# Domestic services and lack of protagonism by women in community networks

## An account of the experiences lived in the community of Marrecas

*From a gender perspective, I report my initial experience with technology and community networks in the traditional community of Marrecas and its surroundings. The reports indicate that there is great potential and interest on the part of the communities to have autonomy in the communications and facilities obtained by the quality access to the internet.I present an approach to the living and working conditions of women who find in domestic and care services an obstacle to having protagonism, time and energy to dedicate themselves to the Community Network and in personal development.*

## Getting to know the Marrecas Community

I got to know the concept of Community Networks in 2019 and collaborated with IBEBrasil in the project to expand internet access points in the Marrecas community.

Marrecas a rural district, close to the coast in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro. It is 733.10 km from São Paulo, where I live.A Community marked by slavery in sugar cane farms and Agro-sugar mills that ended their activities due to oil extraction in the Campos Basin, leaving a legacy of unattended rural workers. The residents were not trained to work on oil extraction platforms, generating the need for migration of specialized labor from the capital of Rio de Janeiro, to neighboring districts, such as the Farol de São Tomé where the heliport was installed with access to the extraction platform. In Açu, another neighboring district, the largest Industrial Port in Latin America was installed, causing various environmental and social impacts in all districts of the coastal region.

With a high degree of illiteracy, some residents work in Porto Industrial as outsourced workers with low wages, others in public services with the indication of politicians and without their labor rights.

Marrecas have no infrastructure, water is from a well, sewage is a pit, public transport is scarce. Education is guaranteed by a single school for all ages.

## The Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic brought more isolation to Marrecas. In terms of contagion, we were not notified of any fatal cases. However, financial difficulties aggravated. Vegetable and fruit producers in the region let go of the few rural workers. The self-employed as ambulant salesman, bricklayers, day laborers were forced to move to the centers, exposing themselves to contagion in informal and low-paid jobs.

The government's emergency assistance did not include the community, which, because they work informally, were not included in government records. Faced with the challenge of maintaining the support of the home, aggravated by Covid-19, we have the women who carry out the care work. This care that provides the entire structure so that paid work among family members is possible. Clean clothes, raising children, ready food, tidy house.

The Marrecas scenario reflects the structural machismo of Brazil. According to a survey by the [Brazilian Institute of Applied Economic Research, Ipea¹](https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34450), conducted in 2018, women dedicate 10 more hours to household services per week than men. Whether in handicrafts, as day laborers, housekeepers, taking care of the vegetable garden, this data reinforces another reality for women, the double workday.

Sanitary barriers prevented us from traveling to Marrecas to continue the work of the Community Network, only maintenance and emergency services are working. With the distance and since there was no time for us to have strong ties, the contacts we maintained were weakening. The women were extremely busy and lacked the energy and technical knowledge for remote meetings. With each attempt at contact we realized that it was as if we were giving orders or pestering. We chose to hold the meetings in person, when there is an end to social isolation and sanitary barriers.

## Some stories

At the end of 2019 my companion and I bought a house in Marrecas the low walls, fruit trees throughout the community, children on the street, home gardens, brought us a resignification of quality of life in relation to the urban life of the Capital Sao Paulo.

There was a situation in which one of the young women claimed never to have suffered machismo. When she signed up for one of the workshops, she didn’t show up. Arriving at her house, she told us that she would first have to do the domestic duties and then she would go to the workshop, and that the service had doubled due to the visits from cousins. The brothers and cousins, went to the workshop.

In a period prior to the purchase of the house, my partner and I stayed as guests of a family made up of a couple who works outside, and a daughter in school. In the morning we performed household chores and in the afternoon the work related to the community network. We decided to prepare dinner and when the woman who hosted us saw us in the kitchen, she was very amazed that my partner is doing housework and declared that this was impossible in her case and that her husband never did any task, not even together.

In community network workshops, female participation was always very low, women were only the majority when there were parties, because they were the ones who prepared meals, decorations and cleaning at the end. At each meeting I, as a woman, put myself in the place of those women who are unaware of the potential they have that go far beyond the domestic ones due to lack of availability. As a woman, I was educated and conditioned to prioritize domestic chores unlike my male brothers. Data from the [PNAD National Household Sample Survey²](https://www.ovale.com.br/_conteudo/brasil/2020/06/105781-aumenta-diferenca-na-carga-de-trabalho-domestico-entre-homens-e-mulheres.html) confirm the perpetuation of this pattern, which is not decreasing. While only 62% of men cook and wash dishes, 93.5% of women do the job. In the care of clothes 91.2% are women while only 54.6% are men.

Several other similar situations even when we were seen cleaning, washing clothes together was something that resonated a lot. Some said that this was the privilege of the people of the big city, but that modernity had not arrived there.

## Care as a woman's work

The execution of unpaid work and without visibility, were essential for the development of capitalism. Considering care as work and not only from the perspective of being underpaid but also from the settings of class and race for a greater understanding of [Ethics of Care³](https://www.blogs.unicamp.br/mulheresnafilosofia/etica-do-cuidado/)

We can see this contradiction in the narratives imposed by capitalism. At the same time that in the last few years the job market has created a greater opening for the participation of women, we are still charged with the exclusive role of caring for the home and children. "If my wife works, who's going to clean the house and make my dinner?" Does the woman carry the stigma of who will look after her children when you come to work? These questions are never asked of men. According to a study by the Organization for Economic Development Cooperation (OECD), [the average salary of a Brazilian woman⁴](https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/direitos-humanos/noticia/2016-03/mulheres-lutam-por-igualdade-mas-problemas-historicos-persistem) with higher education represents 62% of that of a man with the same education. Even so, the functions normally assigned to women in the labor market continue to be those of care, far from the leadership functions, which, when they manage to achieve, are faced with lower salaries than men with the same function.

