Conductoras del transporte automotor de cargas en Argentina: ¿desafíos al monopolio laboral masculino?

Abstract

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify and characterize the factors that inhibit and facilitate the occupational trajectories of female freight drivers in Argentina. To this end, it develops and empirically applies the concept of male labor monopoly, understood as a form of hoarding of opportunities and strategic resources that allows men to preserve control over workspaces and over the criteria that define legitimate occupational competence. The research is based on a qualitative methodology supported by semi-structured in-depth interviews with women holding professional licenses who either work in the sector or have attempted to enter it. The main findings show the persistence of exclusion mechanisms linked to the naturalization of masculinity as a criterion of competence and as an organizational bias that reinforces both horizontal and vertical segregation. Within this framework, women encounter multiple barriers at three stages of their occupational trajectories – the development of interest in the activity, access to employment, and retention within the sector. Nonetheless, counterweights that challenge the male labor monopoly are identified, including gender-focused inclusion policies and informal social networks built by female drivers, which act as vectors of change and create fissures in the prevailing gendered order of freight transport.