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Occidental College

Publication Date

Spring 2010

Program Name

Brazil: Social Justice and Sustainable Development

Abstract

This research analyzes the intersectionality of race, class, gender and governmental regulations, as they relate to violence against black women who are employed in domestic work. In order to reasonably address this larger issue in three weeks of field research, I have chosen to study this relationship as it relates to violence against black domestic workers, as domésticas and their female employers, as patroas, largely white women. Drawing from existent knowledge regarding the forms of oppression used against the black community during slavery, I conclude that that this hegemonic, dominant societal structure continues to function today in new, yet still violent, forms of oppression and control. Additionally, I look at the policies specific to domestic workers, and show how their lack of regulation enables the continued exploitation of domestic working women, whose tasks continue to lack proper compensation and valorization. This study is based on the information I was able to gather by working at Sindoméstico/BH and under the supervision of one of the directors at the union, Marinalva de Deus Barbosa, and nine female domestic workers, four active directors at the centre, and a lawyer.

Disciplines

Inequality and Stratification | Social Welfare

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