Entre sobrecarga, privatização e socialização dos cuidados: percepções de mães da periferia de Juiz de Fora/MG sobre o papel do Estado

Abstract

Care work, historically attributed to women in Brazil, constitutes one of the pillars of the reproduction of life and is expressed as a factor of burden in the face of its unequal distribution. In peripheral contexts marked by poverty, violence and state precariousness, such as the East Zone of Juiz de Fora/MG, this overload takes on even more intense contours. This research investigates the perceptions of women mothers responsible for the care of the home and children living in this area about the possibility of sharing care with the State, from an intersectional feminist approach. Based on 22 interviews conducted with mostly black and brown women, between 18 and 55 years old, the results show the female centrality in domestic and care work, as well as its effects on life trajectories, economic autonomy and reproductive decisions. Although the problem of overload is widely recognized, the solutions formulated by the interlocutors do not point to the expansion of collective public facilities, but to the resignification of a privatist model, now claimed in more egalitarian terms, with state participation or funding. It is argued that the distrust of public services, associated with concrete experiences of precariousness, limits the construction of collective alternatives, indicating that public care policies should consider the social and symbolic conditions that shape these perceptions.