Abstract
Chagas is a disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and a socio-environmental health problem present throughout the world. One of the routes of transmission of this parasite is through contact with feces of infected kissing bugs. In Argentina there are vector control programs that are responsible for preventing this route of transmission. Specifically, those who are in charge of this work are the field technicians, who are practically all men. Through a qualitative and interpretive approach that included interviews, documentary analysis and observation, we investigated why women do not participate in this occupational area in the National Program of Chagas. Most of the people interviewed justified the lack of women based on gender stereotypes. Another group indicated that it is due to the possible damage that insecticides would generate in women. We found that there is occupational segregation by gender towards women and other sex-gender identities, since there are no official recommendations or regulations which forbids women to perform in this type of job. We believe that it is necessary for the work teams to be diverse in terms of gender, since it would improve vector control interventions and strategies in the different territories.
Keywords:
occupational segregation by gender; masculinized occupation; Chagas disease; field technicians