Divisions and Solidarities Gender, Class and Employment in Latin America

MacEwen Scott examines the inter-relationship between gender and class, and demonstrates how this can sometimes create a shared interest amongst the labouring class' which is often ignored in traditional class analysis.

Traditionally, class analysis has exaggerated the role of economic differentiation, particularly that of the informal economy, and has underestimated the degree of common consciousness amongst the `labouring class'. In Divisions and Solidarities, Alison MacEwen Scott examines class analysis and the inter-relationship between gender and class which creates a shared interest between men and women in some contexts and a divergence of interest in others. Using case studies of the urban population in Latin America, she presents a major critique of existing class theories and presents a new theoretical treatment on class formation, the orthodoxy of the informal economy, class consciousness and political participation.

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Class, gender and the informal sector; Chapter 3 Growth, inequality and mobility; Chapter 4 Family, gender and the labouring class; Chapter 5 Divisions amongst the labouring class; Chapter 6 Mobility within the labouring class I; Chapter 7 Mobility within the labouring class II; Chapter 8 Employment, family and class; Chapter 9 Consciousness and political action; Chapter 10 Conclusions;

Alison MacEwen Scott is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex.