<mark>perceived need to give up on their independence and life projects for the good of building the family. This reflects how the “good wife” and “good mother” must be available for and attentive to the family and the needs of the partner. Marriage, union and childbearing (which often follows dropping out of school) deepens their lack of mobility even further, reducing their exposure to networks and finally perpetuating their status as economic dependents.</mark><sup>44</sup> _Q17: P: Like...for work, many times there has been an opportunity for me to work and he is like “no, don’t go to work”, these things...He said “I already work, you don’t need to work and etc.”, these things..._ _IR: And how is that for you?_ _P: It’s bad. But I talk to him a lot and I believe he is changing..._ _Woman, 24 years, rural_

**<mark>Family and community attitudes about women’s mobility and work shape their meanings of work as a means for self-actualization.</mark>** <mark>In most families, young girls were responsible for household chores either by themselves or sharing these responsibilities with another woman in their house. Particularly in urban areas, women tended to be more confined to the private space.</mark> While for <mark>young men, work becomes a way to confirm their status in the household and the community, this may be the opposite for women. Working may involve burdens such as having to deal with conflicts with jealous or unsupportive husbands, having to face the double burden of paid and unpaid work or facing judgement from members of their community about being a “good mother”. For example, many young women perceived the public space as a threatening space or a space of social surveillance. In this context, women will tend to live more domestic lives and are less exposed to other women who may be pursuing less traditional paths involving careers.</mark>

_Q18: P: I don ́t have any friends here. (Why?) I don ́t have any friends here. I just stay inside the house. IR: And why you don ́t have any friends here? P: I don ́t like to be in the street. (Why?). Because people here they talk to you and in just a few minutes they are speaking behind your back. So I don ́t want these friendships, I prefer to stay alone._ _Woman, 19 years, from urban Caranguejo-Tabaiares_

**<mark>On the other hand, after dropping out, because young males are expected to provide for themselves or for other members of the household, they are drawn into precarious work situations due to their low educational attainment.</mark>** <mark>The “bicos” may have served well as a short-term strategy in a certain moment in their lives; but once</mark>

was described quite uniformly as “an obedient, caring, and respectful mate to the good husband” (pg. 37), responsible for domestic chores and for caring for other family members.

> 44 Heilborn and Cabral (2011) also document that girls who became mothers in adolescence had been more engaged in domestic work prior to having their baby. At the same time, the social isolation found prior to early childbearing in these women often becomes exacerbated after child birth. The same authors (Heilborn and Cabral 2011), summarizing the GRAVAD study in Brazil, state that young women become more confined to the house after giving birth. Importantly, they also show that this is not necessarily true for middle-class women who do go out more, receive more support for maintaining social relations, and do not experience confinement as radically as young women in the lower socioeconomic segment.

22