Sexual division of labor, unemployment, and drugs market in Latin American

underprivileged youths

Ana Miranda
FLACSO – Sede Argentina / CONICET
ORCID: 0000-0002-3261-4344
amiranda@flacso.org.ar

Milena Arancibia
FLACSO – Sede Argentina / CONICET
ORCID: 0000-0002-3261-4344
m2arancibia@gmail.com

Carla Fainstein
FLACSO – Sede Argentina / CONICET
ORCID: 0000-0002-6504-0586
carla.fainstein@gmail.com

1
Abstract
Although Latin America went through a cycle of economic growth with social inclusion
during the first two decades of the 21st century, differences continued within its population,
resulting in unequal living conditions according to gender, social sector, and residence,
causing young people to face a broadly segmented opportunity structure. This article presents
a study on the social trajectories of young people living in marginalized neighborhoods in
Argentina, a middle-income country located in the southern part of Latin America. It
considers gender inequality as a factor that structures and crosses the various dimensions of
youths' everyday lives as the focal. This work presents the results of an action research
conducted through a survey of young people between the ages of 18 and 35 organized in
community neighborhood centers. They show labor trajectories marked by instability,
informality, and long inactivity periods, which accentuate in the case of women. The
intersectionality between the drug market and the sexual division of labor is analyzed in
young people's trajectories, in which the essentialist nature of motherhood determines the
family dynamics of care and connects to drug use.
Keywords: Sexual division of labor, unemployment, Latin America, underprivileged youths

Funding details
This work was supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of
Canada under Grant number 108769-001; and National Council of Cientific and Technical
Investigations (CONICET) of Argentina under Grant [number xxxx].

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be
shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Acknowledgments
The research was prepared within the framework of "Colectiva Joven: Jóvenes hacen
colectivo". The initiative is being developed thanks to the support of the São Paulo-Brazil
Research Foundation FAPESP) and the Canada's International Development Research Center
(IDRC), through a consortium that brings together the Federal University of San Carlos and
the Educational Action Organization in São Paulo, Brazil; and the Federation of
Neighborhood Centers Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo (FGHC) and the Latin American
Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Argentina. It also has the support of the National
Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina, which recognizes the project as a
Technological and Social Development Project.

Introduction
During one of the most intense crises to affect humanity, the debate on inequalities,
especially those involving young people from unprivileged sectors, takes on new relevance

2
and offers a reflection on the near future of our societies. Particularly in Latin America, the
COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a pre-existing economic crisis, deepened the problems
of a social group affected by structural poverty (ECLAC, 2020). The processes of territorial
segregation, the technological gap, and the expansion of inequalities due to work access
difficulties mark a highly complex social scenario at the beginning of the millennium's third
decade. The social situation is dire in terms of labor, education, and health. There is an urgent
need for countercyclical policies and social protection in broad terms. In this context, we
believe that youth studies can contribute to the development of public policies by
constructing evidence that allows us to discern the best actions to carry out in crisis times.

The field of youth studies is consolidated in both the global north and south (Cuervo &
Miranda, 2019). Within it coexist currents that have produced worked based on original
theoretical and methodological corpora: sub-cultural studies and the perspective of youth as
transition(s) (Shildrick & MacDonald, 2006). Furthermore, although strong efforts were
made to advance a vision beyond this duality (Woodman & Bennett, 2015; Cuervo & Wyn,
2015; Bendit & Miranda, 2016), there are still conceptual specificities and research strategies
characterizing each of these currents. Following this direction and analyzing the academic
production in Latin America, Peréz Sainz argues the existence of two differentiated
traditions: 1) the 'generational' approach, integrated into the culturalist perspective and
focused on youth productive practices (cultural studies) and 2) the biographical perspective
enabling to capture the interaction between agency and structure and that, with some
deficiencies, includes the identity dimension, approaching biographies from a multicausal
perspective (Perez Sainz, 2019). This study is based on this second approach while trying to
integrate affective and identity dimensions, particularly the gender perspective, which is often
overlooked in youth studies.
This article presents a study conducted in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, the largest
urban agglomerate in Argentina, during the late 2010s1. It is based on the idea that, despite
advances in schooling and the wellfare of young people, vast differences persisted between
different social groups, which grew with unequal conditions to gender, social sector, and
place of residence, configuring an option structure that was broadly segmented within the
same generation. Based on research on the social trajectories of young people living in
segregated neighborhoods, the text provides evidence of structural inequality in Latin
America. From a temporally and geographically situated research, this article examines the
work of A. Furlong (2009), building a hypothesis on the opportunity structure existing for the
'millennials.' The hypothesis holds that during the first two decades of the twenty-first
century, young people in large urban agglomerates in Latin America grew up in a context of
economic growth and social inclusion but continued to be exposed to persistent segregation
where the drug market grew. This situation led to a limited range of opportunities, where
unemployment and early school dropout rates were to the vulnerable groups the corollaries to
the entry into illegal activities, which left strong marks on their long-term life trajectories.

