Women's Labor Force Participation in a Developing Society: The Case of Brazil Vasques de Miranda, Glaura Signs; Fall 1977;

3, 1; ProQuest pg. 261

WOMEN, EDUCATION, AND LABOR

FORCE PARTICIPATION

Women's Labor Force Participation in

a Developing Society: The Case of
Brazil

Glaura Vasques de Miranda

In any society, female labor force partlclpation is contingent on both

cultural and economic conditions. During the process of dependent
capitalist developrnent, rising levels of unemployment and underem-
ployment may be expected to occur simultaneously and to affect
women's participation in the labor force more than men's. This
phenomenon, while reinforced by the traditional domestic roles wornen
are expected to perform, depends on the capacity of the productive
system to absorb the excess labor. In Brazil, a society where violent
economic development is occurring in a context of capitalism and
dependency,1 female labor has traditionally been used in special crisis
situations as a means of reducing the costs of production and as seasonal
labor, especially in commercial agricultural production. 2 Since the
female's wage is considered complementary to the male's, women re-
ceive lower wages than men for similar work. 3 Because of their passivity
m the labor relation, which prevents them from improving their bar-
The author is grateful to Shery K. Girling for her comments in the first draft of this
paper, and to the Ford Foundation, CNRH, and FIBGE for their support in the present
research.
1. F. Henrique Cardoso, Dependency Revised, Hackett Memorial Lecture (Austin: Insti-
tute of Latin American Studies, 1973).
2. Because of a lack of man power for the construction in 1973, women in Brasilia
were used as a substitute for unskilled labor. As soon as the situation normalized, however,
women were fired.
3. In all Brazilian regions women have a mean salary which is three times lower than
that of men (see G. V. Miranda, "The Brazilian Woman: A Case of Earnings Discrimina-
tion," Lacdes News/etter, vol. 2, no. 3 [June 1973]).

261

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 262 Glaura de Miranda

gaining position, women's wage labor is particularly suitable to capl-

talists. 4
The evolution of women's labor force partlclpation in Brazil, ac-
cording to Madeira and Singer, has occurred in different phases. 5 At the
beginning of industrialization, when agriculture is still a major source of
employment and commerce or manufacturing is limited to domestic
circles, women are weIl integrated in the work force because their work
can be easily reconciled with domestic responsibilities. 6 During the sec-
ond phase, however, economic development reduces women's participa-
tion in productive activities. As the structure of the rural economy be-
comes more capitalized and commercialized, men take the place of
women on large farms and the total number of both male and female
workers decreases. Moreover, when industrialization occurs women lose
their central role in handicrafts production, wh ich had the family as the
central productive unit. As the family ceases to be the economic center,
the domestic and economic functions are divided between sexes, and this
leads to the economic independence of men and the economic depen-
dence of women. 7 The removal of women from horne to factories
creates objective obstacles (the need to take care of domestic tasks) and
subjective ones as weIl (prejudices against women's labor outside the
home).8 Technological change-the introduction of different tools and
mechanization-tends to encourage male labor rather than female. 9
Even when they are employed in specialized occupations outside the
horne, women tend to fill the lower ranks, receive lower wages, and have
fewer opportunities for training and promotion than men. The move-
ment to urban centers does not necessarily mean improvement in the
social condition of migrants, but to the contrary economic marginaliza-
tion in an environment which cannot absorb their labor at all or can

