Domestic work, consumption and intersectionality: agency possibilities in the trajectory of a (former) domestic worker

• Main Author: Renata Mourão Macedo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2015-12-01
• Series: Mediações: Revista de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: Interseccionalidades; Emprego doméstico; Consumo; Agência.
• Online Access: http://www.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/mediacoes/article/view/22832

The paper reflects on the articulation of social categories of difference and intersectionalities from the analysis of a domestic worker trajectory, who is in transition to the profession of nursing assistant. I argue that, in the analyzed trajectory, the professional qualification and the possibility to consume some goods, before accessible only to middle and upper classes, were prominent in the search for agency, achievements facilitated by a favorable socio-economic context. Through an anthropological perspective, the purpose of the paper is to contribute to the debate on the articulation of categories such as gender, class and race, focusing on the agency possibilities in contexts marked by inequalities.