Gender, poverty and job seeking: women at risk of exclusion in Spain.

Vulnerable women and women at risk of social exclusion make up a very large collective. This group includes quite a broad range of personal situations, but all its members share one particular characteristic: gender linked to social vulnerability (poverty). The general objective of this research is to learn what difficulties these women experience, based on discourse analysis applied to their life experiences. Four discussion groups and nine interviews were held. The women interviewed referred explicitly to three areas of discrimination: family discrimination, social discrimination and economic discrimination. In this sense, cognitive, family and economic aspects intertwine in the women's discourses and define the lines of analysis. The women's opinions and rationales, their ways of expressing themselves and their attitudes towards jobs all reflect the influence of society and each woman's own culture. Their arguments vary widely, but they generally lead to the same conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]