4. Marianne Schmink, "Dependent Development and the Division of Labor by Sex:

Venezuela" (paper presented in the Fifth National Meeting ofthe Latin American Studies
Association, San Francisco, November 1974).
5. F. R. Madeira and P. Singer, "Structure of Female Participation and Work in
Brazil, 1920-1970," Journal of lnteramerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 17, no. 4
(November 1975).
6. Adolfo Gurrieri et al., Estudios sohre la juventud marginal latinoamericana (Mexico:
Siglo Veintuno Editores, 1971).
7. Heleieth I. B. Saffioti, A mulher na sociedade de classes: Mito e realidade (So Paulo:
Livraria Quatro Artes Editoria, 1969).
8. Madeira and Singer.
9. In Carmen Diana Deere's opinion, "New techniques based primarily on know how,
such as application of fertilizer or the use of improved seed varieties, obviously do not
carry an inherent sex designation for utilization. But to a certain degree, the acceptance
and use of improved agricultural methods do depend on education. And unequal educa-
tion for the sexes, with primarily boys sent to school or boys remaining longer in school
than girls, creates an ever widening gap between the sexes" ("The Division of Labor by Sex
in Agriculture: Peasant Women's Subsistence Production on the Minifundios" [Ph.D. re-
search essay, University of California, Berkeley, 1975)).

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 Brazilian Women's Labor Force Participation 263

ab so rb it only at low levels of productivity and low wages. 10 And it is

women who are usually employed in the very low productivity occupa-
tions. Thus women, more than men, are concentrated in the tertiary
sectorY Dependent capitalist economic development does not, then,
improve (he level ofwomen's labor force participation, nor does it mean
equal participation with men.

The Case of Brazil: 1940-70

From 1940 to 1970 the total labor force participation compared to
the total adult populatiOI~ (persons ten years old or more) dropped
slightly in Brazil (see table 1).12 There was little expansion in the female
labor force participation during this period (.04), which was not able to
compensate for the reduction within the male labor force (.09). Male
employment grew 22 percent from 1940 to 1950, and 96 percent in toto
from 1940 to 1970, while female employment fell 10 percent from 1940
to 1950, but increased 120 percent in toto from 1940 to 1970 (see table
2). The ratio of employed men to women has varied in the period
1940-70. In 1950, there was an increase in the ratio (5.8:1), but after
that there was a declining trend. In 1970 there were 3.8 men in the labor
force for each woman. More specifically, there was a reduction in the
proportion of men to women in the primary and tertiary sectors, but in
the secondary sector the proportion increased during this period of

Table 1

Ratio of Labor Force Participation over the Total Population

Ten Years of Age or More

1940 1950 1960 1970

Total ............. .51 .47 .46 .45

Men ............. .83 .81 .77 .72
Women .......... .19 .14 .16 .18
SOuRcE.-Tabulll{es Avanq,das do Censo De1TUJgrafico: Resultados ComparativoJ,
table 5, p. 29.

10. See Anibal D. Quijano, "Dependencia, cambio social y urbanizaci6n in Latino

America," in Latino America: Ensaios de interpretacion sociologico-politicas, ed. F. H. Cardoso
and F. H. Weffort (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1970).
11. Traditionally the labor market is divided into three sectors: primary, secondary,
and tertiary. The primary sector comprises not only agrarian activities but extractive
activities as weil. But because women are concentrated almost exclusively in agricultural
activities I am using the terms primary and agriculture interchangeably.
12. There are several reasons for this reduction: the prohibiting of employment for
persons under fourteen years old; the expansion of the education, especially in urban
centers; and changes in social security legislation and retirement plans, which lead to the
retirement of older persons.

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 264 Glaura de M iranda

Table 2

Evolution of Labor Force Participation by Economic Sectors and Sex (in Millions)

1940 1950 1970

Economic sectors Men Women Men Women Men Women

Primary ................... 8.416 l.311 9.496 .758 1l.836 1.258

(100) (100) (113) ( 58) (141) ( 96)
Secondary ................. 1.220 .298 l.955 .392 4.660 .636
(100) (100) (160) (132) (382) (214)
Tertiary ................... 2.231 l.180 3.141 l.340 6.348 4.110
(100) (100) (141 ) (114) (285) (348)

Total .................... 1l.959 2.800 14.610 2.508 23.392 6.165

(100) (100) (122) ( 90) (196) (220)

SoURcE.-Demographic Census of Brazilian Population. 1940, 1950, and 1970.

