“Domestic employee, slave employee”: a study of the forms of exploitation based on domestic slave labor

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the naturalization and invisibilization of domestic slave labour by girls and women in Brazil and Maranhão, based on a study of the phenomenon of contemporary slavery. We start from the gender debate, which analyzes the role of women in forms of exploitation, intersecting with studies of racialities and social classes. The methodology uses bibliographical research to understand the permanence of contemporary slave labour, based on documentary analysis of current legislation and data gathered and organized by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT). In order to discuss existing situations of contemporary slave labor in the home, interviews were conducted with women domestic workers who had denounced situations of violence and work analogous to slavery. We believe that the phenomenon of female slave labour, especially domestic labour, from the perspective of subalternization, exposes the socio-cultural weight of the role of women and the naturalization of their exploitation. Due to the private nature of the home, this phenomenon is still invisibilized from geographical discussions, contributing to the continuation of the process that absents the situations experienced by women in domestic spaces from research.