Sexual division of labor, unemployment, and drug use in Buenos Aires underprivileged youths

Abstract

Although Argentina went through a socially inclusive cycle of economic growth during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, differences have continued throughout its population, resulting in unequal living conditions according to gender, social sector, and residency status, causing young people to face a broadly segmented opportunity structure. This article presents a study about the social trajectories of young people living in marginalized neighborhoods in Argentina. It considers gender inequality as a factor that structures and runs through the various dimensions of the daily life of young people as the focus for this analysis. This work presents the results of an action-research conducted through the application of a survey to young people between 18 and 35 years of age organized in community neighborhood centers. They show labor trajectories marked by instability, informality, and long periods of inactivity, tendencies that are especially prevalent in the case of women. The findings revealed that due to the prevailing unemployment and job insecurity, marginalized neighborhoods grew where the expansion of the drug market took place. This, together with the persistence of a traditional gender model and increased violence, intersected and defined misguided trajectories in youth groups exposed to continuous segregation.