Adelyn Lim
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9789888139378
- eISBN:
- 9789888313174
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139378.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter focuses on local and migrant domestic workers' unions in Hong Kong, in the context of the international domestic workers' movement for the International Labor Organization Convention No. ...
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This chapter focuses on local and migrant domestic workers' unions in Hong Kong, in the context of the international domestic workers' movement for the International Labor Organization Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Global norms are providing collective action frames that facilitate cohesive activism, as well as international opportunities, symbolic and material resources, and publicity to pressure governments and corporations. In Hong Kong, domestic workers' unions are an amalgamation of a women's movement and a trade union that goes beyond the organizing of women or workers, but incorporating the frames of democracy, human rights, and social justice locally and internationally. Transnational organizing, on the basis of common social location and interests as women and workers under global capitalism, allows local and migrant domestic workers to envision and enact solidarity. But it is also this interaction that hierarchies of class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality become visible, illustrating that privilege and oppression are often not absolute categories but, rather, shift in relation to different axes of power.Less
This chapter focuses on local and migrant domestic workers' unions in Hong Kong, in the context of the international domestic workers' movement for the International Labor Organization Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Global norms are providing collective action frames that facilitate cohesive activism, as well as international opportunities, symbolic and material resources, and publicity to pressure governments and corporations. In Hong Kong, domestic workers' unions are an amalgamation of a women's movement and a trade union that goes beyond the organizing of women or workers, but incorporating the frames of democracy, human rights, and social justice locally and internationally. Transnational organizing, on the basis of common social location and interests as women and workers under global capitalism, allows local and migrant domestic workers to envision and enact solidarity. But it is also this interaction that hierarchies of class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality become visible, illustrating that privilege and oppression are often not absolute categories but, rather, shift in relation to different axes of power.
Sandra Fredman
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198763239
- eISBN:
- 9780191695216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198763239.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Employment Law
This chapter traces the patterns of social disadvantage of women from the industrial revolution to the present, focusing on the family and public sphere. It examines the nature of women's work and ...
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This chapter traces the patterns of social disadvantage of women from the industrial revolution to the present, focusing on the family and public sphere. It examines the nature of women's work and the status of women in the workforce, the family, and the state from the late 18th century to World War I and through to the present. The historical analysis of the sources of disadvantage reveals two persistent themes. The first is that women remain primarily responsible for childcare and domestic work, and the second is that such work is consistently ignored and undervalued.Less
This chapter traces the patterns of social disadvantage of women from the industrial revolution to the present, focusing on the family and public sphere. It examines the nature of women's work and the status of women in the workforce, the family, and the state from the late 18th century to World War I and through to the present. The historical analysis of the sources of disadvantage reveals two persistent themes. The first is that women remain primarily responsible for childcare and domestic work, and the second is that such work is consistently ignored and undervalued.
Vanessa H. May
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834770
- eISBN:
- 9781469603094
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807877906_may.9
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter describes how Corrine Washington jumped at the chance when she was offered an opportunity to leave her job in a Richmond tobacco factory for domestic work in New York City in 1938. An ...
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This chapter describes how Corrine Washington jumped at the chance when she was offered an opportunity to leave her job in a Richmond tobacco factory for domestic work in New York City in 1938. An agent promised her a live-in position at twenty dollars a month, much less than the ten dollars a week she earned in the factory, but assured her that she would earn more if her employer liked her work. Tobacco factory work was an onerous and dusty affair, requiring workers to spend hours on their feet doing repetitive tasks on the assembly line. African American women such as Washington usually performed the dirtiest and most back-breaking chores in tobacco factories, and Washington could not have been sorry to leave the work behind. An added benefit was escaping the racial restrictions of the Jim Crow South and joining New York City's famously vibrant black community. Washington's decision was made.Less
This chapter describes how Corrine Washington jumped at the chance when she was offered an opportunity to leave her job in a Richmond tobacco factory for domestic work in New York City in 1938. An agent promised her a live-in position at twenty dollars a month, much less than the ten dollars a week she earned in the factory, but assured her that she would earn more if her employer liked her work. Tobacco factory work was an onerous and dusty affair, requiring workers to spend hours on their feet doing repetitive tasks on the assembly line. African American women such as Washington usually performed the dirtiest and most back-breaking chores in tobacco factories, and Washington could not have been sorry to leave the work behind. An added benefit was escaping the racial restrictions of the Jim Crow South and joining New York City's famously vibrant black community. Washington's decision was made.