1
According to estimates by the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina, between 17 and 18
million people lived in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area in 2020 (INDEC, n.d).

3
The text presents the results of an action-research2 with young people from segregated
neighborhoods conducted within the framework of the Colectiva Joven 3project. The study
was performed through a survey of young people between the ages of 18 and 35 who
participated in activities carried out by social organizations in community centers. It mainly
included those involved in the Neighborhood Centers' activities that are part of the
Federación Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo (FGHC)4. The Neighborhood Centers are
community spaces created by parishes in poor neighborhoods and settlements, whose primary
purpose is to prevent and support people in high economic and social vulnerability who have
gone or are going through situations of problematic use of psychoactive substances. The
survey, administered during the second half of 2019, explored the different ways in which
young people generated an income, including work initiatives carried out in community
projects. Additionally, it analyzed personal work trajectories outside the organization, and in
some cases, ways of generating income linked to illegality and violence. Focus groups were
also conducted with young men and women from different FGHC Neighborhood Centers
who participated in the project as peer researchers.
The conclusions highlight the potential of community networks in creating new opportunities
and strengthening new youth grammars.5 They also emphasize the possibilities in a path
towards a solidarity life project that supports the recovery work on the effects caused by the
exclusion process to which young people were exposed. Also, they suggest a debate on the
place of family groups, care, and the sexual division of labor among popular youth. Finally,
the conclusions argue that the community intervention model represents a substantive
element in any intervention strategy and youth policy design.
The article is organized in different sections where the objectives are developed. First, the
methodology used in the research is introduced. Then, some theoretical concepts of youth
studies are presented, which constitute the framework for this work. The following sections
describe some of the focal points of inequality that structurally cross youths; those linked to
gender and those related to a spatial and territorial dimension. Subsequently, we will delve
into the research results, presenting the labor trajectories of the young people interviewed,
their characteristics, their variation according to gender, and the incidence of problematic use
of psychoactive substances in those trajectories and youths' lives from underprivileged
sectors in general. Finally, the debate and some considerations derived from the arguments
raised are presented.

2
In page 2 the authors speak of action-research, it is recommendable to put at least a foot note
explaining how this concept is used in the text and the reference.
3
Colectiva Joven (2019-2021) is developed jointly by Canada's International Development Research Centre
(IDRC), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Organization Acción Educativa, the Latin American
Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Argentina) and the Federación Familia Grande Hogar de Cristo (FGHC).
It is also supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, which recognizes the project
as a Technological and Social Development Project (PDTS). The project is part of the regional initiative "Vidas
Sitiadas I" that clusters research carried out in Colombia, Mexico and El Salvador.
4
The FGHC is a second-degree association founded in March 2017 to coordinate the actions that the different
Neighborhood Centers had been carrying out since 2008.
5
The idea of youth grammars contextualizes the experiences of these social groups by pointing out the system
of rules that organize the course of life, with which young people interact and negotiate, and which has a
territorial anchorage, i.e., it develops in a socially and culturally situated manner. Different social spaces
structure different youth grammars, through which biographies, narratives, and aspirations are built (Bendit and
Miranda, 2017).

