Cláudia Regina Bonalume
The relation between women’s roles and work is conflictual and affected by social categories such as race and class. The literature tends to divide the concept of work into three main spheres: paid work in the formal labour market; unpaid housework, which includes household chores; and caretaking (childcare and eldercare). Women circulate among these three spheres and they have to deal with time in a complex way. In general, the work performed in the private sphere has been found to be culturally related to women. Such kind of work includes caretaking, has no economic value and this reality is even worse to black and poor women. Several clues indicate that this relation is still being perpetuated, although there are some scape routes perceived in determined historic contexts.
Keywords: Women; unpaid work; inequality; free time.