Renascidas da terra: do rural ao urbano - a trajetória de mulheres que passaram por um processo de separação conjugal

Abstract

Motivated by the scarcity of literature on the subject in Brazil and by personal experience, this thesis examines the social, economic, and familial processes and consequences experienced by rural women who migrated to urban areas after marital breakdown.The research, conducted using a qualitative approach, employed snowball sampling to select 18 women from the western and southwestern regions of Paraná. The data, collected through semi-structured interviews, were analyzed using content analysis.The results reveal a profile characterized by low levels of education, early marriage, and experiences of gender inequality, violence (physical, psychological, and financial), excessive workload, and exclusion from family decisions. Divorce, motivated by violence, infidelity, spousal alcoholism, excessive control, and a desire for autonomy, constituted a critical event triggering a "double loss":the end of the marriage and the loss of the rural way of life, including not only working the land but also the community ties and spaces of belonging that formed their social identity. Rural exodus generated difficulties such as economic vulnerability and precarious employment in the informal domestic sector, exacerbated by the inequitable distribution of assets and limited access to legal counsel. Despite the difficulties, opportunities for a fresh start emerged, such as identity reconstruction and the acquisition of autonomy, although these were marked by the feminization of poverty and social uprooting. The study concludes that informal support networks, primarily composed of other women, were essential for immediate survival and emotional support after divorce. However, they proved ambivalent and, above all, insufficient to maintain long-term autonomy. Formal support networks were rarely used and, when activated, proved equally inadequate to meet needs. Overcoming these obstacles ultimately resulted from individual and solitary resistance, not from choice, but from responses imposed by the need for survival and the absence of collective support. This research should contribute to the development of public policies for women in vulnerable situations after a divorce, enrich the academic debate on gender and women's rights in rural areas, break the cycle of invisibility and support future research, and above all, give visibility and a voice to these women, by making their stories of struggle and resistance public.