NOTE.-Numbers in parenthesis are indexes of growth.

rapid industrialization. Industrial development does not, then, necessar-

ily lead to higher participation ofwomen in secondary activities; rather it
would seem to push women out of handicraft production.
As table 2 further suggests, there was a decrease in the number of
women employed in agriculture from 1940 to 1950 and a 13 percent
increase in the number of men. Indeed, whereas in 1940, 47 percent of
all women workers were concentrated in the primary sector, in 1970 that
figure declined to 20 percent. Some authors attribute the reduction of
women in agriculture to the different criteria used to classify women's
labor in rural areas in different censuses, especially that of 1940. 13
Those who consider the data correct argue that women's participation in
the labor force depends on reconciling domestic and economic activities
and that in the family type of rural productive organization this recon-
ciliation was possible,14 However, with the growth of both large- and
small-scale holdings,15 the domestic agricultural production of women
becomes marginal and they are not absorbed in machine-intensive
large-scale modern agricultural production.
In 1940, similar percentages of men and women workers, 10 per-
cent and 11 percent, respectively, were employed in the secondary sector
(see table 3). In 1950, the percentage of women increased relative to that
of men (16 percent to 13 percent) because a large proportion of indus-
trialized manufacturing, such as textiles, was considered "female work."
13. See Manoel A. Costa.Aspectos demognificos da populacao economicamente ativa (Rio de
Janeiro: IPEA. 1968).
14. In "Algunos aspectos della actividade economica de la mujer in Latino America"
(Santiago de Chile: CELADE. 1963), Pesephus van den Boomen tested the hypothesis that
so long as the count ries are predominantly rural a higher women's participation could be
expected. However. the census data did not allow hirn to prove his hypothesis.
15. Madeira and Singer showed that the number of both extremes of landholdings
increased during this century.

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 Brazilian Women's Labor Force Participation 265

Table 3

Relative Distribution of the Labor Force, by Econornic

Sector and Sex (%)

Econornic Sector

Year and Sex Prirnary Secondary Tertiary

1940:
Men ........... 70 10 20
Wornen ........ 47 11 43
1950:
Men ........... 65 13 22
Wornen ........ 30 16 54
1970:
Men ........... 51 20 29
Wornen ........ 20 10 70

SoVRCE.-Demographic Censlis 01" Brazilian Population, 1940, 1950, and

1970.

After 1950, however, industrial development expanded into other areas,

and by 1970 more men than women (20 percent to 10 percent) were
employed in the secondary sector.

A Regional Analysis by Sector

The process of development does not affect all regions of a country

such as Brazil in a homogenous way. Thus female labor force participa-
tion rates vary considerably according to the stage of development of a
particular region (see table 4), While the most developed region (South-

Table 4

Wornen's Participation in the Labor Force Cornpared with

Fernale Population Ten Years of Age or More, by Region

Stage of Developrnent
and Region 1940 1950 1970

Developed:
Southeast B .............. 2l.2 19.4 22.8
Interrnediate:
Subtotal ................. 16.4 11.2 17.2
South ................... 19.1 13.5 19.4
Southeast A .............. 15.0 10.2 15.6
Middle-West ............. 11.8 4.8 13.6
Underdeveloped:
Subtotal ................. 20.3 11.5 16.1
North ................... 2l.5 11.3 14.2
Northeast ................ 20.1 11.6 16.3
SouRcE.-Demographic Census of Brazilian Population. 1940, 1950, and
1970.

