This dissertation is geared toward a deeper understanding of the complexity of the multiple positions of women in the "Third World," and on how these positions create, sustain, and reproduce inequalities. I examine class inequality among employed women in the Philippines in the context of mistress-maid employment relationship. Using feminist fieldwork approaches, my gatekeeper, Merly, and I conducted extensive interviews and focus groups with thirty-one maids and ten mistresses between May and August 2000 in a medium-sized city in the Philippines. Recorded interviews were transcribed and processed using QSR NUD*IST N4. Domestic workers, who started as child laborers, live in their mistresses' homes where they perform household chores and carework. Aside from their "job description," they carry out additional tasks within and outside the household. The maids' relationship with their mistresses is based on maternalism, in which the mistresses integrate them into the family, engage in gift giving, provide educational support, but at the same time, control their bodies, times, spaces, and relationships. Except in cases where maternalist behavior becomes violent, both maids and mistresses approve of maternalism. In looking at the factors that may contribute to the mistresses' maternalist behavior, this study found that mistresses who are subordinate relative to their spouses and their workplaces are more likely than those who are not subordinate to engage in maternalist behavior with their maids. As maids prefer maternalist relationship with their mistresses, they accommodate their mistresses' dominating tendencies. When reprimanded, they respond through culture-specific rituals of subordination. However, when their threshold of tolerance is breached, they apply a combination of subtle and blatant resisting strategies. Younger maids perceive domestic work as a stepping-stone toward a more comfortable future, while older maids view it as a dead-end occupation. From a global standpoint, class mobility is examined based on the domestic workers dialectic positions within the international division of reproductive labor. Throughout this dissertation, women's inequality in the context of mistress-maid relations were analyzed from various angles, shifting the analysis from micro to macro dynamics; from class to the intersection of gender, ethnicity, age, and class; and from local to global. In addition to providing a sociological understanding of this phenomenon, I put the varied voices of "Third World women" at the forefront of this study. / Ph. D.

Domestic workers, also known as house maids or handmaids, are a predominately female workforce that traditionally provides labor in upper-class households. With the increase of dual income families and the global expansion of the middle class, the demand for domestic workers increased, which facilitated the practice of importing lower-cost foreign domestic workers (FDWs) from developing areas. Hong Kong has the highest concentration of FDWs when compared to other metropolitan areas, such as Taiwan, Singapore, or New York. Since the trade began in the 1970s, qualitative research and journalistic investigations have reported that FDWs frequently encounter exploitation, including emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; being underpaid and overworked; and racial discrimination. With sparse quantitative research identifying risk factors that predict psychological well-being, this study hypothesized two models: (a) racial and ethnic microaggressions, job satisfaction, and family concern predict psychological distress and (b) resilience mediates the association in the first model. We surveyed 478 female FDWs in Hong Kong, and the results suggested that racial and ethnic microaggressions, job satisfaction, and family concerns were significant predictors of psychological distress, supporting the first hypothesis. The women demonstrated very high levels of psychological resilience; however, due to a ceiling effect in the measure of resilience, the data collected on resilience were unrelated to job satisfaction and family concerns. Thus, the second model was not supported, apparently due to a problem in the measurement of the construct of resilience in this sample of FWDs. Overall, FDWs’ working conditions and their level of resilience to those conditions did significantly influence their levels of psychological distress. These findings serve as pilot data for future quantitative research that investigates female FDWs’ employment experience.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a remarkable influence on society. Many argue that the impact of ICTs, either positive or negative, affects all of humanity. Acceptance, usability, and accessibility are key for ICTs to make a positive impact on society. Previous research states that Information Technology (IT) can lead to higher salaries, better communication, and more rapid advancements from emerging to developed nations. Additionally, information technology has demonstrated the potential to improve society's effectiveness and productivity by establishing a means to circulate knowledge, increase knowledge sharing, and provide knowledge accumulation and internalization. Therefore, if information technology can improve knowledge and productivity in society, why are the indigent not leveraging technology to a higher degree? This formal research provides a benchmark analysis of a set of female Foreign Domestic Workers that have been hired as household maids. This study provides baseline insights of how these women who share low levels of skill, low wages, and to whom English, the worldwide language of the Internet is a second language, interact with technology. This study also contributes research data that can help improve development, design, and implementation of future Information Systems. It can be concluded that FDWs do have availability of technology as shown in the study results. Yet, these women are not visiting websites designed for their use, such as government portals providing information and services. The study shows that the current Information Systems developed for this segment of the population may not be providing the Design, Quality of information, nor the User Acceptance needed to make these tools successful as compared to social media sites which are being visited by FDWs. The results demonstrate that Foreign Domestic Worker's interaction with technology is still not integrated in their culture or every day activities although they have the advantage of living and working in Singapore, where infrastructure, technology and communications top ICT's charts and tables as one of the most advanced countries in the world.

