A experiência de mulheres em situação de rua: uma análise interseccional

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze, based on the perspective of intersectionality, the experience of women living in street situation, considering the social markers of difference gender, race, class and sexuality. In order to carry out this analysis, I sought: to understand the conditioning elements that led these women to live in street situation. To perceive the interweaving of categories of differentiation like gender, race, class and sexuality, that cross the experience of women in street condition. To investigate the survival strategies elaborated by these women. To verify if the services directed to this segment, assure the guarantee of rights as a subject marked by the differences of gender, race, class and sexuality. Therefore, I consider the conception of intersectionality related to the social markers of difference, recognizing that it is capable of accounting the complexity resulting from the overlapping of the main systems of oppression - sexism, racism, capitalism - that contour the relations of exclusion, experience and survival of the research interlocutors. The field research had as locus the Specialized Reference Center for Population in Street Situation (Pop Center), located in the neighborhood of Prazeres, in the city of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, PE, and had as participants six women who accessed this center. The research was carried out from December 2017 to May of 2018. The observation, the field diary, the sample selection questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used as instruments of data collection. Discourse Analysis was essential towards the appreciation of the collected data, since it made possible the examination of the participants’ speech highlighting the senses produced by them considering their socio-historical conditions. I identified that, under the class indicator, the data in common is that they are women from peripheral communities, being mostly involved with the use of illicit drugs, especially crack cocaine, a substance that has a very close relation to social exclusion in Brazil. In gender condition, both cisgender and transgender women were victims of violent acts that marked their experiences crossed by fear and the vulnerability of being a woman in street situation. In cisgender women, the element in common is the fact that the aggressor is someone known, and in transgender women, unknown people committed the assaults suggesting transphobia as one of its causes. Concerning race, it was observed that the veil of institutional racism made it difficult for the interviewees to perceive possible situations of racial discrimination. I verified that women's coping strategies intertwine with street experiences and attempts to overcome the insufficiency of public policies. Regarding the evaluation of the women about the care provided by the Pop Center, the interviewees pointed out the need to make improvements in the offer of services, increase the service hours and install day and night resting rooms. They demanded the implementation of housing, employment and income generation policies and professionalization for the street population.