A Gender Perspective on Recycling

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A Gender Perspective on Recycling
Sonia Dias WIEGO/ Visiting Professor
UFMG Solidarity Centre - Gender Conference
Waste picker in Puna, India driver for the
SWaCH Cooperative.
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Waste Pickers Vital actors

• Millions of people worldwide a large number of
  them women make a living collecting, sorting,
  recycling, and selling valuable materials that
  someone else has thrown away.
• Vital actors in the informal economy, they
  provide widespread benefits. In many countries,
  waste pickers supply the only form of solid waste
  collection.
• A significant number of waste pickers are women,
  and some are children. In some cities in India,
  for example, about 80 per cent of the waste
  pickers are women in Brazil, a small-scale study
  found that 56 per cent of waste picker
  organizations members are women.

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Despite the growing strength of women in the
waste picking profession, a gendered approach is
important ...

• Women might not be allowed access to recyclables
  with the highest value.
• Women may not occupy positions of authority
  within their communities, or may not be respected
  fully when holding those positions.
• Asymmetrical power relations at the household
  level affect womens abilities to take part in
  public committees or to exercise leadership
  within their representative organizations due to
  barriers that prevent women from involvement in
  the public realm.
• Women are responsible for raising children and
  maintaining the household, limiting their time
  and energy for taking up leadership
  opportunities.
• When waste picking activity is formalized, women
  often do not enjoy the same opportunities as men
  for fair earnings.

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Formalization Gender -Women Waste Pickers and
Labor Statistics in Brazil - Facts

• Waste Pickers according to PNAD 2006
• Number of waste pickers 229,568
• 67 are men and 33 are women
• 25 are between the ages of 50-65 and 7 are
  older than 65
• Only 14 of the men and 6 of the women are
  enrolled in schools
• Waste pickers with regular employment (RAIS)
• There are 11,781 waste pickers in regular
  employment
• 95 are in regular employment for an undetermined
  time
• 80 are men and 20 women
• 98 of those who receive between 3 and 4
  minimum wages are men and only 2 are women
• 80 of waste pickers in regular employment have
  an average schooling beyond the 4th grade and
  more than 60 have an average schooling until the
  8th grade or more.
• Source Crivellari, Dias et al (2008)

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Waste and gender an invisible issue

• Despite the growing number of studies that focus
  on solid waste, there are very few that seek to
  understand the gender dynamics and sexual
  division of labor involved in waste picking
  activities.
• Leadership empowerment of women - still largely
  ignored at the national movements of waste
  pickers we are very active at our coops but
  when it comes to power positions at the national
  movement we face constraints.
• BUT In Nicaragua 2012 the LA network of waste
  pickers raised the issue and a pilot Gender
  Waste Research Action Project was born.

Women waste leaders from Latin America
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Changing Mindsets in Nicaragua

• Gender committee formed at the 2012 LA conference
  of RedLacre - empowerment of women does not mean
  the exclusion of men. It means to contribute to
  the emancipation of all people -- men and women. 
• It was with this idea in mind that the Red Lacre,
  the National Movement of Waste Pickers in Brazil
  (MNCR), WIEGO began discussing in 2012 the
  importance of opening up a dialogue about gender
  in the context of waste picking, or informal
  recycling.

Nicaragua 2012
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A participatory process from the outset

• Taking advantage of an existing relationship with
  the Center for Study and Research on Women
  (NEPEM) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais
  (UFMG), members of the previously mentioned
  groups decided to start a pilot project in Minas
  Gerais that would explore themes for a future
  program about gender for Brazil and Latin
  America. 
• The development of the gender project in 2012 was
  participatory. Over the course of that year,
  several meetings were held with women waste
  pickers from various cooperatives throughout the
  state of Minas Gerais.
• Participants decided that exploratory workshops
  throughout the state should be held. In 2013, as
  a result of this participatory process, the
  gender project was born as a partnership between
  MNCR, ANCAT, WIEGO, NEPEM, and the NGO INSEA. 

