Women, affections and survival strategies in prisons in Pernambuco
women; prisons; strategies; survival; affections; gender
This thesis seeks to understand how imprisoned women build survival strategies in women's prisons in Pernambuco. It is considered that the strategies used are shaped by the violence they experience and witness during their confinement, and the precariousness of prison facilities. The strategies can vary in form, being either individual or collective, short-term or long-lasting. They may even be composed of femininities based on hegemonic gender patterns. In this research, prison units are understood as porous spaces (PADOVANI, 2015; GODOI, 2015) because they reproduce relationships between people who are serving their sentences, work in the unit, visit their families or cross the borders between the prison and the outside world. In this way, solidarity and affection are forged between people who have their lives mediated by prison, allowing life to resist the prison’s routine. The study adopts an ethnographic approach with a multimethod research design. The conclusions indicate that to survive in Pernambuco's female prison units, it is necessary to make alliances, friendships, agreements, participate in networks inside and/or outside the unit, move between the rules, norms and laws that establish the order and the daily life of the prison, negotiate and rebuild femininities.