Entrepreneurial program recipients or dependent beneficiaries? Discursive segmentations in the local implementation of a social policy in Argentina

Abstract

This article examines the discursive gender regime in the implementation of a conditional cash transfer program, Plan Jefes y Jefas de Hogar Desocupados (Unemployed Household Heads Plan) in the Local County of Moreno, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based on a qualitative research method centered on interviews with institutional actors, we reconstructed the images about women with scarce resources. The social economy approach held by the municipal management did not value the cultural competencies of the entire population of female beneficiaries. In principle, the local management favored those women with competencies that allowed them to assume the challenge of starting and maintaining micro enterprises and self-employment. Thus, there is a bifurcated gender regime depending on the group of beneficiaries, because the imagery about women and their living conditions vary depending on whether they are micro entrepreneurs or not. Traditional images are reproduced, precisely, among the most vulnerable women.