American Domestic Workers

The article “The Approaching Obsolescence of Housework: A Working-Class Perspective” by Angela Davis addresses on the liberation of women from their socially regarded functions in society. She explores the idea of capitalist critique and feminism, and she argues that housework is annoying as much as it is disempowering women in the society and women need to be released and discharged from these duties (Angela, 2011). Angela's unique perspective on women's roles as housewives and history of house works gives us a clear perspective on the plight of women in society. The article shares a different perspective to the traditional view of women as housewives in the community. Instead of judging women on their femininity and history of their work

Usually, when we think about the United States, we think words or phrases like “freedom, equality for all, and home or the brave.” Still, throughout the late 18th century and early 19th century, we see how the United States struggles to acknowledge the Mexican population. We see how the fail to acknowledge that their work should be equally valued as of an American labor would, or how judgment is based on the color of skin, rather than the quality of nurture. Above all else, we see how at the end the United States concedes that Mexican laborers are a profit to the nation rather than invaders.

‘Women Are Household Slaves’ is written by Edith M. Stern for a magazine in 1949. Edith M. Stern is a college-educated writer living in Washington, D.C. Due to the assumption that women lived queenly lives of domestic bliss by most Americans, Stern use her writing to describe about household bondage which express the frustrations and the aspirations of many American women. Moreover, she wanted us to know how housewives are being treated in the reality, how heavy the duty of the housewives have. She had used a really interesting analogy of the role of the housewife to that of the president of a corporation who would not only determine policies and make over-all plan, but also spend the major part of his time and energy to in such activities as sweeping the plant and oiling machines as well.

Moreover, women struggles in industry has posed new questions and renamed the meaning of morality in human beings. This represent an exploration for self determination against the capitalist and agencies with power control. For instance, Malay women have migrated to the state of 20th century homelessness in order to construct substitute homes and new identity of them stated in the book.

Dating back throughout history woman were often considered to be too soft or docile to work. In the early 1800’s, as well as the 1950’s, it was thought that woman should not only be pure in heart, mind and body, but that they should be submissive to their husbands and not work outside the home, this was known as the Cult of Domesticity (Keister & Southgate, Inequality: a contemporary approach to race, class and gender, 2012, p. 228).

Women for years have been automatically given the role of the domestic housewife, where their only job is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Men have usually taken the primary responsibility for economic support and contact with the rest of society, while women have traditionally taken the role of providing love, nurturing, emotional support, and maintenance of the home. However, in today’s society women over the age of sixteen work outside of the home, and there are more single parent households that are headed by women than at any other time in the history of the United States (Thompson 301.)

In this society, women are treated as servants; consequently, stereotypes are progressing to label women as maids. Wives are expected to clean, nurture

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

Women from diasporas in Third World countries, such as China and the Philippines, search for jobs in First World countries and migrate in order to make enough money to send back home. However, these women are often exploited in the labor force, or taken advantage of by their manager. For instance, emotional labor is work that regulates or suppresses other people’s emotions and feelings. Nursing or nanny work are common examples of emotional labor because these occupations demand more communication and interaction. People from Third World nation-states often come from a Communist system, in which all property is publicly owned and everyone works and is paid accordingly, to a Capitalist system, in which the country’s trade and industry are privately owned and the labor force exploits workers. As seen in the film Mardi Gras: Made in China and the novel Global Woman, Director David Redmon and authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild portray the exploitation of women in the workforce and in marriage from Third World countries, thus suggesting that imposing emotional labor on female workers puts people in developing nation-states at a greater disadvantage and ultimately makes the poor worse off.

Prior to the 20th century, the majority of women were expected to perform arduous obligations around the home – the principal and by far most strenuous

The resilience of women and the hardship of men were prominent during this time. However, women were still deeply grounded in their home life (Bolin, 74). Particularly women from middle-income families were left with job of being able to balance work and home life (Bolin, 74). Being a caregiver and taking care of the domestic needs of the home was very important. During this time tradition values were deeply routed in the home. Women made sure not let their home life consume them because their may focus was being a good wife and mother. This is a trend that has made its way even in today’s society. “Even now lack of adequate day-care (necessitating private baby-sitting service), low paying jobs for women, and the growth of technologies that open the door to and “electronic cottage industry”, indicate that women’s home production is a mutable but perhaps permanent response to women’s economic and social inequality under capitalism” (Hollingsworth, & Tyyska). The oppression in the past is shown to have made and imprint on society even to this day. Even though

The economic contribution of domestic workers goes unnoticed in the modern political economy because, domestic work is not recognized as a “real” job, plus most of these workers get pay by cash or just a personal check. I will have to say that domestic worker is one of the most hard and humiliating jobs because these domestic workers put up with a lot, first of all they don’t have any rights, they can get terminated whenever their employers want, and the horrible pay they received. It’s something that we put out of sight because we are so focus on ourselves that we forget how bad others have

Women’s unpaid labor in maintains a systems of oppression in many ways. In Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee’s Women’s Voices Feminist Visions unpaid labor done by many women is, “undervalued as women’s formal productive paid labor in the workforce is prioritized” (Shaw & Lee, 2015, 471). Shaw and Lee are saying that women work at home is devalued because it is viewed as informal and as work that is done out of love or is natural work. Since the work being done is viewed as natural work, it further reinforces gender stereotypes by stating that women are supposed to do the household work which is deemed more as feminine. This thought process follows patriarchal thinking, where women are expected to do the

A significant aspect of daily life and household management for 18th Century are rooted in a social hierarchy. Within a residence, there are members of the family and hired service staff, which could range in magnitude contingent upon financial means and a physical necessity for proper operation and management. Though men serve significant roles, women and girls execute significant and extensive duties during the day-to-day domestic chores. In homes of humble means, women were to fulfill the expected daily tasks, typically delegated amongst several employed workers in a larger service structure. The status of the family and the position of the job

Sociological study on the gendered division of labour within the domestic sphere has perennially been characterised by evidence of a clear inequality concerning the allocation of unpaid chores within the home between men and women (Warren, 2003:734). While men have traditionally been regarded as primary breadwinners, the management of home-maintenance has remained largely women’s responsibility (Breen & Cooke, 2005:47). A number of theories exist to explain this unequal distribution of domestic labour, in particular the economic exchange model (which argues that women perform domestic duties in ‘exchange’ for financial support from their husbands), and the gender display model, which asserts that household labour is divided on the basis of