Frequentadoras de academias de ginástica para mulheres e tradição familiar: subordinação ou emancipação?

Abstract

This qualitative research aims to unveil some of the complex tension structures seen in the trajectories of women in social spaces where subordination and emancipation processes may emerge. We have interviewed twenty-three women who use three women-only gyms. Content analysis was used for the treatment of the collected data. We have reached the following conclusions: (a) in the correlation of forces that led some of the interviewees to choose women-only gyms, the jealousy of husbands and boyfriends has become a representative factor; (b) the women in the sample demonstrated to invest in their professional lives and in the construction of a social identity associated to work. Undoubtedly, the professional, household and maternal identities claim for a space in the bodies of the women interviewed, which makes us question: do we deal with a movement that shows women who are not subject to the patriarchal moral values but who, to a certain extent, flirt with family traditional values?