Coletivizar o cuidado: vivências e sentidos do trabalho das mulheres sem terra

Abstract

Starting from the theme of gender and work, this thesis investigated the meanings attributed to productive and reproductive labor by landless women and analyzed how their experiences of militancy and collective organization within the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) contribute to the transformation of gender relations. The research was conducted between 2021 and 2025, within the scope of the Plantio Solidário Project, at the Denis Gonçalves Settlement and the Roza Cabinda Encampment, both located in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The methodological approach adopted participatory action research, grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, combining participant observation, field diary, agroecological collective work actions (mutirões), historical walks, and life history interviews. Roza, Margarida, Elizabeth, and Sônia were the four landless rural women who participated in the interviews. Their narratives revealed the contradictions of social reproduction under capitalism, expressed through work overload, sexism, ecological crisis, and internal tensions within the Movement itself. The analysis showed that, despite these contradictions, the MST, through its broader social project, constitutes a privileged space for the development of the social being and the reorganization of social relations. The results demonstrate that productive and reproductive labor are experienced in an inseparable way, assuming meanings of fulfillment, belonging, pleasure, and autonomy, with experiences marked by authenticity and creativity, establishing connections between the singular, the particular, and the universal. They also show that the collectivization of care emerges as a transformative practice, challenging the historical devaluation of reproductive labor, promoting the confrontation of patriarchal ideologies, and expanding women’s self-understanding and critical awareness. It is concluded that, through their participation in the MST, landless women recognize themselves as active and critical subjects, capable of building solidary and emancipatory worldviews, sowing human flourishing toward a future in which land and care are understood as common goods— socialized and collectively shared.