Women's Burdens: Exploratory Analysis on Matrifocality, (re)Production and Social Protection in Douro Region, Portugal

Abstract

Drawing from the concepts of matrifocality, kinship and gender inequality, this paper develops a brief discussion around the overloading of duties faced by socially and economically vulnerable women. The accumulation of such duties burdens women with social and parental responsibilities, reinforcing their role as income providers, household custodians and primary caretakers of dependent children and elders. These duties, often culturally and socially informed, are especially overwhelming for women belonging to less affluent social strata. Manifestly exploratory, the analysis is based on three case studies of women, all of them in their fifties, living in the Douro vineyards region. They all assume the headship of their households and benefit or were beneficiaries of the Social Insertion Income (SII), a state social protection device intended to alleviate economic hardships and promote active labor insertion.