Gender Inequality and Resistance: The Case of Portuguese Women in London

While they value the wage derived from their work in the labour force, married Portuguese migrant women in London do not necessarily find that this alters gender relations in the household to their satisfaction. There is little research on how women continue to struggle in spite of the changes wrought by their involvement in wage labour. Because women's day-to-day experiences are multifaceted, expressions of resistance to gender inequalities in the household can best be explored by examining both household and non-household relations, as well as other socio-political experiences. Married women express discontent with their lives in London by their orientation to return to Portugal. However, their involvement in the labour force has resulted in different return orientations among married and single women and men. I explore these differences by examining the social relations of the wage workplace and the household