Interview: Helena Hirata

Abstract

Helena Hirata is a sociologist and researcher of the Groupe d'Etudes sur la Division Sociale et Sexuelle du Travail at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in France. In the last few years, she has been devoted to analyzing the social process of globalization in production systems, in the organization of labor and in labor relations. Her latest works approached relevant themes for Brazil and the country's academic work, such as the study of the increase in the vulnerability of labor relations, the divergence between productive and unproductive labor, the relations between unemployment and underemployment and the rearrangements of production and organization. These themes are dear to the sociology of labor and Helena Hirata has revisited them through the viewpoint of gender studies and on the perspective of the discussion of gender relations. In the interview, she speaks of the increasing relevance of gender matters for the sociology of labor, of power relations, of the social division of labor and of gender relations in the western world. She also comments on the influence of the workplace in the development of the identity of the woman.