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 266 Glaura de Miranda

east B) shows the highest level of participation in all three census years,
the intermediate region had the lowest level of participation in 1940,
and the middle level in 1970 (17.2). The underdeveloped region, which
had levels almost similar to the most developed region in 1940, could not
sustain that rate of participation in 1970. Within the broad category of
intermediate development, the Southeast A and the Middle-West re-
gions showed lower levels of participation in the three census years,
which indicates a slow rate of industrial development, as compared with
the South. The Middle-West had a very large percentage increase in
1970 over 1950 (8.8 percent), because of the move of the federal capital
to Brasilia, but it still has the lowest rate of participation (13.6 percent).
Women's employment in the agricultural sector is inversely related
to regional development (see table 5). Whereas in 1940, 33 percent of
the women in the developed region were in rural labor, in the inter-
mediate region 50 percent of them were, and in the less developed, 55
percent. Regional variations in the forms of agrarian production and
patterns of landholdings always existed in Brazil. For example, in the
sugar plantations of the Northeast, pe asants worked for the landowner
in exchange for plots of land which they cultivated for personal con-
sumption. This type of latifundia system has persisted in the less de-
veloped regions, where agricultural technology is almost primitive. 16 In
these areas, therefore, there is a high percentage of women in agricul-
ture. In the Southeast and South, where commercial agriculture such as
coffee plantations dominated, women had fewer opportunities to work
Table 5

Percentage of Female Labor Force Participation, by Economic

Sector, Region, and Census Year

Stage of Regional Economic Sec tor

Development and
Census Year Primary Secondary Tertiary

Development:
1940 ................. 33 14 53
1950 ................. 18 24 59
1970 ................. 5 17 78
Intermediate:
1940 ................. 50 7 44
1950 ................. 33 10 58
1970 ................. 24 6 70
U nderdeveloped:
1940 ................. 55 11 35
1950 ................. 43 11 46
1970 ................. 36 7 57
SoURCE.-Demographic Census 01" Brazilian Population. 1940. 1950, and 1970.

16, Juarez R. Brandao Lopes, "Capitalist Development and Agrarian Structure in

Brazil" (paper presented at the International Conference on Sociology of Urban and
Regional Development, Sicilia, April 1976), p, 4.

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 Brazilian W omen's Labor Force Participation 267

as permanent laborers; they were used mainly as a seasonallabor supply.

However, they could continue subsistence farming on the plots received
by the colonos. At a later stage, when the agriculture of the region became
even more capitalized and commercialized, there was a drastic proletari-
anization of the labor force, and moradores and colonos were replaced by
pure wage earners who were given no land. 17 Although mechanization
reduced employment for all workers, the change continues to affect
women more than men: "Beginning in 1966/68 mass dismissals of per-
manent workers of the fazendas took place, all over the regions; these
displaced ex-colonos formed new rural barrios or settled in the
periphery of towns where gang-labor could be recruited for the tempo-
rary jobs in the plantations of the region, being transported by trucks
from one place to another, just when and where labor was needed. A
purer rural proletariat than the colono had made its appearance and an
industrial reserve army, in the strict sense of the term, had been
formed."18 A typical case of underemployment, and an extreme case of
exploitation of the labor force, these workers have no fixed jobs and are
paid by intermediaries, who literally "auction" them. But women have
fewer opportunities to find this wage labor, and the few who do work are
even more exploited than men, since the intermediaries subtract a larger
amount from their wages. 19 Moreover, and as often happens in the
development process in large holdings which tend to become more
specialized in commercial production, men take the place ofwomen. 20
The secondary sector concentrates in the already more developed
regions, and thus intensifies the uneven development of BraziI. In 1940
the largest concentration of female labor within the industrial sector (14
percent) occurred in the developed region of BraziI. The larger percent-
age in the less developed regions (11 percent), as compared with the
intermediate regions (7 percent), seems to indicate that industrial de-
velopment does not always lead to higher female participation in the
labor force. Now in the second stage of development, according to
Singer,21 the vast majority of prod uctive units of the secondary sector are
made up of handicrafts workshops, many of which simultaneously pro-
duce and repair goods. Many women did this work at horne in combina-
tion with domestic tasks or were employed through the putting-out sys-
tem of the textile industry in the Northeast. Thus a less developed re-
gion could exhibit higher levels of fe male labor force participation.
In the tertiary sector, a complex of very diversified activities, we can

