IF, ON one hand, the continuous increase in the number of women in the labor market consolidates their active economic presence in society, on the other, gender-based inequalities are exacerbated, as reflected particularly in their historically higher unemployment rates. This essay attempts to characterize unemployment among women (who currently account for more than half of the unemployed) and to introduce some issues pertaining to the fuzzy line that separates them from inactivity, comparing their situation vis-à-vis men's in the labor market of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region.
