By: Raeshell Duru
Womanhood has long been synonymous with domesticity. Even today, as the number of women continues to increase in the the workforce, a woman is still expected to balance the demands of work and home. Women essentially are expected to become 24 hour working machine. For many women, especially here in the United States, the answer to this dilemma is to seek help. In this one conscious decision of one woman to pay or elicit help, she pulls another woman away from her home leaving a gap in her home -which then causes her to have to seek help and the chain begins. No women in the chain escapes alienation and exploitation – even the original link may become alienated from her home or children. Exploitation occurs as the pay decreases as you go down the chain – which inevitably leads to some source working for free (such as a daughter taking care of her younger siblings or old grandmother taking care of her grandchildren). Each woman is integral part of the previous links ability to do the given job of domesticity – but why must this process be so closely linked to womanhood? If men were involved in the demands of home wouldn’t more families be able do with caregivers and housekeepers? The answer I offer up is: YES!!! In making men a part of the home – not just members in the home – this vicious cycle that pulls millions of immigrant women from their homes and let’s their children know them are more than breadwinners.
Sources for the Infrographic:
Global Commission on International Migration (2005, September ). Global Care Chains: A Critical Introduction. Global Migration Perspectives, 44, 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.refworld.org/docid/435f85a84.html
Goldberg, M. (2009, September 3). The Real Nanny Diaries. The American Prospect. Retrieved from http://prospect.org/
UN Women (2011, May). Concept Note of Gender and Migration: Care Workers at the Interface of Migration and Development. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/Headquarters/Media/Stories/en/conceptnotegenderandmigrationcareworkersatpdf.pdf