Essential, Yet Expendable: Brazilian Black Women and Domestic Work in the Age of COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15367/kf.v8i1-2.370Abstract
At the intersection of racial, gender, and class marginalization, Brazilian domestic workers are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. At the height of the global pandemic, their essential worker status forced this group to commute and work in the homes of their employers instead of sheltering in place. Routinely discriminated against, undervalued, and stigmatized, Black Brazilian women are overrepresented in this profession. Black women employed as domestic workers are exponentially burdened by the political, social, and economic costs of this deadly virus. To meet the demands of these unprecedented times, this article takes on the following format: (1) a survey of the scholarly literature on Brazilian domestic work, with special attention to race and gender; (2) excerpts of a testimonial interview from Creuza Maria Oliveira, president of the national domestic workers’ union (FENATRAD), on the status of this work in Brazil during COVID-19; and (3) an intersectional assessment of Black women’s vulnerability during the pandemic through the lens of domestic work. Domestic workers’ experiences during COVID-19 reflect the ongoing challenges for all Afro-Brazilians, while providing a nuanced example of how gender and class influence the necropolitics of the virus’s impact.
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Published by
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
http://tupjournals.temple.edu
On behalf of
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Sponsored by the Regents of the University of California. Copyright © by the Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved
ISSN 2151-4712 (print)
ISSN 2372-0751 (online)