When society resists freedom

the long struggle of maids for labor rights in Brazil

Abstract

The laws regulating domestic work in the years preceding the Abolition indicate the aim of governments to control the urban population, at a time when slavery declined and black migrants arrived in cities in search of work.  During most of the 20th century, the situation of domestic workers underwent few changes, keeping the characteristic of inferiority and dependence on the women who performed it. In the first decades of that century, the majority of domestic workers in the city of São Paulo were black women, on average working from the age of ten, subject to irregular payments and far below what men received. In this article, we gather historiography and official documentation to provide an overview of the struggle of domestic workers for rights and freedom.