Female work and precarization: between clothing and mismatch with the Law

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate how gender representations are reflected in work arrangements, in order to lead women primarily to informality. It starts with a theoretical investigation about the effects of the productive restructuring process and flexibilization in the precariousness of female work, which approximates outsourcing and informality in the textile sector chains. From the garment industry in São Paulo to the jeans industry in Toritama, there is a reproduction of the sexual division of labor and a tendency towards social lack of protection, softened by the discourse of the new entrepreneurship. Through the analysis of jurisprudence decisions, it is possible to perceive the appropriation of a rhetoric by the judges that exempts the contracting companies from any liability, relegating the seamstress to a supposedly autonomous job, in extremely precarious and unprotected conditions. Thus, it ends up reflecting on the role of the Judiciary in shaping informal work and the absence of judgment from a gender perspective.