HEALTH, GENDER AND LABOR: AN ANALYSIS OF WOMEN WHO WORKS AS URBAN CLEANING

Abstract

Objective: To analyze how work, in its multidimensionality, affects the health of urban cleaning workers in Imperatriz - MA. Method: Cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative research with historical-dialectical materialist analysis approach. A socioeconomic questionnaire and another about the workers' health status will be made, and such data will be associated through statistical tests. It will also be applied semi-structured interview that will be analyzed through discourse analysis. Results: Most black women, with low education, income between 1 and 2 minimum wages, mostly responsible for domestic work performed at home. They presented a high prevalence of RSI / WRMSD, and other problems related to work. It was also pointed to smoking, and excessive consumption of processed foods, characteristics that interfere with health if not in the short, long term. Conclusion: Outsourcing, job insecurity, threat and insecurity due to high unemployment affect the quality of life of urban cleaning workers. In addition, there is the double, or even triple workday, which causes these women to increase their weekly workload, further increasing the deleterious effect of working conditions on their health.