17. Ibid., p. 1.
18. Ibid., pp. 7-8.
19. See Verena Martinez Allier, "As mulheres do caminho de turma," Debate e critica,
no.5 (March 1975).
20. Madeira and Singer.
21. See P. Singer, "Forc;:a de trabalho e emprego no Brasil: 1920/69," Cadernos de
pesquisa, no. 3 (So Paulo: CEBRAP, 1970).

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 268 Glaura de Miranda

distinguish between productive actlvltles and consurnption activities

(production services, collective consurn ption, and private
consurnption).22 This criterion allows us to evaluate the proportion of
wornen ernployed in the lower productivity subsectors. Between 1940
and 1970 there was an increase in all the categories included in table 6.
As developrnent occurs, wornen's labor tends to concentrate in the
category of personal services, which resernbles wornen's traditional ac-
tivities in the horne. In the other categories it is possible to observe sorne
increase in wornen's labor force participation, especially in collective
consurnption and professional activities in the developed regions. 23 This
increase is probably due to the expansion of the educational system,
which ernploys a large nurnber of wornen as prirnary school teachers,
and the expansion of civil service activities, especially in bureaucratic
services, w here wornen are willing to work for lower salaries and are
generally more stable ernployees than rnen.

The Conditions of Women of Different Social Classes

Although it is clear that econornic developrnent does not necessarily

rnean higher levels of wornen's participation in the labor force, it is not
clear how this process specifically affects wornen of different social class-
es. A cornparison between two distinct groups of wornen-rnarried
wornen frorn fifteen to sixty-five years of age living with their husbands,
and single wornen in the same age group living with their parents
-reveals significant differences as to the effect of developrnent on dif-
ferent social groups (see table 7). This subset ofwornen in the labor force
that represents 75 percent of the two groups constitutes a female popu-
lation fifteen to sixty-five years of age. Three subsets are rnissing: wornen
separated frorn their husbands and widows, who represent 3.4 percent
and 8.8 percent of the total population, respectively, and single wornen
living by thernselves, who represent 39.4 percent of all single wornen.
The level of participation of the subsets excluded (40 percent) is higher
than the subsets included in this study (14.6 percent) because most
wornen who live by thernselves rnust work. Using disaggregated census
data on our sampIe we can analyze such variables as region of the coun-

22. Singer. Production services comprise occupations in commerce of goods, real

estate, stocks, credit, etc., transportation, communication, and storage. Consumption is
subdivided into private and collective consumption services. The lauer include public
administration, social activities, education, health, and social security. Private consump-
tion, on the other hand, is also subdivided into personal services and professional services.
23. This increase in the liberal professions is assumed to be largely positive for the
improvement of women's social status, while an increase in activities of personal services is
assumed to be negative, since this category represents marginal occupations such as
domestic service.

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rJrJ
o 0
"0"0
~~
'"i '"i
riQ" riQ"
=-=-
........
~~

'"tj~'"
'-' '-'

2.
~
Q
(H
Table 6
t'> '":I
;;!