4
Methodological approach: peer research

Based on a methodological strategy of action research, the Colectiva Joven project worked
from the perspective of public sociology (Burawoy, 2005) using different social research
techniques to support community groups of young people. The project included the
participation of young people from social organizations in the planning, execution, and
analysis of results following the peer research methodology (Santis et al., 2004). This
methodology is considered the most appropriate when working with a "hidden population,"
i.e., a social group that, for various reasons, is difficult for researchers to approach. The
Colectiva Joven project worked with groups of vulnerable young people who had gone
through periods of drug use and often suffered intense stigmatization (Carcar et al., 2020). In
this case, it was assumed that the peer-to-peer methodology would allow the generation of
useful knowledge to support community activities. Therefore, it was sought to establish an
information-gathering network made up of people whom the interviewees recognized as
peers (Rodriguez et al., 2005). Additionally, this methodology made it possible to give a
voice to the young people who were invited not only as respondents but also as researchers,
study protagonists, and active participants in the research process.
Seven young members of different FGHC Neighborhood Centers formed a team of peer
researchers composed of five men and two women. These selected members, who during
2019 and 2020 participated in several meetings with the FLACSO team, were young referents
at the FGHC's Neighborhood Centers, i.e., they worked on specific tasks related to supporting
young people. Furthermore, most of them worked within the FGHC as peer companions 6,
four of them supporting persons deprived of their liberty. During the meetings, they were
trained in social research methodology. Subsequently, a data collection tool was developed.
With the group of peer researchers, a survey was conducted in eleven FGHC Neighborhood
Centers located in municipalities in the western, southern, and northern areas of the Buenos
Aires Metropolitan Area, where different types of businesses were operating (food
elaboration, handicrafts, hairdressing, blacksmithing, vegetable garden, sublimation, and
screen printing). Eighty-seven surveys were performed between September and December
2019. The sample consisted of young people between the ages of 18 and 35 who participated
in the social organization FGHC situated in community centers engaged in socio-productive
enterprises. The sample was segmented by geographic area (north, west, and south of the
Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area) and gender. In turn, two focus groups were formed with the
peer researchers. The results of the survey and the focus groups are discussed in this article.

Youths and inequalities

Opportunity structures for youths
We use the field of youth studies as a starting point to examine specific characteristics of
inequalities in an intersectional manner. In recent years, this field has enriched with plural
perspectives that integrate structural, subjective, and environmental aspects, generating
6
At the FGHC, those supporting the lives of young people and adults going through situations of problematic
use and who had lived the experience of recovery are referred to as "peer supporters" (Carcar et al., 2020).

5
interesting advances in knowledge. From a viewpoint that proposes the study of
temporalities, the youth transition approach has carefully observed the structural conditions
presented to a given generation or cohort in the course of their youth, the most critical stage
of life for taking advantage of long-term opportunities (Wyn & Woodman, 2006; Roberts,
2020). Its main interest focuses on the tensions between social change and social
reproduction, and in particular, on the intergenerational reproduction of poverty (Woodman,
Shildrichk & MacDonald, 2020).
The contributions of studies based on the notion of social generations have allowed the
integration of greater complexity to the analysis of external conditions to young people. The
external conditions include education and labor opportunities, but also State policies, criminal
justice system, affectivity, spatial inequality and habitat conditions, that generate an
accumulation of disadvantages, especially in some city areas (Woodman & Wyn, 2015). The
study of the economic policy effects on actual labor possibilities and their consequences on
certain cohorts or generations has shown that the sign of the economic period and the
characteristics of social protection policies can lead to greater or lesser possibilities for young
people to make decisions and choices in their trajectories (Furlong, 2009). The question
raised is not only about the relationship between agency and conjuncture, but also about the
conditions that influence social positioning. In particular, situated research has allowed us to
build evidence on new inequalities by analyzing social reproduction in real-time
(MacDonald, Shildrick, & Furlong, 2020).
More specifically, research in vulnerability contexts in Latin America has shown that the
opportunity structure analysis for youths must include a reflection on the drug market
(Nateras, 2016; Valenzuela Arce, 2015). Local drug markets in contexts of vulnerability and
persistent poverty have strong influences on the opportunities and activities available to
young people from low-income sectors. In contexts of State absence, scarcity of decent work
sources, and persistence of depriving housing conditions, the consequences of drug
trafficking expansion and drug dealing leave strong marks on the lives of young people,
many of them very difficult to reverse (Perez Sainz, 2019). Since the beginning of the twenty-
first century, the region's countries have undergone a cycle of growth with social inclusion
that has led to an improvement in income distribution, the expansion of social protection
based on rights, and the growth of educational opportunities (Carcar & Miranda, 2020).
However, the difficulties in finding employment continued, especially for low-income youth
groups and particularly for women, which is why we sought to present a more complex
opportunity structure analysis that these young people had to face in their time.

