Anatomy of a Century Long Injustice: The Estado Novo and Domestic Labor in Brazil

Abstract This article seeks to reassess the political process that led to the exclusion of domestic workers from the 1943 Brazilian labor legislation known as the CLT. The public debate about the juridical condition of this vast labor category, in which poor and black women predominated, began in the 1933-1934 Constituent Assembly and dragged on for the following decade. Several political actors interfered in this debate. For the feminist activists linked to the Brazilian Federation for Women’s Progress, the outcome of the controversy represented one of many defeats it suffered during the so-called Estado Novo, although the defense of domestic workers had never been a priority among its members. The outcome of the clash of opinions about this subject guided public policies for this group of workers in the decades following Vargas’ fall from power in 1945.