'"i
0 Percentage of Female Labor Force Participation in the Tertiary Economic Sector, by Region and Year
q,o
=
o...,t'> Private Consumption
rJ~
..=-'""'
~ :;0
= Stage of Development Collective Personal
~ '"i and Year Productive Consumption Professional Services Others Total
o 3
'":I~
;:: g. Developed:
~ =
~
1940 ................. 4.1 7.5 0.5 40.3 0.4 52.8
=
Cl.
1950 .................
1970 .................
6.7
11.3
12.9
18.8
0.8
1.6
37.9
43.5
0.3
2.8
58.6
78.0
rt'> Intermediate :
~
'"i 1940 ................. 2.0 5.7 0.3 35.1 0.4 43.5
=
S' 1950 ................. 4.7 12.3 0.5 39.6 0.4 57.5
~
1970 ................. 7.0 21.0 0.9 39.0 2.4 70.3
rJ
o Underdeveloped:
3 1940 ................. 1.7 2.7 0.2 29.7 0.4 34.7
"0
~ 1950 ................. 3.8 7.8 0.4 33.4 0.3 45.7
=
~ 1970 ................. 5.9 15.6 0.4 32.2 2.7 56.8
Brazil:
1940 ................. 2.5 5.0 0.3 34.4 0.4 42.6
1950 ................. 5.2 1l.l 0.6 36.9 0.3 54.1
1970 ................. 8.3 18.7 1.0 38.9 2.6 69.5
SouRcE.-Demographic Census 01 Brazilian Population. 1940. 1950. and 1970.
 270 Glaura de Miranda

Table 7

Labor Force Participation Rates, by Levels of Schooling and Marital Status

Married Women, Single Women Living

Husband Present with Parents

Labor Force Population Labor Force Population

Level of Schooling (%) (%) (%) (%)

IIIiterates .................. 6.35 39.57 19.71 19.82

Elementary incomplete ..... 7.20 32.01 23.96 29.23
Elementary complete ....... 12.08 21.93 29.66 36.08
Lower secondary ........... 21.44 2.97 24.35 8.94
Higher secondary .......... 49.38 2.88 64.69 4.22
University incomplete ....... 54.25 0.13 43.44 1.08
University complete ........ 65.82 0.51 77.17 0.63

All levels ................ 9.93 100.00 27.48 100.00

SOt:RcE.~Demographic Census of Brazilian Population, 1970, data aggregated by 3uthor.

try, level of schooling, age, occupation, and socioeconornic status (SES)

(see table 8).
As table 8 suggests, the rates of labor force participation increase
with the level of schooling for both single and rnarried wornen. Arnong
illiterates only 6.4 percent of rnarried wornen and 19.7 percent of single
wornen work, as cornpared to 65.8 percent of rnarried and 77.2 percent
of single wornen with university education. Participation differences by
marital status are larger in the lower levels of schooling; in the higher
levels, differences tend to dirninish, perhaps because married wornen
have dornestic help for household and child-care activities. Low SES
wornen earn low salaries which do not cover the costs for the unpaid
work they do in the horne; only when the salary covers this cost can these
wornen enter the labor rnarket. Since less than 1 percent of wornen had
completed university studies in 1970, the proportional rise in participa-
tion arnong these wornen has not affected the overall wornen's labor
force participation. Indeed, the opportunities for higher education are
not great in Brazil; very few wornen (6.5 percent married and 14.8
percent single) have attended more than elernentary schooI.
Schooling is clearly related to socioeconornic status. Higher levels of
parents' schooling, higher farnily incorne, and higher occupational at-
tainrnent all favor schooling attainrnent (see table 9). While married
wornen of low SES have only 2.2 years of schooling, wornen of higher
social dass have 10.7 years of schooling. The difference is less accen-
tuated for single wornen, because they are younger than rnarried wornen
(twenty-one versus thirty-five years old, rnean age) and have thus had
more opportunities to profit frorn the considerable expansion of the
Brazilian educational system in the past few years.
If education leads wornen to higher levels of participation, and edu-

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 (")(")
c C
'0'0
... ...
~~

ciS' ciS'
......
=- =-
~~

~~
e= QN
~. Q
~ (;J

~
CI>
"='
... Table 8
=.- 0
~,o
C
...,~ = Distribution of So me Occupations of Women in 1970, by Marital Status and Socioeconomic Status
(")~
;:;.=- =
= Q'
... Married Women, Husband Present Single Women Living with Parents
~
c
...3
Socioeconomic Status (%) Mean Socioeconomic Status (%) Mean
..."='=...
~ ~. Years of Years of
CI'
CI> =
C

