Cash Transfer Programs “on the ground”: Women, collective strategies, and agency

Abstract

This article explores how state cash transfer programs are negotiated and reconfigured in the everyday lives of women from low-income sectors within their territories. To do so, it examines a specific case: Villa 21-24, the largest informal settlement in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, during the period 2015–2024. The study is framed within a theoretical perspective that combines contributions from gender studies, social policy, and anthropology.

Using an ethnographic approach, the article analyzes family and community arrangements, connections with grassroots organizations, and the practices that emerge around the demand, access, and sustainability of these policies. The research is based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and the use of secondary sources, including materials produced by social organizations and official data on social programs.

The findings show that although cash transfer programs tend to burden women with unpaid labor, they are not passive recipients. On the contrary, through everyday practices and collective arrangements, women transform, reinterpret, and challenge these policies, improving life in contexts marked by structural inequality. In doing so, they develop both technical and situated knowledge that questions the boundaries of state policy design and generates alternative forms of organization and care.