The other face of uberization: work in delivery kitchens and the sexual division of labor

Abstract

This article, derived from a master's thesis, examines working conditions in the kitchens of meal delivery and fast-food restaurants in Florianópolis between 2023 and 2025, verifying to what extent they reflect uberized work and the sexual and international division of labor. The study situates uberization as a phenomenon that accelerates the precariousness characteristic of peripheral countries and as an updated form of labor management and control. It problematizes kitchen work as historically associated with female activity, investigates the sexual division of labor in selected kitchens, and situates individual experiences within the totality involving the uberized organization of work and globally financialized capitalism. The research adopts an exploratory qualitative approach, understanding kitchens linked to iFood as a microcosm of broader precarization processes. It articulates secondary data and public statistics with semi-structured interviews conducted with workers accessed through the “snowball” method. The methodology is grounded in a historical-materialist perspective and references from sociology of work and gender studies to understand class and gender relations intertwined with the sexual division of labor. Through the articulation between empirical research with cooks and the theoretical basis of the sexual division of labor, the article positions work in these everyday kitchens at the boundaries of theoretical definitions, both in relation to platformization and work performed by women.