=
Occupation Low Middle High Schooling Low Middle High Schooling
=
Q..
Farm laborer ................. 33.75 1.86 0.03 1.42 28.68 6.25 2.27
r
~ Domestic maid ................ 9.45 1.66 0.03 1.87 2.13 1.07 0.60 3.28
= Industrial worker ............. 17.51 11.65 0.97 3.19 14.09 8.89 2.21 4.03
~
S' Others ....................... 24.81 19.64 14.26 3.91 30.46 18.78 16.02 4.21
~ Commerical worker ........... 3.15 5.86 6.07 5.34
1.52 4.20 9.17 1.98
(")
c Personal services .............. 0.63 2.60 0.10 4.58 0.92 1.38 0.27 5.15
3 Nurses ....................... 1.51 4.06 1.81 5.83 1.49 1.82 0.23 5.65
'0
= Clerical worker ................ 1.64 15.38 15.97 7.79 8.13 24.66 34.01 7.92
=
~ Elementary teacher ............ 6.80 31.96 38.17 9.14 6.96 23.08 29.59 9.43
Secondary teacher ............. 0.63 4.26 17.04 11.42 0.78 3.56 10.91 11.94
Professional worker ........... 0.13 1.07 10.10 13.71 0.28 1.34 4.19 13.28
SOt:RCE.-Demographic Census of Brazilian Population, 1970, da ta aggregated by author.
 272 Glaura de Miranda

Table 9

Labor Force Participation by Marital Status and Socioeconomic Status

Marital Status and Labor Force Mean Years Population

Socioeconomic Status (%) of Schooling Mean Age (%)

Married women, husband

present:
Low ..................... 7.94 2.24 35.17 78.29
Middle .................. 15.02 5.54 34.07 18.92
High .................... 30.99 10.72 35.76 2.80
Single women, living with
parents:
Low ..................... 28.18 4.28 20.84 78.68
Middle .................. 25.30 7.67 20.89 18.85
High .................... 21.73 9.77 21.24 2.47
SoL'RCE_-Demographic Census 01' Brazilian Population, 1970, data aggregated by autho .....

cation depends on socioeconornic status, then labor force partici pation is

also affected by socioeconornic status, through education. As table 9
dernonstrates, wornen of higher SES are four tirnes more likely to work
than wornen of lower SES. Over and beyond higher levels of schooling,
wornen of higher SES have better opportunities to find jobs because of
their social contacts. Although rnarried wornen of low SES should
theoretically be more inclined to work, since they probably need to corn-
plernent their husband's low salary, the fact rernains that their level of
participation is 7.9 percent lower than wornen of the other classes. It is
possible that these wornen have difficulty finding jobs cornpatible with
their dornestic responsibilities. By cornparison, more lower SES single
wornen work than higher ones, again because of their extended school-
mg.
Table 8 shows that wornen of different social classes have different
occupational opportunities. Here, the pattern for rnarried and single
wornen differs in only a few cases. Farm laborers, industrial workers,
dornestic servants, and wornen in "other" occupations are predorni-
nantly frorn lower SES. Cornrnercial workers, personal services workers,
and nurses are typically frorn rniddle SES, while elernentary teachers
and professional workers are predorninantly frorn higher SES. Elernen-
tary teaching continues to be a predorninantly female activity for wornen
of rniddle and higher social classes, married or not. Elernentary teachers
include 38 percent of all rnarried wornen of higher SES who work, as
cornpared to 16 percent in clinical work. The nurnber of single wornen
who are prirnary teachers has been declining; only 30 percent of wornen
of higher SES are so ernployed. Overall, however, rnany wornen con-
tinue to work as prirnary teachers, despite low salaries, because of short
hours, job stability, legislative protection, long vacations, and because it
has been traditionally considered appropriate for wornen.

