The gendered (Di)‐vision of the rebellion: The public and the private in life histories of female and male union leaders, Salvador‐Bahia‐Brazil

In the 1990s in Brazil a singular type of feminism was being engendered by women in dass‐based labor unions, one that combined a feminist platform with a class project. Drawing on a 1993 case study of male and female leaders of the Bank Employees Labor Union in the city of Salvador, this article examines how these organized labor and feminist agendas were combined and explores the political and labor life histories of those involved in the labor union leadership. The gender and class analysis of labor dynamics in a country emerging from a military dictatorship to adopt a neoliberal model of political economy (both of which had severe effects on workers’ lives) challenges common models of gender based on a sharp dichotomization of the public and the private. The article also highlights ambiguities in union leaders’ discourses concerning the household worker and signals how the globalization of economies jeopardizes the project of a global feminist social movement if working class women are to be included.

Key words:

• Brazil
• Sexual division of power
• Gender and class
• Working class