No Longer Part of the Family: Domestic Workers at Brazil's National Constituent Assembly, 1987–1988

Abstract In this article, I analyze how the Brazilian domestic workers’ movement lobbied the National Constituent Assembly (Assembleia Nacional Constituinte) to be granted the full slate of labor rights afforded to formally employed workers in the 1988 constitution, the crowning achievement of the country's transition to democracy after 21 years of military rule. While their efforts were only partially successful, I contend that their participation in the groundswell of popular mobilizations that defined the constituent process both sealed their status as a formidable social movement and solidified ties with mainline feminists, Afro-Brazilian organizations, and labor unions. Furthermore, I examine how the participation of domestic workers in the Constituent Assembly, alongside allies from a variety of insurgent social movements, exposed long-standing patterns of racism, sexism, and classism in how Brazilian elites regarded domestic work, in particular the trope that the domestic worker is a member of the family that employs her.