Deidre Helen Crumbley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813039848
- eISBN:
- 9780813043791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813039848.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, ...
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This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, followed by interviews covering their life experiences in both the North and the South. These experiences include employment patterns and salaries earned; “separate but equal” education during the Plessy v. Ferguson era; White on Black violence, such as false imprisonment and threats of and actual lynching; politics of sex between White men and Black women in the South; enculturation of White children in perpetrating racial violence and of Black children in surviving it; Black adult strategies for negotiating southern White terrorism and for migrating to and adjusting within urban life; economic survival strategies, such as sharecropping in the South and Black women's performing domestic “day labor” in the North; southern religious roots and new urban religious options; and colorism. The chapter concludes by exploring how these narratives inform Great Migration research.Less
This chapter contains life histories of ten founding church elders, who are currently in their 80s and 90s. All of the narratives begin with a socio-historical snapshot of the elders' hometowns, followed by interviews covering their life experiences in both the North and the South. These experiences include employment patterns and salaries earned; “separate but equal” education during the Plessy v. Ferguson era; White on Black violence, such as false imprisonment and threats of and actual lynching; politics of sex between White men and Black women in the South; enculturation of White children in perpetrating racial violence and of Black children in surviving it; Black adult strategies for negotiating southern White terrorism and for migrating to and adjusting within urban life; economic survival strategies, such as sharecropping in the South and Black women's performing domestic “day labor” in the North; southern religious roots and new urban religious options; and colorism. The chapter concludes by exploring how these narratives inform Great Migration research.
Eileen Boris
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190874629
- eISBN:
- 9780190943707
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190874629.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, Social History
After looking at prior efforts to address domestic/household work, this chapter situates the making of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), “Decent Work for Domestic Workers.” Paving the ...
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After looking at prior efforts to address domestic/household work, this chapter situates the making of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), “Decent Work for Domestic Workers.” Paving the way were ILO discussions on migrant labor and the informal economy. “Decent work” and “fair globalization” initiatives framed the convention, but the ILO would not have formalized household employment without national and regional social movements, the creation of the International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN) under South Africa’s Myrtle Witbooi, and its campaign for ILO attention. Domestic workers gained a presence at the ILO, despite formal institutional barriers, aided by NGO and union allies, especially Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations). Convention No. 189 recognized the centrality of paid care work for women’s labor force participation and the functioning of the global economy. For a new century, it boosted the ILO in a fight against the precarity and informality that were undermining the very idea of universal labor standards. Parlaying victory into better conditions would prove daunting, but IDWN (and its successor, the International Domestic Workers Federation [IDWF]) secured more ratifications in a few years than many other conventions.Less
After looking at prior efforts to address domestic/household work, this chapter situates the making of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), “Decent Work for Domestic Workers.” Paving the way were ILO discussions on migrant labor and the informal economy. “Decent work” and “fair globalization” initiatives framed the convention, but the ILO would not have formalized household employment without national and regional social movements, the creation of the International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN) under South Africa’s Myrtle Witbooi, and its campaign for ILO attention. Domestic workers gained a presence at the ILO, despite formal institutional barriers, aided by NGO and union allies, especially Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations). Convention No. 189 recognized the centrality of paid care work for women’s labor force participation and the functioning of the global economy. For a new century, it boosted the ILO in a fight against the precarity and informality that were undermining the very idea of universal labor standards. Parlaying victory into better conditions would prove daunting, but IDWN (and its successor, the International Domestic Workers Federation [IDWF]) secured more ratifications in a few years than many other conventions.
Lisa Krissoff Boehm
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732160
- eISBN:
- 9781604733501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732160.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 made the transition in and out of domestic work. It ...
