Gender roles and division of domestic work by gender and race in Brazil: other views on inequalities

Abstract

Adherence to the traditional family model has never been uniform. Studies of black families in the US show that black women are less likely than white women to officiate marriage, less dependent on their spouses, and regarding their attitude, African American men and women tend to be more tolerant of mothers who work and are more egalitarian in relation to gender roles. Differences are attributed to the socioeconomic constraints experienced historically and to the solutions built to deal with them. But what about Brazil? The article analyzes data from the Gender and Family survey regarding perceptions in relation to i) gender roles, ii) practices of division of domestic work among members of the couple and iii) conflict in the articulation between paid and unpaid work according to gender and race. Results show that white women have more equality and this adherence increases with schooling and decreases with a greater number of children and the presence of a spouse. Moreover, black men are the least egalitarian and this asymmetry is reduced by age and a greater number of children. Regarding division of labor, black men are the most egalitarian and adherence to equality increases with schooling and with more egalitarian perceptions of gender roles; whereas black women report less symmetrical relationships, but symmetry grows with schooling. In relation to the home-work conflict, black women declare more tiredness, but this decreases with schooling and the presence of a spouse.

Key words
Gender; Family; Gender roles; Work-family balance