The article analyses relations between domestic and professional spheres, taking the social and sexual division of labor into account. It attempts to show to what degree family structures and relationships influence the economic activity of men and women, and also, to what degree the latter can influence fami ly relationships. The work is based upon data collected from research carried out in Santo Amaro, São Paulo, in 1982 and 1986, stressing the impact of crisis on jobs, supplying indications on the differences and contradictions that take place inside working class families and theireffect on the evolution of jobs during crisis.
working class families; sexual division of labor; employment; unemployment; women; maternity; crisis