Single mother home: in the segregated city, the production of a place for women and children to come

Abstract

Single mothers have become a common social phenomenon, not only for those who research the subject. Their existence refers to the production of different family configurations and organizations produced by women individually or collectively, economically or spatially. This article, the result of research on the struggle for housing in the city of São Paulo, highlights the idea of creating the Casa da Mãe Solo and its confluence with empowerment practices, as called by its creator in Ocupação Jardim da União, located in the extreme South Zone of São Paulo. The House is/was created concomitantly to the waiting of the children being gestated. Step-interviews and other semi-directed interviews added to field observations conducted throughout 2018/2019 and methodologically composed the research. Casa da Mãe Solo is a starting point to reflect on different configurations of women's struggles in urban social movements for housing. The House seeks to shelter and produce discussions, training, care and solidarity to the Solo Mothers of this Occupation which, indirectly, implies reflections on the production of a peripheral childhood in relation to women. The article aims to contribute to social studies of childhood and gender studies and women in the intersection with education, as well as to investigate public policies for women, childhood, housing and education.