Domestic employment and social change: reproduction and heterogeneity at the bottom of the Brazilian occupational structure

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze changes in the profile of domestic workers (2002-2012) considering not only the distinct variations in the legislation that preceded the Project of the Constitutional amendment but also the social transformations that took place at the base of the Brazilian social pyramid. Despite the reproduction of race and class cleavages that define the general profile of these workers, the article demonstrates that these markers also operate in the internal differentiation of this occupation. Moreover, the data analyzed show that the changes in the base of the occupational structure and the educational profile of the labor force were decisive for the way the pattern of domestic employment changed over the period.

Domestic employment; Racial inequalities; Race and gender