"A minha vida é em função da covid": o trabalho das mulheres na linha de frente da covid-19 no Sistema Único de Saúde

Abstract

The Brazilian public health System (SUS) assumed, during the covid-19 pandemic, the central role of containing and slowing down the contamination, within primary and hospital care, the vaccination, and the health campaigns, led by the main characters of this: the women health workers. Women are the most directly involved with the pandemic: they are the group most exposed to the risk of contamination by their social and economic vulnerability, marked by the sexual division of labor accumulating functions in productive, reproductive, and emotional work; just as they are the front line in health works worldwide. This article aims to analyze the relationship between work and health for women who worked at the front lines of covid-19, in SUS. For this, we used the theoretical foundation of Marxist Feminism and the studies of the care work, in dialogue with the Psychodynamics of Work. 39 interviews were conducted with women in the Northeast region of Brazil, using a semi-structured script, which was applied online by phone call or video call. The interviews were analyzed by the method of Núcleos de Sentido. From these women's statements, it is possible to perceive experiences of workload accumulation in the productive and reproductive spheres, aggravated by the emotional weight of working on care. The underfunding of public health and science policies also appears as a determinant of suffering. In this context, the mobilization of affection and cooperation among workers is the most significant defense strategy expressed in their speech.