One of the social aggravating factors is that we naturally see the act of men who do not assume paternity to the detriment of maternal abandonment. According to a survey by the [National Information Center of the Brazilian Civil Registry CRC⁵](https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/dia-dos-pais-pra-quem-com-80-mil-criancas-sem-pai-abandono-afetivo-cresce#:~:text=Segundo%20o%20IBGE%2C%20cerca%20de,de%20m%C3%A3es%20chefiam%20lares%20sozinhas.&text=Essa%20taxa%20de%206%2C31,enfrentam%20a%20tripla%20jornada%20diariamente), 80,904 of the children registered in the registry offices in Brazil in 2020 have only the names of mothers on birth certificates, out of a total of 1,280,514 unborn children.

## The importance of communication

The rescue of women's origins urgently needs to be considered in every possible time and space. The communication between their needs, expectations and desires needs to be discussed and presented far beyond the discussions proposed by the mainstream media, which states that the woman's natural place is at home, taking care of the family and home, and not at labor market, politics, studying or entrepreneurship.

Public policies do little to alleviate the challenges imposed on women, especially those who are heads of household. In this sense, there were two proposals in the [Senate of Brazil⁶](https://www12.senado.leg.br/noticias/especiais/especial-cidadania/divisao-de-tarefas-domesticas-ainda-e-desigual-no-brasil/divisao-de-tarefas-domesticas-ainda-e-desigual-no-brasil) proposing that domestic and care work be included in the Brazilian GDP, proposed by a female deputy where there were debates about the scope of the term care. And the proposal of a woman Senator for companies with more than 100 employees to provide day care centers. None of these projects have been approved or properly assessed.

In the context of community networks, it is important to promote collaborative and exclusive spaces for women where they can share their pain, afflictions, knowledge, joys and achievements in privacy and security, so that together they can become stronger. For this, it is essential to apply the principles of [Collaborative Communication⁷](http://www.uel.br/grupo-estudo/gefacescom/images/Congresso_26_EAIC_2013.pdf) in these spaces, so that everyone can feel welcomed and belonging to the community.

> "Truly sustainable organizations have members who support, understand the meaning of sustainability and experience it, and these meanings are built through the spoken word, so dialogue is essential for collaborative communication to occur" - Ana Alves.

There are several active methodologies for achieving collaborative communication, but among the practices present in the communities, which most often arise in an organic and intuitive way, are the circles of conversations between women. It is where we can hear and capture the pains, the joys and together create solutions to the problems we face in order to achieve protagonist in community networks. Conversation circles are practical without hierarchies, with facilitators that make dialogues possible for practical proposals and with the collaboration of all, building something new and that contemplate everyone's desires.

## Community networks connecting urban and rural women

The experiences I have lived in the community of Marrecas and its surroundings declare the importance of dialogues with different cultures and are the focal points to develop.

Collaborative communication provides moments of listening and the construction of new ways of relating to sensitive issues for women, which require a feminist look that brings gender equity.The methods, and practical activities that bring proximity to the context of the protagonism of women in community networks and go far beyond communications and technical knowledge but a naturalness in carrying out any activity that interests you.

The Ethics of Care shows that there is no distinction between genders in the way of seeing and living care, but that in an uneven and traditional way it has been perpetuating even in the face of social changes.

Reproductive work, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, as well as the set of attentions and care necessary for sustaining life and human survival, must be recognized economically and socially in order for there to be a structural change, as well stated by Silvia Federici in her interview ["Capitalism, reproduction and quarantine⁸":](https://www.editoraelefante.com.br/capitalismo-reproducao-e-quarentena/)

> "A struggle that connects women in urban and rural areas to create new structures, new bonds of solidarity, new forms of reproduction. Always inspired by the concept that the reproduction of life, the purpose of society, must be well-being, good living - not private profit. "

Community networks, more than an infrastructure for sharing the internet, are above all a network of people, which promotes the autonomy of the community and its individuals, guaranteeing them the right to communication and freedom of expression.However, in order to foment well-being and good living, respect for local knowledge and culture is necessary, while ensuring respect for diversity and equality for all.

### References:

1. Women devote much more time to housework
https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34450

2. Difference in the burden of domestic work between men and women increases
https://www.ovale.com.br/_conteudo/brasil/2020/06/105781-aumenta-diferenca-na-carga-de-trabalho-domestico-entre-homens-e-mulheres.html

3. Care ethics
https://www.blogs.unicamp.br/mulheresnafilosofia/etica-do-cuidado/

4. Women fight for equality, but historical problems persist
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/direitos-humanos/noticia/2016-03/mulheres-lutam-por-igualdade-mas-problemas-historicos-persistem

5. Father's Day for whom? With 80 thousand children without a father, emotional abandonment grows
https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/dia-dos-pais-pra-quem-com-80-mil-criancas-sem-pai-abandono-afetivo-cresce#:~:text=Segundo%20o%20IBGE%2C%20cerca%20de,de%20m%C3%A3es%20chefiam%20lares%20sozinhas.&text=Essa%20taxa%20de%206%2C31,enfrentam%20a%20tripla%20jornada%20diariamente.

6. Domestic tasks division is still uneven in Brazil
https://www12.senado.leg.br/noticias/especiais/especial-cidadania/divisao-de-tarefas-domesticas-ainda-e-desigual-no-brasil/divisao-de-tarefas-domesticas-ainda-e-desigual-no-brasil

7. Collaborative Communication as enabling the construction of sustainability in a third sector organization
http://www.uel.br/grupo-estudo/gefacescom/images/Congresso_26_EAIC_2013.pdf

8. Capitalism, reproduction and quarantine
https://www.editoraelefante.com.br/capitalismo-reproducao-e-quarentena/