Abstract

SALINAS MERUANE, Paulina; BARRIENTOS DELGADO, Jaime  and  ROJAS VARAS, Pablo. Discourses of gender discrimination in mining workers in the north of Chile. Atenea (Concepc.) [online]. 2012, n.505, pp. 139-158. ISSN 0718-0462.  doi: 10.4067/S0718-04622012000100007.

This article aims to analyze the gender discrimination discourse of male miners referred to women working in "schoperías" (beer bars) in Calama. As a premise supported by previous evidence with regard to gender relations in the area, we establish a close relationship between the language men use and the dominant male identities that are recreated in this productive scenario (mining). Discourse acts as central tool in the reinforcement of this type of identity. Through a qualitative research in the "schoperías", the accounts of 23 workers were collected, obtained through 11 individual indepth interviews and two group discussions. Based on a coding system we identifed different ways of expressing and concealing gender discrimination, in all of them women are undermined, reinforcing asymmetrical power relations and a sex-gender system dominated by masculinity.

Keywords : Discourse,; gender; discrimination; masculine identity.