Women in the Oil Industry; analysis of the views of women in a male world of work in Argentina

MUÑIZ TERRA, LETICIA

Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology

University of New York at Oswego

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2015 vol. 3 p. 1 - 181

2334-2439

Between the 70´s and the end of the 90´s the productive sector of Argentina went through a profound process of decline. The companies which managed to survive had to introduce restructuring policies which were not uniform in all cases. Novick, Miravalles y Senén Gonzáles, 1997).The state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) was one of the firms which subsequent to it´s privatization in the 90´s put into practice these restructuring policies, developing an organization which subcontracted parts of it´s maintenance activities and restructured the working careers of it´s workers. In this paper we look at whether these changes at company level were accompanied by institutional and relational gender changes. In particular we ask whether these organizational changes produced a modification in the traditionally male profile of the plant workers of YPF, if stereotypes of gender were constructed in the firm, how female workers see themselves in a traditionally male oil industry and the opportunities and obstacles faced by women workers in the company.