Bringing rights to the table : domestic workers' experiences defending labour rights in Brazil

• Main Author: Prado Nogueira, Marina
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61063

Are changes to labour law legislation still relevant today when neoliberalism is curtailing industrial citizenship? And, where progressive changes are introduced, what evidence exists, if any, of changing relations between marginalized women workers (e.g. “domésticas”) and their employers? In 2013, the Brazilian government passed a Constitutional Amendment Bill n°72/2013 (also referred to as PEC Das Domésticas), a set of labour laws harmonizing domestic workers’ rights to that of workers in other occupations. This study examines the new legislation of the PEC and ascertains its significance to improve the terms and conditions shaping the everyday experiences of domésticas. Using qualitative methodologies grounded in feminist theories of intersectionality and affect, I critically analyze the holistic experiences of women domestic workers, understood as overlapping and intertwined realities of class, gender, and racial identifications. By weaving domestic workers’ narratives into an intersectional analysis of domestic work as affective labour, I expose the multiple forms of historically derived oppressions, as well as strategies of resistance arising to contest the exploitation of their labour. This research then argues that labour rights alone are insufficient to address the vulnerabilities and challenges experience by women domestic workers. Domestic workers’ experiences suggest the struggle for better working conditions and social recognition is implicated in contemporary frictions between cultural notions of servitude and the exercise of citizenship by the working classes. While Brazil’s recent policy reform reveals persistent bourgeoisie discourses resisting treating domestic work as work, it also serves to bring domestic work to greater visibility and a renewed political consciousness about identity and workplace issues. The present study contributes to the ongoing scholarly debates on how structural inequalities based on gender and race influence labour market segregation and reinforce the undervaluation of care and domestic work. === Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan) === Sociology, Department of (Okanagan) === Graduate