This study has analyzed the participation of married women in Brazilian metropolitan labor force. Specifically, we tried to show that the family environment in which the woman is has influence on their decision to join the workforce and affects the relative importance of traditional determinants. The evidence raised indicates that handicapped families have a higher probability to have women in the workforce, but the gap is substantially reduced, and even reversed, if they have children of preschool age. Thus the implementation of public policies that make it easier for these women to join the labor force, such as access to childcare, will prove useful to help to rescue their families from poverty.
Female Participation; Determinants of Women Participation; Labor Market
