Reflections feminists study on violence and resistance among waste pickers in Pelotas and Rio Grande/RS

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how women who collect recyclable materials experience, perceive and reframe gender violence in their work routine and in their social relationships. Throughout the research, the movement was to denaturalize violence, identifying forms of resistance. These women collect recyclable materials face extreme precariousness, in addition to discrimination based on class, race and gender, which make them more vulnerable to different forms of violence — domestic, institutional and symbolic. To understand the phenomenon, this study is combined with reflections on intersectionality, from a feminist perspective. The methodology used was intervention research, in order to go beyond diagnosis and articulate processes of social transformation, through educational strategies. The partial results indicate that precarious work and social stigma reinforce the cycle of violence, intensifying barriers to reporting and accessing assistance.