Recognising religious women as feminist subjects: The case of Catholic feminists in Brazil

In this post, Louisa Acciari analyses the use of religious norms by a feminist group in Brazil, and calls for the recognition of religious women by feminist movement and theory. She argues that religion can play an important role in structuring collective action and gives legitimacy to feminist claims in the Brazilian context

Who is worth being called a ‘worker’? Domestic workers’ struggle for recognition in Brazil

The rights of domestic workers have recently been at the centre of public debate in Brazil, with issues such as prejudice, the remnants of an ideology of slavery and mistreatment of workers being discussed openly in the media. In this post, Louisa Acciari argues that the intersection of gender, race and class in the Brazilian context works to devalue domestic workers, positioning them as unskilled cheap labour

A compulsory heteronormative university? The regulation of sexualities and identities in the UK higher education system

It is often believed that universities are open and progressive places where everyone can and express themselves. However, several studies highlight the ongoing discriminations against oppressed groups such as women, Black and LGBT people. The particular experience of LGBT students is quite difficult to capture as there is no consistent data collection and monitoring. It also represents an epistemological challenge around the use of the category ‘LGBT’. By using it as opposed to ‘heterosexuality’ we risk reinforcing the idea that one is the norm while the other represents the deviation (Phellas 2012)

Women have nothing to be forgiven for

The Pope’s recent declaration regarding abortion could be seen as hopeful news for women and those that can experience pregnancy, and was acclaimed by some as a radical turn. By allowing priests to “absolve the sin of abortion”, the Pope seems to be willing to open a space for dialogue within religious institutions and to progressively adapt official dogma to the lived experiences of Catholic people. However, his declaration was received with some scepticism in liberal circles, including by Catholics for the Right to Choose. Indeed, one could wonder, what exactly should women be forgiven for

Impressions from Brazil: The international day of everything but women’s rights

Our own Louisa Acciari has written up her impressions and analysis from International Women’s Day in Brazil. We are pleased to share her account of the march for women’s rights in São Paulo amidst political tensions in the country

Domestic Worker Organizing in Neo-Authoritarian Brazil

Brazil is a country marked by historically rooted social, political, and economic inequalities. These are linked primarily to the centuries-long legacy of slavery—over five million slaves were trafficked to Brazil from 1501 to 1866,1 over five times the number brought to the United States before 1865—and to the dependent form of capitalist development adopted by national elites. In 1888, Brazil was the last country to formally abolish slavery, although historians debate the continuum between enslaved and “free” forms of work during the post-abolition period.2 As an emblematic example of the legacy of slavery, the 1943 Labor Code deliberately excluded from its scope the two sectors with the largest share of Afro-Brazilian descendants of enslaved people: rural workers and domestic workers. In recent years, neoliberal reforms have exacerbated these inequalities, with the implementation of drastic public spending freezes, the promotion of micro-entrepreneurship at the expense of formal-sector jobs, and a labor reform adopted in 2017 that severely debilitated workers’ rights. The 2017 reforma trabalhista is infamous for expanding outsourcing, ending unions’ core source of funding, authorizing precarious forms of contracting such as part-time and temporary work, and weakening workers’ access to labor justice courts.3 This drastic erosion of workers’ rights has been further exacerbated in the context of the pandemic crisis, and there have been significant increases in modern forms of slave labor in some economic activities, such as domestic work. This article looks at union organizing in this neoliberal regime from “the margins.” It assesses the effects of the 2017 labor reform, from the perspective of one of the most precarious and excluded sectors: domestic workers. It shows that despite structural and long-standing inequalities, this category of workers has heightened its organizational capacity in a moment when most of the union movement was put on the defensive. While many protected segments of the workforce are facing important losses, leading to an unprecedented decline in unionization rates, domestic workers are utilizing their already existing survival and resistance strategies to strengthen their movement

Paradoxes of subaltern politics: Brazilian domestic workers’ mobilisations to become workers and decolonise labour

