Intersectionality of the Social Structure of Brazilian Metropolises: Changes and Continuities over Four Decades

Abstract

This paper deals with the evolution of the social structure of Brazilian metropolises from the perspective of intersectionality, between 1982 and 2022. It analyzes the dimensions of class, race and gender in an integrated way. The author addressed the class dimension using the socio-occupational categories of Observatório das Metrópoles, combined with the racial and gender data available at the household surveys of IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística). The results show that, despite the expansion of higher social positions for women specifically, and for black people more timidly, the upper part of the social structure of Brazilian metropolises still presents class inequalities between whites and blacks. At the bottom, however, the social structure still expresses inequalities between men and women and between whites and blacks. The paper also emphasizes the importance of intersectional analysis in population studies to identify different situations of disadvantage and social inequality in Brazil.