on the trajectories of young people coming from technical courses aimed at industry, both during the technical training process and in their academic and professional choices and experiences. These effects are expressed not only by the difficulties and obstacles women face in relation to men in environments and courses focused on industry, but also in the construction of strategies and resistance practices of these young women.