More and more women from poor areas of the world are migrating to rich countries for domestic work. Given the increasing published research on their exploitation and ‘slavery,’ much policy action has been oriented towards their protection as victims. Far from protecting the livelihood needs of these migrant workers, however, this victim-based approach has instead resulted in legitimising the protection of rich countries’ borders. An emerging perspective underscoring migrant women’s agency is producing a counter-approach that fights for migrant workers’ rights: not as victims but as workers. Yet despite this important development in research and policy agendas, increasing inequality in the global economy and stringent immigration policies render a rights-based approach ineffective. From poor countries, and with very limited livelihood options, these migrant women choose overseas domestic work often at the expense of their human rights. As migrants, they are outsiders whose rights are superseded by the rights of the sovereign, receiving-state. How is it possible then, to protect the rights of these workers? This thesis employs Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to evaluate the efficacy of these women’s agency in overcoming victimisation. This evaluation gives equal consideration to the victim and rights-based perspectives. It synthesises the Capability Approach with Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory in order to reconcile the polarised theories underlying the victim and rights-based perspectives - feminist structural theory and migration agency theory, respectively. In so doing, the study is able to refine the conceptualisation of agency from the highly ambiguous rights-based approach, to a more theoretically sound and feasible capability approach. The main hypothesis is that agency requires capability to successfully mediate victimisation; agency in itself is insufficient. The study draws on the experiences of Filipina overseas domestic workers in Paris and Hong Kong to test this hypothesis, and demonstrates how it is ‘capability’ that can turn the ‘slave’ into ‘the worker’, and protect ‘the worker’ from turning into a ‘slave.’

Brazil is a nation that has professed to be a `racial democracy' such that race categories are not recognized. This implies that every citizen experiences equal access from a political, social and economic point of view, irrespective of skin color. Nevertheless, palpable racial inequalities exist in Brazil such that there is a primarily white elite class while Brazilians of African descent are typically poor. Male dominance is a worldwide phenomenon. When racial inequities are coupled with male dominance, Brazilian women of African origins suffer as they occupy the lowest socio-economic strata, which often remand them to work as domestics. Some scholars have hypothesized that a participatory democracy model can bring about a shift in these women's lives. Using the participatory budgeting model that was implemented in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 as a point of reference, this paper analyzes the official socio-economic indicator census data for years 2001, 2005 and 2009 in the region. The analysis contends that a participatory democracy model has not brought about any significant change in the position of nonwhite Brazilian female domestic workers in Porto Alegre. The assumption can be made that a participatory democracy model implemented nationwide will not ameliorate the conditions of nonwhite Brazilian women working as domestics. Therefore, other strategies should be identified by the Brazilian Government to address the disparate conditions of these women who have been showcased as neo-slaves in the international community.