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This chapter examines how African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 made the transition in and out of domestic work. It looks at the process by which domestic workers met potential employers while on other jobs, their relationships with their employers, and what they thought of their employers. The chapter shows that many women migrants used domestic work to fill in between other, more sought-after employment opportunities and considers the skills they brought to their work. It also discusses the special bond that could form between domestic workers and the children of their employers, and how the workers valued their personal dignity in the face of challenges.Less
This chapter examines how African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 made the transition in and out of domestic work. It looks at the process by which domestic workers met potential employers while on other jobs, their relationships with their employers, and what they thought of their employers. The chapter shows that many women migrants used domestic work to fill in between other, more sought-after employment opportunities and considers the skills they brought to their work. It also discusses the special bond that could form between domestic workers and the children of their employers, and how the workers valued their personal dignity in the face of challenges.
Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195329117
- eISBN:
- 9780199949496
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329117.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This book helps to explain why there is no adequate long-term care in America. Through a sweeping analytical narrative, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession of today, Caring ...
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This book helps to explain why there is no adequate long-term care in America. Through a sweeping analytical narrative, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession of today, Caring for America shows how law and social policy shaped home care into a low-waged job and a means-tested social service, stigmatized as part of public welfare, primarily funded through Medicaid, and relegated to the bottom of the medical hierarchy. It became a job for African American and immigrant women that kept them in poverty, while providing independence from institutionalization for needy elderly and disabled people. But while the state organized home care, it did not do so without contestation and confrontation. Caring for America also traces the intertwined, sometimes conflicting search of care providers and receivers for dignity, self-determination, security, and personal and social worth. It highlights social movements of senior citizens and disability rights/independent living, the civil rights organizing of women on welfare and domestic workers, the battles of public sector unions, and the unionization of health and service workers. It rethinks both the history of the American welfare state from the perspective of carework and the strategies of the U.S. labor movement in terms of a growing carework economy, arguing for care as a right deserving a living wage and social support.Less
This book helps to explain why there is no adequate long-term care in America. Through a sweeping analytical narrative, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession of today, Caring for America shows how law and social policy shaped home care into a low-waged job and a means-tested social service, stigmatized as part of public welfare, primarily funded through Medicaid, and relegated to the bottom of the medical hierarchy. It became a job for African American and immigrant women that kept them in poverty, while providing independence from institutionalization for needy elderly and disabled people. But while the state organized home care, it did not do so without contestation and confrontation. Caring for America also traces the intertwined, sometimes conflicting search of care providers and receivers for dignity, self-determination, security, and personal and social worth. It highlights social movements of senior citizens and disability rights/independent living, the civil rights organizing of women on welfare and domestic workers, the battles of public sector unions, and the unionization of health and service workers. It rethinks both the history of the American welfare state from the perspective of carework and the strategies of the U.S. labor movement in terms of a growing carework economy, arguing for care as a right deserving a living wage and social support.
Samita Sen and Nilanjana Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199461165
- eISBN:
- 9780199087006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199461165.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Gender and Sexuality
The Introduction contextualizes the study in various strands of literature relating to the informal sector, work, and domesticity. It traverses the literature on women and work with a special focus ...
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The Introduction contextualizes the study in various strands of literature relating to the informal sector, work, and domesticity. It traverses the literature on women and work with a special focus on gender–class dimensions. It also outlines the importance of the space of the mistress and maid for an understanding of the relationship between gender and class. It looks at agency and representation to locate the different ways in which the ‘domestic servant’ has been represented in both in fiction and the academia. It discusses the history and emergence of paid domestic work in Europe as well as India. It looks at contemporary debates around care work and whether and how part-time paid domestic work can be understood in that context. It also situates paid domestic work in informal sector literature, indicating estimations of size and introducing public policy efforts.Less
The Introduction contextualizes the study in various strands of literature relating to the informal sector, work, and domesticity. It traverses the literature on women and work with a special focus on gender–class dimensions. It also outlines the importance of the space of the mistress and maid for an understanding of the relationship between gender and class. It looks at agency and representation to locate the different ways in which the ‘domestic servant’ has been represented in both in fiction and the academia. It discusses the history and emergence of paid domestic work in Europe as well as India. It looks at contemporary debates around care work and whether and how part-time paid domestic work can be understood in that context. It also situates paid domestic work in informal sector literature, indicating estimations of size and introducing public policy efforts.
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine Avila
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225619
- eISBN:
- 9780520929869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225619.003.0015
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter analyzes Latina transnational mothers who are currently employed in Los Angeles in paid domestic work, which is one of the most gendered and racialized occupations. It also studies how ...
