1 - Conceptualising Paid Domestic Work

Summary

‘I find this a really stupid idea for [research].’

‘I am a feminist. I employ a cleaner. He is a man. … We also employ a man [to] cut back the ivy that covers our house. I have no idea why you have chosen this subject …, it makes no sense to me.’

In the early days of the research that underpins this book, I posed a question on Mumsnet, a popular British online discussion forum (see Chapter 2), giving a brief explanation about my project. The question was: ‘Does having a paid domestic cleaner conflict with feminism?’

Twenty-five people contributed to the discussion. Many respondents found my question “hilarious” – feminism was about “allowing women to earn money”. Doing cleaning “as a business” was feminist, “doing it for free or favours” was not. They pointed out that there is no angst around men using the services of other men, car mechanics, plumbers, builders and so on. One respondent had felt guilty “because the people I’ve paid to do my cleaning … have all been clever and capable women”, implying that “there's something wrong with having a cleaning job”. Others told me my research methodology reeked of sexism: it was I who was “making this a feminist issue by assuming that everyone on here is female, that it is their cleaning they are outsourcing, that it is a menial job [and] not one to be proud of, and that all cleaners are female”. The exercise left me somewhat shaken.

Introduction

Outsourcing of domestic work is an enduring feature of society throughout the civilising process: its trajectory in Sweden (Hoerder et al, 2015; Platzer, 2006; Sarti, 2005) illustrates how this occupation persists despite political, socioeconomic and technological upheavals and advancements. The intersecting patterns of gendered, classed, racialised and socio-legal exploitation in the work are broadly similar in most cultural–geographical contexts: paid domestic work is constructed as an extension of unpaid and unskilled housework, it is accorded low status and value, and is often performed informally, and even illegally, by those with the fewest social, educational and economic resources – predominantly female migrant workers as well as citizens working underhand in the grey economy (Cox, 2006; Srinivas, 1995).