This thesis investigates the possibilities and forms of subaltern politics through an empirical study of Brazilian domestic workers’ mobilisations. Domestic work, often described as a legacy of slavery in Brazil, is characterised by the intersection of gender, race and class matrices of oppression, which makes domestic workers a subaltern group. As a result of their subaltern status and characterisation as ‘non-standard’ workers they are expected to be harder, or even impossible, to organise and represent. Yet, Brazilian domestic workers have been organising since 1936; they formed their own autonomous trade unions, and won partial recognition in 2015 when the Brazilian Congress approved a law extending basic labour rights to them. Thus, my thesis examines how this subaltern group has been able to organise, and argues that instead of considering subalternity as an impediment to collective action it should be understood as a potential resource for mobilisation. I have identified three paradoxes of subaltern politics. First, I show how the professional identity ‘domestic worker’ is both necessary for political recognition in the Brazilian corporatist state, but also rejected, as it re-inscribes domestic workers into the raced-gendered power relations they want to challenge. Furthermore, I find that while the intersecting nature of their oppression is what has constructed domestic workers as a subaltern group, it has also enabled the formation of broad-based alliances with women, black and workers’ movements, thereby turning subalternity into a resource for collective action. Finally, domestic workers have used their perceived vulnerability to force recognition from the Brazilian state, yet, this has led to a paternalistic mode of recognition and a certain demobilisation of the domestic workers’ local unions. As domestic workers gained partial recognition as workers, they were also forced into an industrial relations model that did little to respond to the complex and multi-sided forms of oppressions they face, posing new challenges to their modes of organising

Interview with Patricia Hill Collins

No dia 29 de outubro de 2019, um grupo de intelectuais se reuniu no Departamento de Sociologia da usp, sob iniciativa do editor da Tempo Social, para entrevistar Patricia Hill Collins, intelectual norte-americana internacionalmente reconhecida, que abriu novas perspectivas para o pensamento feminista negro como teoria social crítica. O ponto de partida foi o novo livro de Collins, intitulado Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory (Interseccionalidade como Teoria Social Crítica), em que ela explora os paralelos entre os desafios enfrentados pelos ativistas intelectuais que criaram o conceito de interseccionalidade e os que estão colocados pelo presente. Durante a conversa, outros temas surgiram, explorando a agenda de pesquisa da Autora e seus livros anteriores, assim como os novos desafios para os estudos sobre relações raciais e a militância antirracista.El 29 de octubre de 2019, un grupo de intelectuales se reunió en el Departamento de Sociología de la USP, por iniciativa de Tempo Social, para entrevistar a Patricia Hill Collins, intelectual estadounidense de renombre internacional, quien abrió nuevas perspectivas para la El pensamiento feminista negro como teoría social crítica. La entrevista comenzó con el nuevo libro que había publicado el autor, titulado Interseccionalidad como teoría social crítica. En él Patricia Collins busca explorar los paralelismos entre los desafíos que enfrentaron aquellos activistas-intelectuales que contribuyeron al surgimiento de la noción de interseccionalidad, y esos nuevos desafíos que enfrentamos hoy. A lo largo de la conversación, se exploraron otros temas, que surgen tanto de la agenda de la autora como de sus libros anteriores, así como de los desafíos que enfrentan los estudiosos de las desigualdades raciales y los activistas antirracistas.  Le 29 octobre 2019, un groupe d'intellectuels s'est réuni au département de sociologie de l'USP, à l'initiative de l'éditeur Tempo Social, pour un entretien avec Patricia Hill Collins, une intellectuelle américaine de renommée internationale, qui a ouvert de nouvelles perspectives à la pensée féministe noire, en tant que théorie sociale critique. Le point de départ était le nouveau livre de Collins, intitulé Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, où elle explore les parallèles entre les défis auxquels sont confrontés ces militants-intellectuels qui ont developpé la notion d'intersectionnalité, et les nouveaux défis auxquels sont confrontés aujourd'hui. Au cours de la conversation, d'autres thèmes ont émergé, explorant le programme de recherche de l'auteur et ses livres précédents, ainsi que les défis actuels pour les études sur les relations raciales et pour le militantisme antiraciste.  On October 29, 2019, a group of intellectuals met at the Sociology Department of usp, at the initiative of the Tempo Social editor, for an interview with Patricia Hill Collins, an internationally renowned American intellectual, who opened new perspectives for Black feminist thought, as a critical social theory. The departure point was Collins new book, entitled Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory, where she explores the parallels between the challenges faced by those activists-intellectuals who coined the notion of intersectionality, and the new challenges faced today. During the conversation, other themes emerged, exploring the author’s research agenda and her previous books, as well as the current challenges for the studies on racial relations and for the anti-racist militance