44

Domestic employment of women at the interface between the public and private spheres (São Paulo - Brazil) The aim of this article is to analyse the recent changes in the social and sexual division of labour in a popular urban area in Brazil (São Paulo), approached from the point of view of domestic employment, a sector that reveals new relations and links between public and private spheres. In an ambiguous situation of recent democratic opening and of sustenance, or even reinforcement, of old social and sexual inequalities in the context of globalization, the Author studies the changes in the conditions in which this work is exercised and the meaning of this activity. The starting-points are social, professional and geographical paths of domestic employees and their families.