Over the last several decades, economic and cultural shifts in the United States have created an increasing demand for domestic labor, and data shows that these jobs have largely been filled by women of color, many of whom are immigrants who may or may not have documented legal status. Despite the growing importance of this industry, domestic workers have historically and intentionally been excluded from most federal and state labor rights and regulation, which has resulted in substandard working conditions, exploitation, and abuse for workers in this industry. This research traces the gendered and racialized legislative exclusion, and analyzes recent state efforts to enact policies extending labor rights to domestic workers. It concludes with recommendations for the role of advocacy in pushing for legislative change, and for bridging the gap between policy and enforcement.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:49:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1620050 bytes, checksum: a17245acadefd22ec509e662582c1060 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aimed to investigate the union of the domestic workers from João Pessoa city and their collective action against the current context of institutional change in the regulation‟s pattern of their labor rights. To achieve this objective, it was necessary theoretical basis about the labor and its new settings, the sexual division of labor, the labor market in Brazil, and a specific literature about domestic employment, highlighting its history, precarious situation and the actions and policies targeting category. This research was outlined by a qualitative approach whose case study was conducted at the Union of Domestic Workers of João Pessoa. The subjects were, beyond the union president, twelve (12) workers associated and active in the institution. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews, document analysis and direct observation that occurred in August and September 2013. Regarding the results of the survey, it was sought to characterize the social and demographic profile of the domestic workers; investigate how works the organization and the structure of the union; how it is mobilized politically and to investigate how to the legislation change influences the political action and the working conditions of the category. The results shows that the profile of the interviewed maids follows the pattern found in Brazil: women, black, poor and poorly educated. Most of them work unregistered, informally, receiving a minimum wage and do not contributing to social security. As regards the organization of the union, one realizes that it is a fight that has dragged on for several years, which counts with numerous important partnerships for it to keep working, such as CUT, the Feminist Movement, and the Black Movement. It is highlighted the importance of SINTRICOM (Union of Construction Workers) for union researched, since it is responsible for enabling all necessary for the operation and maintenance of the union of the domestic structure. With regard to the actions of the union itself, we note that the biggest problem faced by the union is the lack of political awareness on the part of the maids. For most respondents, the union is not just a space for professional representation, but also a space where they feel comfortable, useful, valued and it is an area of continuous learning and fellowship. The domestic workers received favorably and with great expectations the acquired rights from the PEC. Even with all the barriers faced by the union and by category, the respondents believe that working conditions will improve after the adoption of the PEC. / O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar o sindicato das empregadas domésticas da cidade de João Pessoa e sua ação coletiva face ao atual contexto de mudança institucional no padrão de regulação de seus direitos trabalhistas. Para que esse objetivo fosse atingido fez-se necessário o embasamento teórico a respeito do trabalho e suas novas configurações, da divisão sexual do trabalho, do mercado de trabalho no Brasil e, de uma literatura especifica sobre o emprego doméstico, evidenciando sua história, sua situação de precariedade e as ações e políticas públicas direcionadas à categoria. O presente estudo se delineou por meio de uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujo estudo de caso foi realizado no Sindicato das Empregadas Domésticas de João Pessoa. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram, além da presidente do sindicato, 12 (doze) empregadas domésticas associadas e ativas na instituição. A coleta de dados se deu por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, análise de documentos e observação direta, ocorridas nos meses de Agosto e Setembro de 2013. Em relação aos resultados da pesquisa, buscou-se caracterizar o perfil social e demográfico das empregadas domésticas; investigar como se dá a organização e estruturação do sindicato; como se mobiliza politicamente e; de que maneira a mudança na legislação influencia a ação política e as condições de trabalho da categoria. Os resultados mostraram que o perfil das empregadas domésticas entrevistadas segue o padrão encontrado no Brasil: mulheres, negras, pobres, com pouca escolaridade. A maioria delas trabalha sem registro em carteira, na informalidade, recebem até um salário mínimo e não contribuem para a previdência. No que se refere à organização do sindicato, percebe-se que é uma luta que se arrasta há vários anos; que conta com inúmeras parcerias importantes para o seu funcionamento, como a CUT, o Movimento Feminista, e o Movimento Negro. Destaca-se a importância do SINTRICOM (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Construção Civil) para o sindicato pesquisado, uma vez que aquele é o responsável por viabilizar toda a estrutura necessária para o funcionamento e manutenção do sindicato das domésticas. No que se refere à atuação do sindicato em si, nota-se que o maior problema enfrentado pelo sindicato é a falta de conscientização política por parte das empregadas domésticas. Para a maioria das entrevistadas, o sindicato não é apenas uma espaço de representação profissional, mas também um espaço em que elas se sentem bem, úteis, valorizadas, além de ser um espaço de contínua aprendizagem e de companheirismo. As domésticas receberam com bons olhos e com uma grande expectativa os direitos adquiridos com a PEC. Mesmo com todas as barreiras enfrentadas pelo sindicato e pela categoria, as entrevistadas acreditam que as condições de trabalho irão melhorar depois da aprovação da PEC.