Gender inequalities among young people in low-income sectors

This research addresses the trajectories of low-income youths within a specific historical
context. In this framework, the labor conditions, the drug market, the urban dynamics, and a
particular gender structure organizing the power relations between feminine and masculine
identities and sustaining the prestige hierarchy of behaviors and roles are intertwined (Segato,
2010).

6
In the last decade, the gender7 perspective was progressively incorporated into public policies
and social programs, while mobilization processes aimed at making visible and demanding
responses to gender inequalities gained increasing momentum in the country, especially in
some youth groups. However, the traditional views that delegate the demand for 'provision' to
men and the responsibilities for reproducing life and care to women continue to influence
young people from low-income sectors strongly.
The generation that spent its youth in the first two decades of the twenty-first century in Latin
America was marked by strong contradictions between the progress in schooling and social
protection and the persistence of job insecurity and social segmentation. These opposite
trends amplify when looking at the social trajectories of young women from lower-income
sectors. The continuity of a strong sexual division of labor in this sector provided a different
opportunity structure for women and men. Progress in social protection policies did not
transform the dynamics and structure of power at a community and social level (both in
policy and practice). As a result, women from underprivileged sectors remained in charge of
care and reproduction tasks in the domestic space.
There is a broad academic debate on how the unequal distribution of care work strongly
influences men and women's unequal opportunities. From an intersectional approach,
inequities of race, class, gender, and sexuality are analyzed as overlapping identities in
oppression systems that intersect and interact with each other (Hill Collins, 2019; Hirata,
2014). Women, especially those in the poorest sectors, show higher numbers than men in
informal and precarious jobs. In turn, inequality in domestic and care work distribution
deepens among the young women in such sectors. The invisible forms of work, household
work and caregiving tasks, were studied from feminist economics by analyzing the
differential time spent on these activities (Rodríguez & Marzonetto, 2015). Feminist
economics is a theoretical current that emphasizes the importance of these tasks as one of the
structural bases of the extended reproduction of capital (Fraser, 2016).
On the other hand, inequalities are exacerbated by essentialist views of motherhood, which
naturalize women's role in caregiving tasks. There has been some progress towards equity in
the division of reproductive tasks among the new generations (Findling, 2018). However, the
persistence of traditional gender patterns that naturalize the association between women,
motherhood and care, and the public provision deficit in care services (Faur, 2012), cause
reduced participation of young women in labor activities with wide-ranging consequences on
their life trajectories, in terms of income and self-esteem. This situation restricts the access to
formal labor for the most vulnerable young women, which undermines their possibilities for
autonomy and the development of independent life projects.

7
The gender perspective is a way of approaching a multiplicity of social life dimensions. In this article,
however, we focus on its contribution to explore the task and role distribution differentiated between men and
women. Furthermore, the analysis focuses on what happens between cisgender men and women, leaving aside
issues related to other gender identities, which are not addressed in this work although they constitute a central
node of the gender perspective.

