Care Work and Class: Domestic Workers’ Struggle for Equal Rights in Latin America

Introduction

Introduction This book is about how class and gender interact with the state. It is about whether and how a group that is multiply disadvantaged gets political attention and recognition in a context of high socioeconomic inequalities. Often colloquially referred to as nannies, maids, and housekeepers—or in Spanish as muchachas, nanas, and empleadas—domestic workers come from poorer backgrounds and work in wealthier households. Often also from ethnic or visible minorities, they make up over 15 percent of the economically active female population in Latin America, or twelve million in absolute numbers, and their services enable the well-off to work outside the home and to engage in leisuretime activities that they consider more desirable than household work and the daily routine of child care. This dynamic is a by-product of highly unequal societies, which produce a demand for the outsourcing of domestic activities as well as a ready supply of inexpensive labor. Driven not only by class-based views but also by views of the appropriate status for what is traditionally considered “women’s work,” the state has—in Latin America as well as much of the rest of the world—mandated longer work hours and lower benefits for this sector, basically ensuring that the servant is always available, outside of sleep, to serve her employers. This has, in effect, subsidized a cheap labor force for higher-income families. Recently, these laws have begun, albeit slowly, to change. The goal of this book is not to make a normative assessment of the desirability of paid domestic work as an occupation per se. What motivates the book, and what I consider politically compelling, is the role of the state in mediating this unequal relationship between the employers and the workers. The legal status of domestic workers exemplifies the tension between equal rights and class divisions and goes to the heart of the debate over what legal equality and social justice in a formal democracy entail. It also exemplifies the status that 2 care work and class the state accords the reproductive activities of the household, which are overwhelmingly performed by women and traditionally undervalued. Often, it highlights racial and ethnic divides as well. These dynamics apply not only to Latin America or to developing countries. Paid domestic work in advanced industrialized countries displays similar characteristics , although the vast majority of domestic workers are immigrants. It is estimated that the sector employs approximately 1.5 million workers across the United States, virtually all of whom are foreign born. Domestic workers in the United States are not covered by federal laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, employment discrimination laws, overtime laws, or occupational safety laws. Some states provide additional legal protections—most recently New York State in June 20101 —but many do not. In many other highincome countries as well, immigrant women work as domestics with lower legal protections. What makes Latin America particularly interesting is that three trends come together: high inequalities, changing gender relations, and democratic politics. First, the region as a whole exhibits the highest income inequalities in the world. This inequality creates both the demand and the domestic supply for the occupation. Although immigration has increased in some of the more developed Latin American countries, the vast majority of domestic workers are nationals of the countries in which they work. While their status as citizens distinguishes the dynamics in this sector from many of the policy debates in advanced industrialized countries, this context of deep domestic inequalities places the workers in a particularly precarious position and makes overcoming collective action problems and competing with elites for political attention more difficult. Second, the significant increase of women in Latin American labor markets has likewise led to the demand for paid domestic work and its supply, explaining the continued prevalence of paid domestic work as an occupation in the region. This interaction of class and gender has led to the ostensible liberation of professional women but has shifted much of the burden not to men but to lower-class women. Third, the region as a whole, with the exception of Cuba, is formally democratic , providing a context in which discrimination can be openly challenged. Indeed, transitions to democratic politics over the past two to three decades have provided an opportunity to contest explicit discrimination. Across the region, women’s organizations, indigenous movements, labor unions, human rights groups, and others have organized and demanded equal rights and an end to discrimination, and many of the more...