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1 Domestic Workers in Latin America Today Paid domestic work is one component within the broader context of care work and gender relations. I compare the politics of care work in advanced industrialized countries with those in Latin America, highlighting the distinct dynamics that deep socioeconomic inequalities have produced. Within this context, paid domestic work as an occupation has specific characteristics related to both the nature of the work and its setting that render it vulnerable to exploitation. I then move on to a discussion of the history of domestic service in Latin America and describe domestic service in the region today. I discuss the prevalence and characteristics of this form of employment and the laws that surround it. The Global Politics of Care Work In past decades many scholars assumed, and sometimes explicitly argued, that paid domestic work would gradually disappear with economic development and modernization (Boserup 1970; Coser 1973). This assumption may explain the relative lack of scholarly attention to the topic. In reality, however, paid domestic work as a source of employment on a global level may be increasing. In Latin America, it has declined only slightly from 19.2 percent of the urban economically active female population in 1995 to 16.8 percent in 2009 (see table 1.1) (Abramo and Valenzuela 2005; Hite and Viterna 2005; OIT 2010). The continued importance of paid domestic work as an occupation for women on a global level should be understood in the interactive context of both gender and class inequalities. It is fueled by two key factors: first, by the incursion of women into the paid labor force outside the home, and second, by high levels of economic inequalities, both domestically and internationally, which enable the well-off to hire the services or labor power of the high numbers of 10 care work and class lower-income individuals—in this case mostly women—for their personal use. These factors drive both demand for and the supply of domestic workers. In advanced industrialized countries, this is reflected in the increased numbers of immigrant women from developing countries crossing borders to be household workers. As a result, much of the literature on the topic has focused on immigration. This dynamic is maintained in a global cultural context where this occupation tends to be considered acceptable only for women. Indeed, in this study I focus on female domestic workers for two reasons. First, over 90 percent of domestic workers in Latin America are women. Second, most men who are classified as domestic workers have higher-paying and more professionalized jobs, such as chauffeurs and gardeners, and tend to be treated more like other wageworkers than their female counterparts in the house. Hence, many of the more unique, and exploitative, characteristics apply more specifically to the women and girls who work in this occupation inside the house, doing household and care work. The first trend, increased women’s labor force participation rates, situates paid domestic work within the broader dynamics of the politics of care work in societies (see Razavi and Staab 2010). Feminist theorists have paid a lot of attention to the traditional distinctions between the “private” sphere of the family and household and the public sphere of paid work and public life (see Pateman 1989, chap. 6). The private sphere of unremunerated care work, including daily household activities of cooking and cleaning, child rearing, and care of the elderly, has traditionally been relegated to women and often undervalued , while paid work outside the home has been considered the domain of men. With urbanization and the shift to service-dominated economies, more women have entered the paid labor force and fertility rates have declined, and this has changed the dynamics of child rearing and the reproductive activities of the household. Politically, democratic politics, combined with the rise of women’s movements, has allowed feminists to question the traditional gender division of labor as well as the undervaluation of household and care work. A great deal has been written about gender, welfare states, and the politics of care work in the advanced industrialized world, and I will not repeat it here.1 In essence, families with young children have the following child care options: (1) one parent (usually the mother) stays at home with the children; (2) parents find informal care arrangements with relatives or friends; (3) parents send children to state-financed child care; (4) parents buy private provision of day care on the market; (5) parents hire a domestic worker...

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