Papers by Julieta Palma
Estudios sociológicos, Sep 28, 2023
Frontiers in Sociology, 2021
Chile was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of social distancing measures... more Chile was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of social distancing measures strongly affected the Chilean economy: the unemployment rate grew rapidly as well as the proportion of population temporarily excluded from the labour force. This article analyses the strategies deployed by Chilean households to cope with the impact of the pandemic at the intersection with household structure and its socio-economics characteristics. Secondary data analysis from the Encuesta Social COVID-19 (COVID-19 Social Survey), carried out by the Chilean Ministry for Social Development and Families, were used to analyse the income-generating and expenditure-minimising strategies adopted by households during the early months (March to July of 2020) of the pandemic. The results show that 60.3% of households experienced a drop in family income, 70.3% indicated that they had to use at least one income-generating strategy, and 76.6% at least one expenditure-minimising strategy during the early months of the pandemic. Indebtedness and decapitalisation characterised most of the coping strategies adopted by households. While living in multigenerational households does not protect family members from declining economic well-being, older people living in oneand two-generation households were found to be least affected economically during the crisis. They were also less likely to resort to these coping strategies, insofar as their income was mainly secured from pensions. Although female-headed households did not show a greater reduction in income than male-headed households, they were more likely to adopt income-generating strategies. This article draws attention to the possible effects of decapitalisation and indebtedness on the long-term economic well-being of households with different structures, and the resulting inequalities in their capacity to recover from the effects of the pandemic. The findings suggest that having a source of family income that is not dependent on labour market flows is crucial in times of crises.
Journal of Family Issues, 2021
Previous research has mainly understood household extension as a family strategy to face economic... more Previous research has mainly understood household extension as a family strategy to face economic deprivation, giving little attention to other factors affecting it. Using 2017 data from the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN), this article evaluates the role played by economic and life-course factors in extended family living arrangements among women in family units in Chile (n=60,111). Results indicate that economic needs are an important driver for those seeking refuge in someone else's home, but they are less important for those hosting other relatives within their household. Importantly, the likelihood of living in an extended household-and the position that family units occupy within the household (as head-families or subfamilies)-changes over the life span. Young women (15-34) are more likely to live in extended households as subfamilies, while middle-aged women (45-64) tend to live in extended households as household heads, hosting young cohabiting couples or lone mothers.
Contemporary Social Science, 2020
The past three decades have seen important transformations in family life in Chile: falling marri... more The past three decades have seen important transformations in family life in Chile: falling marriage and fertility rates and increasing cohabitation and extramarital births. Increasing female employment has weakened the traditional male-breadwinner family. This article provides evidence of the effects of these changes in family living arrangements in Chile and their implications for intergenerational relations. We use 1990, 2000 and 2011 data from the National Socio-economic Characterisation Survey to explore why extended family living is increasingly important for young women in the early stages of family formation. We hypothesise two different processes to explain this increase. Firstly, due to the rise in women’s employment, young women need greater assistance from their extended family to reconcile the demands of work and family responsibilities. Secondly, declining marriage rates and rising rates of cohabitation and lone parenthood increase the need for extended family support. Our findings show that family change is the main driver of the rise in extended family living, indicating that intergenerational dependence is often driven by the economic and social support needed by young families. Despite improvements in social welfare and female employment, better-designed housing and work–family reconciliation policies are needed to offer young families an alternative to intergenerational family support.
MOST-2 Policy Papers series uses a novel methodology aimed at enhanced dissemination and usabilit... more MOST-2 Policy Papers series uses a novel methodology aimed at enhanced dissemination and usability of research results for policymaking. Designed according to scientifi c policy analysis principles, this methodology is based on a generic structure for producing documents.
Research reports by Julieta Palma
Thesis Chapters by Julieta Palma
Extended households are far from a rare phenomenon in Latin America and their prevalence does not... more Extended households are far from a rare phenomenon in Latin America and their prevalence does not seem to be in decline. In Chile, they accounted for about a quarter of all households over the 1990–2011 period. This persistence contrasts with the dramatic transformations that have taken place in other dimensions of family life, such as the fall in fertility and marriage rates, and the increase in cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births. Recent studies on extended living arrangements in the region have mainly understood household extension as a strategy to face economic deprivation, giving little attention to other factors affecting it, such as gender inequalities and changing needs for support over the life course. In this dissertation, I contribute to the understanding of extended households Chile through the analysis of adult women living in family units over the 1990–2011 period. Unlike most other studies, I recognise the unequal positions that individuals and families occupy within the extended household, by distinguishing between women that head an extended household and those that join it as subfamilies. Using quantitative methods, I analyse a nationally representative household survey: the CASEN survey. This is the most complete data source on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the Chilean population. This dissertation offers a new assessment of the relationship between extended living arrangements and economic deprivation. Its findings only partially support the hypothesis of household extension as a family strategy to face economic hardship. Other key factors emerge when explaining extended living arrangements, including mothers’ full-time employment, the vulnerability of informal family structures, and other needs of support connected to the life course. There has been an increasing trend across 1990–2011 for young women who have started their family life to live in extended households. Multivariate analyses reveals that this increase was mainly influenced by the rising prevalence of cohabitation and single lone motherhood among younger generations, and to a lesser extent by the increase in young women’s full-time employment. These findings raise important theoretical issues for the Chilean context and show that patterns of social modernisation and family change in Chile have gone hand-in-hand with an increasing importance of the support provided by the extended family. This dissertation fills an important gap in the research on intra-household gender inequalities by analysing women’s economic dependence on extended household members. It shows that women in subfamilies are more likely to be economically dependent than those in head-families. Full-time employment, as well as marriage and cohabitation, emerge as highly protective factors against economic dependence. Special attention is paid to lone mothers, who are often excluded from research on women’s economic dependence. Lone mothers in subfamilies benefit economically from being in an extended household. Yet overall they have decreased their likelihood of being economically dependent over the 1990–2011 period. I argue that this reflects the increasing social protection towards lone mothers and recent legal reforms aimed at the equalisation of rights among couples and children irrespective of the marriage bond.
Book Reviews by Julieta Palma
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2021
In Motherhood, Social Policies and Women’s Activism in Latin America, Alejandra Ramm and Jasmine ... more In Motherhood, Social Policies and Women’s Activism in Latin America, Alejandra Ramm and Jasmine Gideon address a contested issue in feminist writing about gender and social policies: the advantages and disadvantages in using maternalism as a strategy for achieving gender equality and improving women’s position in society. While this issue has been extensively debated in Europe and the United States, it has only recently been researched in Latin America. For this reason, this book is an important and necessary contribution to the theoretical debate and knowledge base on gender and social provision in the region.
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Papers by Julieta Palma
Research reports by Julieta Palma
Thesis Chapters by Julieta Palma
Book Reviews by Julieta Palma