Asentamientos Humanos, Pobreza y Genero: América Latina Hacia Habitat II

WHAT ARE THE main strengths and limitations of integrating a gender perspective into human settlements policies in Latin America? This was the question that was considered in a workshop entitled Human Settlements, Poverty and Gender, which took place in Santiago de Chile in March 1996 and whose papers provide the material for this book.

The Latin American population is predominantly urban and the growth in urban population is, in part, a result of migratory flows. Female migrants are in the slight majority and the fact that many migrate with small children, or leave others to take on the role of carer, implies that there are unequal consequences for women who move to the city.

This new, principally urbanized world has been accompanied by new concepts of the role of the state. However, rather than a decentralization of political power, there has been a de-concentration of certain central government functions, which have been passed on to the community and, within the community, to women. These changes have had consequences on the city and on people, namely an increase in the number of people living in both relative and absolute poverty and a deterioration in the supply of infrastructure and services in the face of growing urban populations. The effects of this impoverishment have been different not only among different social strata but also among men and women. Lack of access to housing has particularly affected poor women, to whom the home is both a socially and culturally attributed space. The need for income has forced women to take paid work, which has led to overcrowding – as many women work at home – and to the functions of production and reproduction taking place in the same space. The need to spread the family income further has led to the creation of women’s groups to cook and buy collectively in order to save time and money. These steps by women to confront newly emerging phenomena has allowed them not only to save resources but also to raise their self-esteem, achieve recognition at a local and national level, generate conditions that question traditional gender roles, and gain recognition from their husbands/ partners and children.

These themes form the essence of the papers presented in this book, and reveal the diversity that exists within the region. Latin America is a place where women have contributed much, not only to the survival of the family but also, through their paid work, to the survival of the community and the economy as well.