Experiences of Portuguese Women in the Precariat: Between Frustration and the Lack of Meaning in the Future.

How does the growing precariousness in employment and labor relations impact the construction of subjectivities and the personal and professional narratives of Portuguese working women? This research focuses on one of the distinctive aspects of this "class" - the precariat, which refers to highly educated young adults with jobs below these qualifications -, with the relations of production. More specifically, it focuses on women who believed that higher education would allow them to have a safe career/work trajectory. We conducted interviews with highly educated young women and adult women with precarious jobs, who perform functions below their academic qualifications. The collected data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis techniques, with the aid of the software Atlas/TI. The results show how precariousness means not only the uncertainty of salaried work but also, and above all, uncertainty as a way of life, of forms of subjection, and of bodies. This uncertainty extends to the whole sphere of life, producing subjectivities marked by anxiety, stress, pain, vulnerability, frustration, and hopelessness concerning the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]