Women and working-class mobilization in postwar Sao Paulo, 1945-1948

Abstract

Focuses on the role of women during the extraordinary political and trade-union mobilizations that began in 1945. During this period workers in Brazil were drawn into public and political activity on an unprecedented scale. During such periods of popular ferment, the dynamics of women's sociopolitical participation emerges more clearly: the greater the extent, depth, and intensity of working-class mobilization, the greater the involvement and visibility of working-class women, housewives as well as women workers. This article employs a community study method to investigate women's grass-roots participation in politics and labor mobilization following World War II in the region of greater Sao Paulo known as ABC (after the municipios of Santo Andre, Sao Bernardo do Campo and Sao Caetano). -from Authors