Race, Gender, and Work in São Paulo, Brazil, 1960-2000

This study relies on Brazilian census data from 1960–2000 to analyze long-term trends in racial and gender wage disparities in the urban labor market of São Paulo, one of Latin America's most dynamic economies. Afro-Brazilians and women have made remarkable progress over the past four decades in securing hard-won legal rights and in gaining access to the highest levels of schooling, entrance into higher paying occupations, and narrowing the intraethnic gender wage gap. Despite such progress, Afro-Brazilians and women are paid less than similarly qualified white men, and wage discrimination is increasing. Placing the interplay of race and gender at the center of this analysis shows how the workplace barriers people confront on the basis of skin color and sex play a fundamental role in shaping social and economic inequality in contemporary Brazil.