The social construction of trajectories in managerial positions: gender determinants in occupational careers

Neste texto analisamos as trajetórias ocupacionais e os discursos biográficos acerca da experiência do trabalho e do desemprego colhidos em dois levantamentos qualitativos. No primeiro, lidamos com os que cruzaram a porta de entrada do mercado de trabalho, entrevistando homens e mulheres ocupados em centrais de tele-atendimento, que haviam experimentado a mobilidade ascendente em direção a funções de chefia. No segundo, contrafactual, analisamos relatos biográficos de um outro grupo de homens e mulheres, que haviam estado ocupados como chefes nos serviços e que, tendo perdido tais empregos, procuravam trabalho.The article compares two different sets of biographies and socio-occupational trajectories gathered in São Paulo metropolitan region to discuss the possible set of conditions that provide (or withhold) with resources those individuals submitted to high unemployment risk (correlated to processes of intense economic restructuring under fragile protection systems). The first data set encloses socio-occupational trajectories of men and women, in different moments of their lifecycle, who had been occupied as middle-range managers in service sectors, before losing their jobs as a result of firm restructuring processes. The second, taken as a contra-factual, provides socio-occupational trajectories of telemarketing operators, working at call centers; whilst most former middle-managers remained as long-term unemployed, those men and women, achieved to maintain their jobs even under precarious work conditions