Gender and Precarity in the Labor Court

Experiences of Women Pieceworkers in Porto Alegre (1943–1946)

Abstract

This article analyzes the experiences of women pieceworkers who sought redress through the Labor Court in Porto Alegre between 1943 and 1946, in the context of the consolidation of labor legislation in Brazil. Based on the examination of cases from the 1st Board of Conciliation and Judgment, it investigates how piece-rate payment, home-based work, and the articulation between productive and reproductive labor produced specific forms of precarity, marked by informality, income instability, and weakened labor rights. The study shows that although Brazilian labor law guaranteed certain protections to pieceworkers, such as the right to a minimum wage, these norms were frequently circumvented by employer practices that transferred production risks to workers. The trajectories analyzed demonstrate how the minimum wage was mobilized as both a legal and symbolic instrument for the recognition of employment relationships. The article also examines corporate strategies aimed at devaluing women’s work, often framed as “domestic help,” as well as the invisibilized participation of family members in production. It concludes that, despite structural asymmetries, these women acted actively, using the Labor Court as a space for negotiation and the affirmation of rights, thereby challenging the boundaries between home and factory, formality and informality.