Conciliation Between Work and Family and Individualization of Brazilian Women

The provision of care has long been a prominent theme in some public life due to cultural conceptions that define care as a matter of family and women. Socioeconomic transformations, in particular the formation of new family structures and the feminisation of employment call into question the care as a private matter, bringing to light the need for socialization of care by public institutional means. Private family care act as constraints on participation and working hours. Since it is women who take preponderantly care services in the home, the need to reconcile work and home life more influence in their lives. Public policies for child care and elderly care enables women to reduce the private care provision and therefore contributes to female autonomy. Based on these aspects, this paper aims to analyze gender inequalities in Brazil and policies of conciliation between work and family that can be used to resolve the asymmetries between men and women, and among women. Also, the paper discusses the Brazilian care policies (in context of public care policies for children and the elderly), and the relevance of these to the process of individualization of women. Based on data from the PNAD 2013, were performed descriptive statistics of hours worked, hours of domestic work and yield of labor of men and women in order to show how women are still penalized in the labor market and live asymmetrical relations inside home. Therefore, the individualization process is presented as essential to reducing gender disparities and empower women.