Transgenerationality of the gender role and female condition between mother and daughter

reflections on unpaid domestic work

Abstract

The objective of this study is to uncover the relation between gender role, female condition and unpaid domestic work with transgenerationality as a cultural heritage, investigating the linkage of this social “heredity” with regard to unpaid domestic work. Unpaid domestic work is questioned as a social fact linked to the life of women, discussing it from the emergence of the sexual division of labor, the patriarchy’s action with capitalism in modern class society, and the various modern family arrangements. It is also possible that this linkage can be understood as the habitus, from the idea that intangible assets can be accumulated and transmitted inter and transgenerationally. Finally, the database collected by the research “Gender, work and family in Rio de Janeiro - changes and permanences in the last decade” was used to demonstrate empirically this transgenerationality. The results indicate that the fact that the mother works outside home while the daughter is a child influences the daughter to work outside, and that the educational level of the daughter is always greater than that of the mother.