Orientador: Alexandre Gori Maia / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T11:07:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BenjaminSampson_Evelyn_M.pdf: 1203261 bytes, checksum: e11d34bf7a0eb6b41fb9faca572f3b49 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Há uma força de trabalho cuja presença, contribuição e impacto no desenvolvimento socio-econômico não pode ser negado em nenhum lugar do mundo, embora haja pouco ou nenhum reconhecimento. Em função disso, em muitos casos, esses trabalhadores sofrem negligência e condições de trabalho inaceitáveis: os trabalhadores domésticos. Vindos de um background de trabalho familiar não pago e servidão que engloba acompanhamento (de crianças a idosos) e faxina, pessoas que se encontram neste trabalho - normalmente mulheres de famílias pobres - são comumente não consideradas como trabalhadores que merecem tratamento decente e direitos básicos no trabalho como todos os outros trabalhadores. Nas décadas recentes, em países avançados, a participação das mulheres na força de trabalho aumentou em muitas economias. Este período é caracterizado por alterações nos arranjos de trabalho e intensidade de trabalho e o sempre declinante Estado de Bem Estar Social, no qual as provisões do estado considerando serviços sociais estão escassos. A importância dos trabalhadores domésticos em tais circunstâncias - ambos nativos ou migrantes - não pode ser exagerado. De fato, serve como base para muitas economias ao redor do mundo. No entanto, pouco tem sido feito para melhorar e minimizar os desafios que esses trabalhadores enfrentam, como remuneração baixa, falta de proteção social, exploração, discriminação, trabalho infantil, tráfico de seres humanos, desregulação, abuso sexual, entre outros abusos. Gana é um dos países onde o trabalho doméstico é cada vez mais comum e estabelecido, mas não sem os desafios mencionados acima, em especial o trabalho infantil. No contexto de um país em desenvolvimento como Gana, o Estado dificilmente oferece soluções para famílias que permitiria que as pessoas trabalhassem fora de suas casas com tranquilidade. Muito precisa ser feito no intuito de promover condições de trabalho decentes para os trabalhadores domésticos / Abstract: There is a workforce whose presence, contributions and impact on socio-economic development cannot be denied anywhere they are found in the world, in spite of no or little recognition accorded them in several places - domestic workers. In many cases, they suffer neglect and unacceptable working conditions due to lack of adequate recognition of their presence as well as the value of their work to societies and economies. Coming from a background of unpaid family work and servitude that entails care-giving and housekeeping, people who find themselves in this work - often women and from poorer backgrounds - are usually not considered as workers that deserve decent treatment and basic rights at work like all other workers. In recent decades, in advanced and developing countries, women's labor force participation is increasing in many economies. This very period is characterized by changes in work arrangement, intensity of work in the face of ever declining welfare state where provisions of the state concerning care as well as social services are lagging. The importance of domestic workers in such circumstances - both as nationals or migrants- cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, paid domestic work is serving as a backbone to many economies worldwide. Notwithstanding, not much have been done to improve upon challenges they face that include low remunerations, lack of social protection, exploitation, de juro and de facto discrimination, child labor, human trafficking, unregulated agencies, sexual harassment and other abuses. Ghana is one of the countries where domestic employment is increasingly prevalent - but not without challenges such as mentioned above, especially child labor. In the context of a developing country like Ghana, the state hardly provides solutions for household concerns to enable people work outside households in tranquility. This makes domestic workers important partners for development of Ghana. However, a lot needs to be done in order to promote decent working conditions for domestic workers / Mestrado / Economia Social e do Trabalho / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Orientador: