Female healthcare workers and the covid-19 pandemic in brazil: A sociological analysis of healthcare work

Abstract

The article aims to discuss the care provided by female healthcare workers in Brazil during the Covid-19 pandemic, based on a sociological analysis by authors who discuss such care as devalued and poorly paid work performed to a large extent by low-income women. The work involves social constructions of emotions and has used the body as a work instrument in care for others. In addition, the increasingly precarious nature of health work in Brazilian society, aggra-vated in recent decades, with an increase in tem-porary contracts, loss of labor rights, overload of tasks, and adverse work conditions, among others, adds to the increase in medical and hospital care in the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, female healthcare workers experience lack of personal protective equipment, fear of coronavirus infec-tion, concerns with their children and other family members, and illness and death of coworkers and themselves. The article highlights the need for government attention and management of health-care work and professional societies, analyzing the work conditions female healthcare workers are ex-periencing in confronting the pandemic.