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This chapter analyzes Latina transnational mothers who are currently employed in Los Angeles in paid domestic work, which is one of the most gendered and racialized occupations. It also studies how their definitions of motherhood change in relation to the structures of late 20th-century global capitalism. The chapter refers to literature on immigration and transnational frameworks, and looks at gendering transnational perspectives. The discussion introduces the concept of the “cult of domesticity.”Less
This chapter analyzes Latina transnational mothers who are currently employed in Los Angeles in paid domestic work, which is one of the most gendered and racialized occupations. It also studies how their definitions of motherhood change in relation to the structures of late 20th-century global capitalism. The chapter refers to literature on immigration and transnational frameworks, and looks at gendering transnational perspectives. The discussion introduces the concept of the “cult of domesticity.”
Jennifer N. Fish
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479848676
- eISBN:
- 9781479827442
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479848676.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter sets the stage for the global domestic workers’ movement that is at the center of this book. It examines the landscape of household labor and highlights the key concepts necessary for an ...
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This chapter sets the stage for the global domestic workers’ movement that is at the center of this book. It examines the landscape of household labor and highlights the key concepts necessary for an understanding of domestic work in the global economy, highlighting the traditional power imbalances that exist between “maids and madams.” The chapter introduces key players in the struggle for domestic worker rights, and the challenges they faced in addressing widespread injustice. An overview of the scholar-activist framework, embedded ethnographic approach, and the author’s particular research journey is also included.Less
This chapter sets the stage for the global domestic workers’ movement that is at the center of this book. It examines the landscape of household labor and highlights the key concepts necessary for an understanding of domestic work in the global economy, highlighting the traditional power imbalances that exist between “maids and madams.” The chapter introduces key players in the struggle for domestic worker rights, and the challenges they faced in addressing widespread injustice. An overview of the scholar-activist framework, embedded ethnographic approach, and the author’s particular research journey is also included.
Adelle Blackett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199693610
- eISBN:
- 9780191729744
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693610.003.0026
- Subject:
- Law, Employment Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter explores three ways in which the familiar boundaries of labour law may be reimagined to extend its animating idea beyond the industrialized market economy. It looks ‘before’ ...
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This chapter explores three ways in which the familiar boundaries of labour law may be reimagined to extend its animating idea beyond the industrialized market economy. It looks ‘before’ industrialization at one of the most abject historical examples of human commoditization, the triangular slave trade; it finds continuity rather than radical disjuncture between slavery and ‘free’ labour. It looks ‘beyond’ the traditional market economy, to recognize the market-enabling character of care labour within the home, emphasizing paid domestic work. And it looks ‘after’ the domestic market, to consider the implications of recognizing labour to be a factor of production in intensified global trade. It emphasizes labour law’s pluralism, rooted in workers’ resistance to the commoditization of their labour power. The chapter only hints at distributive justice consequences, but acknowledges that to emphasize emancipation in the idea of labour law is to espouse a transformative vision of the field.Less
This chapter explores three ways in which the familiar boundaries of labour law may be reimagined to extend its animating idea beyond the industrialized market economy. It looks ‘before’ industrialization at one of the most abject historical examples of human commoditization, the triangular slave trade; it finds continuity rather than radical disjuncture between slavery and ‘free’ labour. It looks ‘beyond’ the traditional market economy, to recognize the market-enabling character of care labour within the home, emphasizing paid domestic work. And it looks ‘after’ the domestic market, to consider the implications of recognizing labour to be a factor of production in intensified global trade. It emphasizes labour law’s pluralism, rooted in workers’ resistance to the commoditization of their labour power. The chapter only hints at distributive justice consequences, but acknowledges that to emphasize emancipation in the idea of labour law is to espouse a transformative vision of the field.
Sandra Fredman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198714101
- eISBN:
- 9780191782657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198714101.003.0021
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Employment Law
This chapter examines the International Labour Organization’s Convention No 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers (2011). It notes how the position of domestic workers within the employing ...