7
Youths in marginalized neighborhoods

The processes already described by the generation that lived through their youth in the first
two decades of the twenty-first century in Latin America was combined with the deepening
of urban fragmentation. The latter impacted youth transitions, generating trajectories with a
widely differentiated evolution, crossed by tensions between globalized and territorialized
youth (Savage, 2010). The study of spatial scales is of great importance for Latin American
countries, as they shape youth transition experiences and widely diverse senses of belonging.
In this sense, there are contrasting forms of belonging: the first, known as elective belonging,
is flexible, liquid and fluid. The second form, known as place belonging, is rigid, firm, stable,
and strong.
We have worked in-depth on this topic in previous research that sought to link the
conceptualization of youth grammars, sense of belonging and spatial scales in an analysis of
the trajectories of young women living in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (Miranda &
Arancibia, 2020). The characteristics of urban development in the country left neighborhoods
confined and with little state presence, thus reinforcing dissimilar access to networks and
resources among young people of different genders and social sectors, resulting in the
construction of highly differentiated identities. This process generated divergent temporalities
in the transitions between education and labor for young people of different social sectors,
genders, and ethnic groups. These temporalities show inequality reproduction in school
dropout events, labor market insertion, and caregiving at an early age. Consequently, while
in some groups there was an offer of activities and values typical of a 'modernized youth,"
traditional gender patterns and the premature assumption of work and care responsibilities
were usual among other sectors.
In this study, we are interested in analyzing social and spatial inequality while considering
gender differences. From the field of urban studies, these overlaps have been thoroughly
examined, looking into the various dimensions presented by socio-residential segregation
(Segura, 2017). The findings of this research account for some characteristics of the life
trajectories of those who were young in the first two decades of this century in marginalized
neighborhoods. Starting from an intersectional perspective, we analyze how inequalities
manifest between the youth trajectories of women and men and the relationship with drug use
and stigma.
The concept marginalized neighborhood is used as a synonym of the typical informal
settlement, which comprises various low-income housing typologies. Beyond their
differences in topography and historical trajectories, these typologies share the informality of
land and housing tenure and present severe deficits concerning access to essential services
and urban infrastructure (Cravino et al., 2012). Furthermore, they share inadequate coverage
of drinking water and sewage networks, insufficient access to transportation, and ineffective
waste collection and management system. Additionally, they tend to be located in polluted
spaces that present flaws in access to health, education, and justice, among other fundamental
rights (Fainstein, 2019). Furthermore, the lockdown ordered by the State to prevent the
spread of COVID-19 made visible the inequalities in connectivity and technology access of
the population of these neighborhoods, which deprived many of the inhabitants of continuing

8
their studies or work remotely (Pasaragua, 2020). The spatial expression of the so-called
digital divide became evident (Cao & Vaca, 2018).

In these neighborhoods, transformations in the illegal drug market have been observed in
recent decades, resulting in significant changes in cultural practices and the availability of
activities for young people. The transformation and expansion of the market-production,
trafficking, and commercialization of illegal drugs was also studied, particularly cocaine and
marijuana, and the growth, diversification, and massification of local consumption (Equipo
Intercambios et al., 2006). As an unwanted effect of new State regulations in this market, the
last stage of cocaine production began to develop in the country, in many cases, in
clandestine laboratories located within marginalized neighborhoods in the country's large
urban agglomerates.
Transformations in the drug market produced new alternatives for young people (Cozzi,
2018). Ultimately, it implied the increase, expansion, and diversification of drug use in a
context of economic recovery and growing consumption of goods and services at large. In
this framework, cocaine paste consumption, also known as "paco", expanded, particularly
among young people. While the State response to the problem was inconsistent and not
always persistent, community groups' actions achieved greater stability, generating new
alternatives for a healthy life project for young people. Among them is the FGHC, whose
young men and women are involved in this project. In the following paragraphs, we analyze
the labor trajectories of the surveyed youth, including labor market experiences and income-
generating activities carried out on a community basis.

Precarious labor trajectories and gender inequalities

Labor market insertion
This research focused on youth from low-income sectors, addressing a generation that
entered the labor market between 2000 and 2019. In that period, Argentina came out of a
major crisis, overcoming it with inclusive growth; however, it did not manage to improve the
opportunities and working conditions for those in the unskilled segment.
The survey results show some of these trends. First, the persistence of school dropouts; eight
out of ten young respondents did not finish high school, and some also indicated they did not
finish elementary school either (almost two out of ten). If we look at this variable by gender,
we see that more men have not completed compulsory education (nine out of ten men, almost
seven out of ten women). The results reveal that the groups surveyed were excluded from
schooling progress, even when there was an increase in the State's number of scholarships to
promote school completion. Second, the premature start of labor trajectories and tasks
associated with caregiving was of great importance. The young respondents were mothers
and fathers who entered the labor market in their early youth, some even in their childhood.
We also observed gender variations linked to the unequal distribution of childcare work,
which fell mainly on women. They reported living with their children more often than men,
and 15% even stated living with children who were not their own. Among men, 61%
responded that their partner or ex-partner look after their children. Consequently, these data

