Abstract

CUTULI, Romina Denisse. Gender and emotionalwork: Thefoundations of poor working conditions in preschool education. Mar del Plata, Province of Buenos Aires. Trab. soc. [online]. 2017, n.28, pp.37-54. ISSN 1514-6871.

This article addresses the poor working conditions in preschool education from a gender perspective. The limited presence of the state, both in its role as provider and control device in the provision of care, leaves child care trapped between familiarization and commodification, with greater intensity during the first three years of life. Therefore, early childhood education has a strong private component, which is also to a large extent informal and precarious, due to the working relations that sustain it, but also because of its meager institutional and infrastructure settings. Thesepoor working conditionshold a tense relationship with the quality requirements attributable to such aqualifiedoccupation. In this sense, this article suggests that the gendering of teaching at the initial level, and its consequent association with unpaid care work, act as a disqualifying factor of the job. Also, abnegation expectations assigned to the maternal role are added to this devaluing speech, allowing, ultimately, sustaining the tension between precariousness and quality.

Keywords : Working conditions; Care work; Gender; Preschool teaching.

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