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This chapter examines the International Labour Organization’s Convention No 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers (2011). It notes how the position of domestic workers within the employing family defies the public–private divide, upon which labour law is traditionally premised, noting the particular difficulties faced by live-in domestic workers. Domestic work poses acute dilemmas for feminists. The chapter critically assesses the provisions of the ILO Convention, comparing it with other sources of regulation of domestic work, particularly those in South Africa and Brazil. It notes the important role in South Africa of the Domestic Workers and Allied Trade Union and the necessity of a campaigning political role, given union membership is extremely low.Less
This chapter examines the International Labour Organization’s Convention No 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers (2011). It notes how the position of domestic workers within the employing family defies the public–private divide, upon which labour law is traditionally premised, noting the particular difficulties faced by live-in domestic workers. Domestic work poses acute dilemmas for feminists. The chapter critically assesses the provisions of the ILO Convention, comparing it with other sources of regulation of domestic work, particularly those in South Africa and Brazil. It notes the important role in South Africa of the Domestic Workers and Allied Trade Union and the necessity of a campaigning political role, given union membership is extremely low.
Ann Oakley
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447346166
- eISBN:
- 9781447349402
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447346166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In this ground-breaking book, the author undertook one of the first serious sociological studies to examine women's work in the home. She interviewed 40 urban housewives and analysed their ...
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In this ground-breaking book, the author undertook one of the first serious sociological studies to examine women's work in the home. She interviewed 40 urban housewives and analysed their perceptions of housework, their feelings of monotony and fragmentation, the length of their working week, the importance of standards and routines, and their attitudes to different household tasks. Most women, irrespective of social class, were dissatisfied with housework — an important finding which contrasted with prevailing views. Importantly, too, the author showed how the neglect of research on domestic work was linked to the inbuilt sexism of sociology. This classic book challenged the hitherto neglect of housework as a topic worthy of study and paved the way for the sociological study of many more aspects of women's lives.Less
In this ground-breaking book, the author undertook one of the first serious sociological studies to examine women's work in the home. She interviewed 40 urban housewives and analysed their perceptions of housework, their feelings of monotony and fragmentation, the length of their working week, the importance of standards and routines, and their attitudes to different household tasks. Most women, irrespective of social class, were dissatisfied with housework — an important finding which contrasted with prevailing views. Importantly, too, the author showed how the neglect of research on domestic work was linked to the inbuilt sexism of sociology. This classic book challenged the hitherto neglect of housework as a topic worthy of study and paved the way for the sociological study of many more aspects of women's lives.
Keona K. Ervin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813168838
- eISBN:
- 9780813173924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168838.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Chapter 2 maps the labor activism of St. Louis’s largest segment of black working-class women as they mounted a labor reform program that anticipated and challenged New Deal labor legislation. With ...
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Chapter 2 maps the labor activism of St. Louis’s largest segment of black working-class women as they mounted a labor reform program that anticipated and challenged New Deal labor legislation. With progressive black women staffers who led the St. Louis Urban League’s Women’s Division and progressive Jewish clubwomen who developed important ties to black communities, domestic workers designed and enforced standardization and rationalization policies to make dignity tangible in their contractual agreements. A predominant female constituency marked the Urban League as a women’s organization during a “radical” phase that extended into the late 1940s. As domestic workers made moves to “industrialize” household labor, they laid the groundwork for black women’s economic battles during the World War II period.Less
Chapter 2 maps the labor activism of St. Louis’s largest segment of black working-class women as they mounted a labor reform program that anticipated and challenged New Deal labor legislation. With progressive black women staffers who led the St. Louis Urban League’s Women’s Division and progressive Jewish clubwomen who developed important ties to black communities, domestic workers designed and enforced standardization and rationalization policies to make dignity tangible in their contractual agreements. A predominant female constituency marked the Urban League as a women’s organization during a “radical” phase that extended into the late 1940s. As domestic workers made moves to “industrialize” household labor, they laid the groundwork for black women’s economic battles during the World War II period.
Samita Sen and Nilanjana Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199461165
- eISBN:
- 9780199087006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199461165.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Gender and Sexuality
Chapter 3 draws the contours of the economy of domestic work. It explores the nature and variety of working arrangements. It discusses issues like wages, working conditions, workers’ access to ...
