Discursos sobre la discriminación de género en los trabajadores mineros del norte de Chile

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the gender discrimination discourse of male miners referred to women working in "schoperías" (beerbars) in Calama. As a premise supported by previous evidence with regard to gender relations in the area, we establish a close relationship between the language men use and the dominant male identities that are recreated in this productive scenario (mining). Discourse acts as central tool in the reinforcement of this type of identity. Through a qualitative research in the "schoperías", the accounts of 23 workers were collected, obtained through 11 individual in-depth interviews and two group discussions. Based on a coding system we identified different ways of expressing and concealing gender discrimination, in all of them women areundermined, reinforcing asymmetrical power relations and a sex-gender system dominated by masculinity.