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 Brazilian Women's Labor Force Participation 273

Industrialization increases bureaucratic and clerical activities for

women. However, these occupations remain predominantly limited to
single women of higher (34 percent) and middle SES (25 percent).
Among married women the percentage of clerical workers is smaller
than in the corresponding SES group of single women. This reflects
discrimination in the labor market against married women; some
Brazilian banks, for example, hire younger females only on condition
that they agree in writing to resign when they marry.
Domestic service ranks high among the occupations of married
women of lower SES (9.45 percent) and low among those of single
women. Of course if all women were considered in the sam pie, the
number of domestic servants might have risen considerably. These oc-
cupations are growing in the cities, because of a lack of alternative em-
ployment opportunities for women. Indeed, many single women who
need housing as weIl as money might resort to this activity. A possible
consequence of the marginalization of female labor in Brazil is that the
level of unemployment among urban women remains disguised.
For Brazil, then, economic development has not led to higher
levels of women's participation in the labor market. The process of de-
pendent capitalist development is responsible not only for a lower level
of women's participation in agriculture, but also for a lower level of
absorption in urban development. However, it is not industrialization
per se that creates underemployment and marginalization, but an indus-
trial finance capital and advanced technology (intensive in capital),
which does not permit fundamental changes in the economic structure.
In Brazil, this situation is aggravated by the concentration of industrial
activities in a few regions. Unequal regional development generates dif-
ferent female participation rates in economic activity, because regions
are in different stages of development.
When agriculture was the center of economic activity, the labor
force participation ofboth males and females was high. In this sector the
female labor force continues to be high in underdeveloped areas, be-
cause the type of agricultural production favors women's activity. How-
ever, when agriculture becomes more capitalized and commercialized,
the total labor participation in this sector is reduced, and the oppor-
tunities for women to work outside the horne become limited. Thus,
female employment in agriculture is inversely related to regional de-
velopment.
Reduction in the level of participation was not limited to agricul-
ture, however. In the secondary sector, women's labor did not expand at
the same rate of total employment. The maintenance of a similar level of
participation in the two extreme years of our analysis is due to the
substitution of manufacture production for handicraft production.
Where industrial manufacture has displaced handicrafts, women are
pushed out of handicrafts without being reabsorbed into industry. Thus

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 274 Glaura de Miranda

a visible reduction takes place in female participation in the secondary

sector.
Finally, female ernployrnent in the tertiary sector increased consid-
erably with the expansion of productive and collective services in urban
centers. However, a significant part of this expansion is occurring in
occupations which are extensions of wornen's activities at horne. The
growth of occupations such as dornestic service confirrns once again that
capitalist developrnent does not always irnprove wornen's position in the
wage labor rnarket, especially that of lower-class wornen.
The analysis of labor force participation in 1970 by social dass helps
to explain the lower absorption of wornen in the wage labor rnarket.
Although rnarried wornen are less likely to work than single wornen,
more schooling increases labor force participation of both rnarried and
unrnarried wornen. However, since the rnajority of Brazilian wornen
have less than four years of schooling, schooling rnay be said to obstruct
female ernployrnent. It continues to be a privilege of few wornen, the
wornen of high SES.
Dependent capitalist econornic developrnent, therefore, does not
necessarily increase ernployrnent in the prirnary and secondary sectors
of the labor rnarket, where lower dass wornen have the educational
requirernents to work as wage laborers, And these same wornen did not
benefit frorn the expansion of the educational system. In all probability,
expansion of educational opportunities to wornen of all dasses in a later
stage of econornic developrnent will lead to an increase in job require-
rnents. Thus these wornen will continue to have relatively poor oppor-
tunities in the wage labor rnarket, unless changes in the very process of
econornic developrnent begin to facilitate the incorporation of wornen
into the labor force.

School of Education
Federal U niversity of M inas Gerias
Belo Horizonte, Brazil

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