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Chapter 3 draws the contours of the economy of domestic work. It explores the nature and variety of working arrangements. It discusses issues like wages, working conditions, workers’ access to credit, leave, and other benefits. The high turnover in domestic labour jobs has emerged as a key factor in shaping responses and relationships—and there is a negative relationship between tenure and wages. Moreover, workers’ bargaining power is very low given the extreme insecurity of employment, allowing little negotiation for leave, increments, or other working conditions. However, there are several instances of hard bargaining, subversions, and contestations with a keen awareness of the advantages and disadvantages the job offers. The chapter also explores the factors, which, despite the low wages and adverse working conditions, contribute to women’s ‘preference’ for these jobs. Notwithstanding poor labour market outcomes and the preponderance of subjective negotiations, workers are keenly aware of a contractual relationship.Less
Chapter 3 draws the contours of the economy of domestic work. It explores the nature and variety of working arrangements. It discusses issues like wages, working conditions, workers’ access to credit, leave, and other benefits. The high turnover in domestic labour jobs has emerged as a key factor in shaping responses and relationships—and there is a negative relationship between tenure and wages. Moreover, workers’ bargaining power is very low given the extreme insecurity of employment, allowing little negotiation for leave, increments, or other working conditions. However, there are several instances of hard bargaining, subversions, and contestations with a keen awareness of the advantages and disadvantages the job offers. The chapter also explores the factors, which, despite the low wages and adverse working conditions, contribute to women’s ‘preference’ for these jobs. Notwithstanding poor labour market outcomes and the preponderance of subjective negotiations, workers are keenly aware of a contractual relationship.
Premilla Nadasen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731633
- eISBN:
- 9780199894420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731633.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter examines how scholarship on social reproduction and feminism has called into question basic assumptions that have guided the field of labor history. It suggests that women’s paid and ...
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This chapter examines how scholarship on social reproduction and feminism has called into question basic assumptions that have guided the field of labor history. It suggests that women’s paid and unpaid domestic work has multiple links to both capitalist production and state policy. In addition, the decline of manufacturing has moved women’s labor from the margins to the center of labor organizing, in the process redefining both the character and form of the labor movement. The work of social reproduction and labor organizing among women makes race, class, culture, and nation central to any discussion of work and feminism and also exposes the contested meaning of these categories.Less
This chapter examines how scholarship on social reproduction and feminism has called into question basic assumptions that have guided the field of labor history. It suggests that women’s paid and unpaid domestic work has multiple links to both capitalist production and state policy. In addition, the decline of manufacturing has moved women’s labor from the margins to the center of labor organizing, in the process redefining both the character and form of the labor movement. The work of social reproduction and labor organizing among women makes race, class, culture, and nation central to any discussion of work and feminism and also exposes the contested meaning of these categories.
Samita Sen and Nilanjana Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199461165
- eISBN:
- 9780199087006
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199461165.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Gender and Sexuality
‘Maids’ have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of ‘middle-class’ urban households in India. Despite the fact that increasing numbers of poor women are joining this profession, very little ...
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‘Maids’ have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of ‘middle-class’ urban households in India. Despite the fact that increasing numbers of poor women are joining this profession, very little has been written about them, especially the part-time domestic workers, each of whom services a number of households at a time. They are not accorded their rightful status as workers either by the employers, their own families, the government or the traditional trade unions. Isolated in the privacy of employers’ homes, the problem of recognizing their work or organizing them is the same one as for women isolated in their own homes. Another important reason is that most such women are rendered voiceless by their social location: unlettered; staying in ‘illegal’ settlements; migrants; working to survive; performing ‘feminine’ work, both paid and unpaid, and both devalued. This book is, therefore, about making the unheard heard. It draws from personal narratives of part-time women domestic workers residing in two slum settlements of Kolkata, who speak about their work, lives, dreams, and despairs. By moving between the workplace and the homes of the workers, this book makes a departure from general accounts of labour and instead talks about labouring lives. The book also discusses public policy and politics which have historically neglected this section of workers as well as the recent efforts to give them visibility and voice.Less
‘Maids’ have become an inseparable part of the daily lives of ‘middle-class’ urban households in India. Despite the fact that increasing numbers of poor women are joining this profession, very little has been written about them, especially the part-time domestic workers, each of whom services a number of households at a time. They are not accorded their rightful status as workers either by the employers, their own families, the government or the traditional trade unions. Isolated in the privacy of employers’ homes, the problem of recognizing their work or organizing them is the same one as for women isolated in their own homes. Another important reason is that most such women are rendered voiceless by their social location: unlettered; staying in ‘illegal’ settlements; migrants; working to survive; performing ‘feminine’ work, both paid and unpaid, and both devalued. This book is, therefore, about making the unheard heard. It draws from personal narratives of part-time women domestic workers residing in two slum settlements of Kolkata, who speak about their work, lives, dreams, and despairs. By moving between the workplace and the homes of the workers, this book makes a departure from general accounts of labour and instead talks about labouring lives. The book also discusses public policy and politics which have historically neglected this section of workers as well as the recent efforts to give them visibility and voice.