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Gender Waste Project Timeline
Informal talks with women from Redesol
Cataunidos
Half day workshop with women at Insea with women
from Redesol Cataunidos
Feedback session at LC Festival
First talks with women
' 11
feb2011
may
aug
nov
feb2012
may
aug
' 12
Informal talks at the national womens meeting in
Curitiba
Nicaragua meeting

Various meetings with women leaders" - June
2012 till Aug 2012 Participatory project
drafting - June Sept 2012 Literature review
June-August 12
Made with Office Timeline 2010
www.officetimeline.com
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Project goals

• To provide women with the tools to work towards
  equality in the workplace and their personal
  lives in order to strengthen their capacities and
  voices
• To increase womens leadership roles in waste
  picker representative organizations and
• To contribute to the economic empowerment of
  women waste pickers.

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Methodology Team

• - Participatory Research Action
• knowledge production via direct envolvement
• Participation from the outset from project
  drafting to implementation and evaluation
• platform for participation/engagement follow up
  commitees
• Knowledge production not as an end in itself but
  with the view to contribute to social changes
• respect for the pedagogical time of communities
  ongoing process it takes time
• involved communities/groups from objects to
  subjects producers and owners of knowledge.
• participatory tools
• Team
• Executive team Waste picker representative from
  Redlacre/MNCR Wiego waste specialist Nepems
  staff (Prof.Marlise Matos and Prof. Ana Ogando)
  and 4 trainee students rep from NGO Insea.
• Consultative committee 3 waste pickers rep from
  the MNCR and the director of the NGO Insea 1
  external reviewer.

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Project Phases

• Phase 1- Learning Participatory drafting
  literature review
• Phase 2 Regional Workshops with women pickers
  in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
• Phase 3 Specific toolkits for mainstreaming
  gender at the national movements of Redlacre and
  at the academia (teaching)
• Phase 4 Process evaluation with the MNCR and
  Redlacre.

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Phase 1 Participatory DraftingSnapshots
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Participatory Drafting Workshop
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Phase 2 Exploratory Regional WorkshopsWorksho
p 1 Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte 13
May, 2013
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Session one Women autonomy is....
Women need to be united if they want to fulfill
their potential (Maria Aparecida)
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...Autonomy at home, sexuality, at the
workplace, at the national movement
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Session Gender Roles...
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Working towards a gender workplan at the
movement...
The women discussed at the closing session
difficulties/obstacles faced habilities/knowledge
required to fight these obstacles changes
within society as a whole and the movement in
particular. The ensuing phases of this
exploratory project were presented and the role
of these women in bringing about changes towards
gender equity.
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Womens Voices...

• When are we going to have more workshops like
  this?
• We need all our comrades to come...
• Enlightening, it opened my mind
• We felt welcomed by the team...
• We are connected to each other...

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An ongoing process...but some findings from the
workshops...

• Reports of discrimination and violence suffered
  by women but yet women are no longer victims (or
  poor little creatures) like in the pastwomens
  voices today are strongerGood stories of women
  struggles were shared.
• The desire for knowledge and to learn more.
  Skills required how to read and write Computing
  skills Speech skills Political formation
• The recognition of the cooperative as a space of
  refuge that helps women waste pickers confront
  domestic violence. Yet, women need to make their
  way upward in the power hierarchy of their
  national movement.

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Women as a Historical Agent in the Struggle for
Emancipation hardly A new phenomenon..
Frequently women have been the initiators of
revolutions. We know that in 1693 many women went
to the market in Northampton, with knives
hidden in their girdles to force the sale of corn
at their own rates (Thompson, 1979)
Working to empower women does not imply in
excluding men, it means contributing to the
emancipation of all, both Men and Women this is
what the women waste pickers hope to contribute to
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• E-mail sonia.Dias_at_wiego.org e soniamdias2010_at_gmai
  l.com