Work and family of domestic workers in times of pandemic: An intersectional analysis

Abstract

This article discusses the intersection of race, gender and class in the production of inequalities experienced by domestic workers in Brazil and how these inequalities are accentuated in the context of a pandemic crisis. Based on an analysis of the data issued by the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (Pnad-Contínua) and on interviews with domestic workers in the metropolitan region of Goiânia, we examine the inequalities in the relationship between work and family, considering aspects related to working conditions, the use of time and domestic arrangements. The results indicate that the pandemic, preceded and intensified by a harsh context of economic recession and expansion of policies for the flexibilization of labor rights, has amplified historically structural inequalities in the occupation. These elements affect the everyday lives of domestic workers, reorganizing domestic arrangements and their temporal experiences.