9
reveal how the uneven distribution of caregiving tasks strongly affects this social group,
resulting in unequal opportunities for inserting and remaining in the labor market.
In terms of work trajectories outside the Neighborhood Center, the data collected by the
survey reported that only 32 % of the total number of people interviewed were employed,
with a higher percentage of women (37%) than men (30%). On the other hand, it is worth
noting that most of the employed respondents had jobs with precarious hiring conditions
(82% responded that their occupations lacked pension contributions, occupational risk
coverage, or social security). The period of permanence in each job reveals fragmented
trajectories in occupations in short periods. These specific temporalities are supplemented
with data on the proportion of activity in their labor trajectories, calculated from their first
insertion in the labor market. Thus, despite their premature entry into the labor market, the
respondents' trajectories were short with long periods of inactivity: a large proportion was
unemployed or inactive for half of their working lives, which shows the difficulties they
faced in accumulating experience in the labor market. This situation is more evident among
women, 44% of whom have been active for up to 25% of their lives (compared to 36% of
men).
Among men, most of the work experiences were in the gastronomy and the construction
sectors, in low-skilled jobs such as glass washers, kitchen assistants, deliverymen, bricklayers
(mostly self-employed), painters, and other related jobs. This is the case of Andrés, who was
21 years old at the time of the interview and had not completed high school. During his
working career, which began at the age of 12, he was employed in the sectors mentioned
above and services, another of the areas named by the respondents. Andrés worked as a
laborer in the construction sector, gardener in private households, assistant to a sheet metal
worker in a garage, painter in the construction sector, and welder in a blacksmith's shop. In
total, he was active for only 22% of his working life, and if we look at the length of the jobs,
Andrés worked for only a few months in each one, being one year the longest permanence in
a job. At the age of 21, the respondent had children living with him and under his care,
depending on his income.
Conversely, young women's labor trajectories concentrated on cleaning jobs, mostly as
domestic workers in private households, company premises, larger establishments, and
babysitting or elderly care tasks. One example is the trajectory of María, a 30-year-old
woman who had started working at the age of 15 and had her first child at the age of 20.
During her working years, she was a nanny in a private household, a stock clerk in a
supermarket, and a cleaner in an office. Each of these jobs lasted about a year, meaning that
she was employed 20% of her working life. María did not finish high school and took courses
in manicure and hairdressing. During the periods when she was unemployed, someone from
her family helped her. At the moment of the interview, her income was from a national
programme that guarantees income for families with children.
On the one hand, the results evidence the unequal distribution of care tasks and, on the other
hand, in the cases of labor insertions in the productive market, labor segmentation by gender
(Millenaar, 2017). The jobs reported by women consist of performing activities related to
household chores, such as cleaning tasks.

10
Other means of income generation through associative work forms
Given the difficulties of labor market insertion, the approach to different types of community
work experiences appears as a possibility to generate resources for both young men and
women living in marginalized neighborhoods. The expansion of an inclusive development
paradigm resulted in the State's joint action with social organizations, combining State
resources with market sources and community solidarity. Thus, processes of collective
organization of low-income sectors were generated, which turned their focus away from
mercantile circuits to the domestic unit as the basis for community development (Fernández
Alvarez, 2016).
At the FGHC's Neighborhood Centers, the main activity consists of caring for those who
have recently joined the centers or have less autonomy, becoming peer companions, and
joining the coordinating teams. For these activities, young men and women receive an
income and create bonds and a supportive and nurturing family atmosphere based on
affection. Given the discrimination young people face in the labor market, these spaces
appear to be free from the type of violence they suffer everyday outside the neighborhood.
They refer to community centers as spaces where 'everyone is on the same page, they are all
known, they get along well.' Additionally, the freedom of schedule and the support they
receive if they relapse into consumption also appeared as major advantages. Therefore,
community work allows qualifying some of the barriers these young people face when trying
to get a job. In the words of peer researcher Lisandro:
'When I got to know Hogar de Cristo, little by little, I started to get back on my feet and, for almost three
years now, I have been renting a one-room apartment, and I'm supporting it. It's hard for me every day,
but Hogar de Cristo embraces you; they welcome you with a hug even if you are dirty and your hair is
stiff. There are no prejudices (Lisandro8, personal communication, 2019)'.

