The subject of this thesis is the female work performed in Rio de Janeiro nowadays by house cleaners and embroiderers. The main goal is to compare and to analyze two different professional occupations, primarily performed by women, which are currently undertaken within private spaces: the activities of contracted house cleaners and embroiderers. The central questions are: How the female contribution to the job market is organized and controlled when her work is performed within private spaces? Which are the similarities and differences between professional work performed by women on their own homes — like the embroiderers —, or on someone else s houses — like the house cleaners? The study argues that the female s contribution to the Brazilian job market is still in a subordinated and uneven position when compared to the male work. Furthermore, the author sustains that this is one of the social mechanisms to maintain the subalternization of women, within the frame of patriarchal Brazilian social relations. This work describes and discusses the female work performed in private spaces (within the house), by relating gender relations with the recent transformations observed in the work relations. The research was developed with the contribution of six workers of the São Gonçalo, RJ.