Lisa Calderwood, Kathleen Kiernan, Heather Joshi, Kate Smith, and Kelly Ward
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861346889
- eISBN:
- 9781447301783
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861346889.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Marriage and the Family
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) provides data from mothers and fathers about their involvement with their new baby and in family life, uniquely, for a very large sample of UK fathers. This chapter ...
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The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) provides data from mothers and fathers about their involvement with their new baby and in family life, uniquely, for a very large sample of UK fathers. This chapter first examines the effect of the baby. It looks on an under-researched group — fathers — as they appear in the existing literature, followed by a report on the division of domestic work between mothers and fathers. The discussion then presents what the survey finds about fathers' involvement with the cohort child, irrespective of whether they are living in the same home. It also reviews parenting beliefs and attitudes as well as the overlaps in mothers' and fathers' views about parenting, and some of the mothers' feelings about having a new baby.Less
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) provides data from mothers and fathers about their involvement with their new baby and in family life, uniquely, for a very large sample of UK fathers. This chapter first examines the effect of the baby. It looks on an under-researched group — fathers — as they appear in the existing literature, followed by a report on the division of domestic work between mothers and fathers. The discussion then presents what the survey finds about fathers' involvement with the cohort child, irrespective of whether they are living in the same home. It also reviews parenting beliefs and attitudes as well as the overlaps in mothers' and fathers' views about parenting, and some of the mothers' feelings about having a new baby.
Lisa Krissoff Boehm
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732160
- eISBN:
- 9781604733501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732160.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Many African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 alternated between domestic work, factory work, and jobs in the service ...
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Many African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 alternated between domestic work, factory work, and jobs in the service industry. Many women migrants found employment as both domestic workers and cosmetologists, as cosmetology shared the flexibility of domestic work. Some of them were hired to clean in public settings, while others found jobs in nursing homes, commercial laundries, fast-food restaurants, day-care centers, and even the military. This chapter examines the experiences of women migrants with various types of employment in northern cities, and also looks at their volunteer work, centered around the churches, and leisure time.Less
Many African American women who moved to northern cities from the South during the Second Great Migration circa 1940–1970 alternated between domestic work, factory work, and jobs in the service industry. Many women migrants found employment as both domestic workers and cosmetologists, as cosmetology shared the flexibility of domestic work. Some of them were hired to clean in public settings, while others found jobs in nursing homes, commercial laundries, fast-food restaurants, day-care centers, and even the military. This chapter examines the experiences of women migrants with various types of employment in northern cities, and also looks at their volunteer work, centered around the churches, and leisure time.
Richard Olsen and Harriet Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861343642
- eISBN:
- 9781447302902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861343642.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
This chapter studies the extent of children's involvement in domestic and ‘caring’ work, as well as the context it takes place in. It explores the different factors that might influence the degree to ...
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This chapter studies the extent of children's involvement in domestic and ‘caring’ work, as well as the context it takes place in. It explores the different factors that might influence the degree to which children are involved in domestic and caring responsibilities, and the nature of any involvement. The first few sections of the chapter examine what the quantitative data can reveal about the identification of children as ‘young carers’, including their involvement and relationship to certain variables. The second half of the chapter is focused on discussing the factors that influence the involvement of children in caring and other work.Less
This chapter studies the extent of children's involvement in domestic and ‘caring’ work, as well as the context it takes place in. It explores the different factors that might influence the degree to which children are involved in domestic and caring responsibilities, and the nature of any involvement. The first few sections of the chapter examine what the quantitative data can reveal about the identification of children as ‘young carers’, including their involvement and relationship to certain variables. The second half of the chapter is focused on discussing the factors that influence the involvement of children in caring and other work.