Affection and bonds appear as central characteristics in these forms of work established as
personal services oriented to life care (Carrasco, 2003). This type of work was approached
from feminist economics since its protagonists were traditionally women (Fournier, 2017),
although men also had an active role in the reproduction of community life (Magliano, 2019).
The productive enterprises carried out in the Centers are workspaces compatible with the
caring tasks of the families since they are developed within the neighborhood limits, and
women can also bring their children along. When asked how they organized childcare, 61%
of women answered that they took their children to the center to participate in the enterprise,
while only 9% of men chose this answer. For the same reason, however, women were less
consistent when participating in this type of work, which is an additional income source (78%
of women always/almost always participated, while among men, the figure was 93%).
As we have mentioned already, the connection between these young people and organizations
with a territorial presence can substantially impact their life trajectories. Respondents referred
to the Neighborhood Centers as workspaces where they did not feel discriminated against and
where many of the difficulties they faced related to consumption or caregiving tasks were
taken into account. At the same time, they highlighted the support for managing other income
sources, generally from State programs. As some authors hold, the mediations that structure
the lives of young people, such as family, school, territory, and peers, have an impact on the
labor trajectories of those who live in contexts of social exclusion and violence, configuring
8
The names have been changed to protect the identity of the people who worked as peer researchers.

11
different types of agencies (Pérez Sainz, 2019). In this case, social organizations provided
income-generating options for young people living in these neighborhoods, thus influencing
their trajectories.

Vulnerability, consumption, and genders

As previously described, both respondents and peer researchers attend the FGHC's
neighborhood centers, spaces created to provide a comprehensive solution to people
experiencing social vulnerability and/or drug use. In this section, we complement the focus
group analysis conducted by the peer researchers. Based on their views, it becomes clear how
the sexual division of labor and the space assigned to each (domestic for women and public
for men) affect the connection with work and substance use and the approach to organizations
that deal with this problem.
Several studies indicate that men are more likely to access spaces that provide support for
drug users. FGHC data show that two-thirds of those attending community centers are men,
and the rest are women (Carcar et al., 2020). State reports indicate that on many occasions,
women come to these centers seeking counseling to support family members (SEDRONAR,
2007). This does not indicate whether men are using more drugs than women, but it shows
the invisibility of women representation when addressing the issue. Thus, one of the peer
researchers referred to the abandonment of substance use among women:
A mom with three or four kids to look after, plus abstinence is way more complicated. And
way more if she is a single mom and her husband is using drugs, her other kid is using drugs,
like you just keep saying: 'I'm going to take care of them' (...). A mom wants to fix a lot of
things and forgets that she is the family pillar, that if she doesn't take care of herself, she
can't take care of her kid, or her husband, or anyone else. (Tomasa, peer researcher,
personal communication, 2019).
In this fragment, Tomasa ties the abandonment of use with the leading role of women as
family caregivers. Motherhood, therefore, becomes a pivotal element in the peer researchers'
narratives to explain both the responsibility that women assume in caring for their families
and the abandonment of their own drug use practices. These situations imply high
vulnerability for women when they have to face parenting alone in poverty conditions, a
responsibility that men do not assume in the same way. These narrations reinforce the lack of
representation of women who use drugs from State mechanisms and the problems of women
who use who are not mothers, reinforcing the essentialist character of motherhood.
Gaston made a distinction between motherhood and fatherhood to explain why women were
in charge of their children much more than men. In his own words:
The problem we have, at least I do, and I see it in many boys, is with the kids when you
relapse. I have my son with me for two, three days and then I can't stand him anymore. The
truth is, if I had to live with my son… But his mom is his mom, and she will put up with him;
it's a different thing. It's harder for me, and I also see that in the boys (Gastón, peer
researcher, personal communication, 2019).

12
Motherhood often gives young women a new status or role that is socially legitimized in their
community. This social identity offered to young women, directly related to the domestic
space, contrasts with the identity available to young men in the neighborhood's public space.
One of the youth cultures present in the neighborhood is street culture, which is linked to a
series of practices, including substance use. This culture has become a source of prestige,
self-esteem, and identity for young men (Saraví, 2004). This set of youth norms and values
supports performative gender practices of hegemonic masculinity (Cruz Sierra, 2014). The
street appears as a masculine scenario where young men, through violence, illegal activities
and/or substance use (among other practices), reinforce their social identity, especially in
front of their peer group. However, in the street, they are more exposed to violence in the
public sphere than women, who suffer violence in the domestic or private sphere.