Maria Suely Kofes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T10:18:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oliveira_EmanuelaPatriciade_M.pdf: 1146311 bytes, checksum: 521fbf7677cd56f57a3136ff161014dd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho consiste em uma etnografia dos cursos oferecidos para trabalhadoras domésticas. Especificamente, aponta-se que tais cursos, na variedade de suas propostas e de seus formatos, se encontram polarizados em dois universos. No primeiro estão inseridos os cursos disponibilizados por empresas, sendo que estas, além de treinamento, prestam serviços de agenciamento ao mercado de trabalho. Já no segundo universo se concentram os cursos dados no âmbito de um projeto social, diretamente ligado à organização sindical das trabalhadoras domésticas, cuja proposta versa sobre a qualificação profissional e social das trabalhadoras. A análise demonstra que entre estas duas perspectivas de oferecimento de aulas se configura uma tensão estrutural que, sobretudo, se verifica nas respectivas estratégias, observadas nos cursos, voltadas à modelagem da trabalhadora doméstica e que passam por apontamentos e discussões relativas à sua condição de pessoa e ao seu corpo, contemplando também aspectos de gênero. Destaca-se ainda que, no contexto das propostas e das aulas do curso oferecido pelo referido projeto social, uma outra noção, a de cidadania, vem ganhando espaço na esfera dos cursos voltados às trabalhadoras domésticas, estando sua ênfase voltada, principalmente, às premissas de conquista de direitos e reconhecimento social / Abstract: The present work consists of an ethnography of the classes offered to domestic workers. More specifically, we show out that these classes, in their variety of offers and shapes, are polarized between two different universes. In the first universe are the classes offered by companies, which, beyond offering the specific training, do the mediation between the students and the work market. In the second universe are the classes that belong to broader social projects, directly linked to the syndicate organizations of domestic workers, whose aim is the professional and social qualification of the workers. The analysis employed demonstrates that between these two different perspectives of class offering there is a structural tension that can be verified, above all, in the respective strategies of each class that are oriented toward the modeling of the domestic worker. These modeling strategies run through the observation and discussion of the worker¿s condition as a person and body, which also contemplates gender aspects. We also want to highlight that, in the context of the offer and the classes of the courses offered by the referred social project, another notion, of citizenship, is gaining field in the sphere of the courses for domestic workers, its emphasis being the acquisition of social rights and recognition / Mestrado / Antropologia / Mestre em Antropologia

In Southeast Asia, many impoverished Indonesian women migrate to Singapore to work as domestic workers in households. Though employers are required to provide domestic workers with food and housing, there have been numerous reports of employers withholding food. This thesis explores the ways in which Indonesian domestic workers navigate towards food security in the context of social relations in their employers’ homes in Singapore. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2016, where I interviewed Indonesian domestic workers and employers. Not only were the majority of domestic workers experiencing food insecurity, food was additionally symbolically used to denigrate them. Drawing on a concept I term markings, which denotes the process of demarcating social roles through symbols and boundaries, I argue that employers control food in order to produce markings that construct and reinforce relations of inequality in households. These relations around food emotionally and physically shape domestic workers in ways that allow them to know their positions in the household. Despite their subordination, domestic workers use strategies to contest and endure their unequal conditions in Singapore in ways that demonstrate their resilience. This research demonstrates the importance of protecting the food security of migrant women, and advocates for the fair treatment of domestic workers. / Graduate / 2018-12-05