Domestic Work in Brazil: a reality based on gender and ethnicity

Abstract

Informal work, low wages, precarious rights and violence are some aspects that distance domestic workers from achieving the ideal of decent work. In addition to the fact that in Brazil most domestic workers are women, they are also black, which demonstrates the need to make an analysis from the intersectional perspective of gender and race, verifying how these
social categories impose a place of vulnerability in the world of work. If the social vulnerability of domestic workers in a context of normality already demanded a close look from society and the government, the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated this reality, worsening the conditions of service provision and confirming the discourse of power that has always been part of collective decisions about domestic work. Thus, based on a legal-social analysis and through hypothetical-deductive reasoning, an overview of domestic work in Brazil is drawn, making a brief historical review, and relating the precariousness of domestic work to the sexual division of labor and the intersectionality of gender and ethnicity, especially during the Covid-19 social crisis.