Discussion
They tell us about a second chance, and we haven't even had a first one
(Martín, personal communication, 2019)

The concept of youth grammars has been introduced recently in this field of study, with time
and space dimensions as focal points in the analysis (Miranda & Arancibia, 2020). It
proposes to address the variety, interrelation, and complexity of contemporary youth,
providing a framework to deconstruct the relationship between activity structures and
expectations established by modern societies for different social groups. Such
conceptualization attempts to ponder the performative nature of opportunity structure and
social values in force during youth, which is a crucial stage for life projects. Furthermore, it
introduces the analysis of the externalities young people face while suggesting the study of
agency and creative processes (Bendit & Miranda, 2017).
Within the framework of a situated and participatory study, the research shared the
assumption that 'ningún pibe nace chorro' (no child is born a delinquent), a very popular
phrase in Argentina among social movements that work for better living conditions of
vulnerable youth. Peer research explored the different ways of obtaining income and showed
how the intersection of the labor market conditions, urban dynamics, and drug market
influenced the trajectories of vulnerable youth. Thus, we worked on the interaction of a group
of heterogeneous elements from the physical, biological, economic, and semiotic worlds,
which, among others, provided evidence of the forms in which the social process occurs
(Latour, 2005).
The findings revealed that, due to the prevailing unemployment and job insecurity, the
growth of marginalized neighborhoods and the expansion of the drug market intersected and
defined broken trajectories in youth groups exposed to continuous segregation. Hence, as
MacDonald et al. (2019) argued, the persistence of these conditions and the expansion of the
drug market were the processes that intercepted the lives of these generations, creating a
narrow structure of options and leaving deep scars.
In this work, we have examined how the intersectionality between the drug market and the
sexual division of labor affects young people's trajectories. We found in the testimonies that

13
an essentialist character of motherhood emerges, shaping the family logic of care. On the
other hand, it also connects to substance use and the inequalities that arise when participating
in productive enterprises that, on the whole, present an alternative in a framework of limited
opportunities for young people in these social groups. As a result, gender inequality replicates
in these spaces, setting limitations to such projects.
While in the sexual division of labor, caregiving falls upon women, motherhood implies an
unequal burden of reproductive tasks, which eventually impacts their trajectories in other
dimensions such as productive work, studies, housing access, among others. This allows us to
highlight certain tensions generated within family groups, female autonomy, life
reproduction, and community organization in the daily lives of vulnerable young women
(Franco Patiño & Llobet, 2019).
Conclusions
The research produced evidence on how the sexual division of labor, early school dropout,
and drug use affect youth transitions in vulnerable territories, resulting in broken trajectories.
Specifically, it demonstrates that motherhood can become a redemptive event among women,
which generates respectability and belonging. In a setting that places them as the most
suitable for caregiving tasks, their interests appear to be aligned with those of their families
and their community. The responsibility and sacrifice that caregiving tasks involve do not
seem to work in the same way when regarding men´s drug use, in which family and
fatherhood appear as external to them. Although in this work we address the drug market
mainly by taking young people as users, it remains an issue for future research to explore this
market as a source of jobs and the sexual division of labor we can find in this context.
The workspaces created by community organizations with strong neighborhood participation
are essential in the broken trajectories of young people. They are accomplished support
networks and mediators between young people in the neighborhoods and public officials
(managing food, social security, health, and housing policies). At the same time, they create
opportunities on a path towards the construction of diverse family groups and solidarity-
based life projects. However, the findings show that, without a transformation in the
dynamics and structure of power at the community and social level, the inequality in the
opportunity structure that vulnerable women and men face will remain unchanged.
The research results provide elements for developing actions to improve young people's
opportunities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions can be more efficient
by working together with the networks that social organizations have built to develop
community strategies to access income and emotional support. Furthermore, it provides
evidence on the importance of including a gender perspective from an intersectional
viewpoint that considers the diversity of expectations and youth family groups and, therefore,
dialogues with youth grammars that differ from the hegemonic normative model. This
analysis also seeks to question how institutions and the community characterize women as
the target of their actions. Overcoming the crisis will require creative, supportive, and
multiple measures that include youth participation as a vital element of the programming to
rebuild youth trajectories in a still uncertain context that requires new intergenerational
agreements and a sustained commitment to plural social justice.

14
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