Based in multiple sources of secondary data, the article analyzes women's participation in the labor market at two opposite poles of activity. From the first pole, which includes poor quality jobs in terms of income, formalization of relations and protection of work, we selected the position of domestic employees. In the 90s, this segment maintained some of the precarious conditions that have always characterized it, such as a long work day and low levels of income and formalization. There are some promising signs of change with regard to the last two aspects. At the second pole, composed of "good" jobs, characterized by higher levels of formalization, of income and protections, we selected some university careers: engineering, architecture, medicine and law. The date reveal that women who enter these profession are younger than their colleagues. Otherwise, with the exception of income, their profile of job inclusion is quite similar to men's. According to the gender pattern found in the labor market, women's earnings are always lower than men's.
