Dust and Dignity

de Casanova Erynn Masi

Description

What makes domestic work a bad job, even after efforts to formalize and improve working conditions? Erynn Masi de Casanova's case study, based partly on collaborative research conducted with Ecuador's pioneer domestic workers' organization, examines three reasons for persistent exploitation. First, the tasks of social reproduction are devalued. Second, informal work arrangements escape regulation. And third, unequal class relations are built into this type of employment. Accessible to advocates and policymakers as well as academics, this book provides both theoretical discussions about domestic work and concrete ideas for improving women's lives.Drawing on workers' stories of lucha, trabajo, and sacrificio-struggle, work, and sacrifice-Dust and Dignity offers a new take on an old occupation. From the intimate experience of being a body out of place in an employer's home, to the common work histories of Ecuadorian women in different cities, to the possibilities for radical collective action at the national level, Casanova shows how and why women do this stigmatized and precarious work and how they resist exploitation in the search for dignified employment. From these searing stories of workers' lives, Dust and Dignity identifies patterns in domestic workers' experiences that will be helpful in understanding the situation of workers elsewhere and offers possible solutions for promoting and ensuring workers' rights that have relevance far beyond Ecuador.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology
• Industrial relations
• History of the Americas
• Ecuador

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501739477
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

DUST AND DIGNITY

DUSTAND DIGNITY Domestic Employment in Contemporary Ecuador

Erynn Masi de Casanova

ILR PRESS AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2019 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2019 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Casanova, Erynn Masi de, 1977– author. Title: Dust and dignity : domestic employment in contemporary Ecuador / Erynn  Masi de Casanova. Description: Ithaca : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press,  2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018057157 (print) | LCCN 2018059081 (ebook) |  ISBN 9781501739477 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501739484 (epub/mobi) |  ISBN 9781501739453 | ISBN 9781501739453 (cloth) |  ISBN 9781501739460 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Women household employees—Ecuador—Guayaquil. | Women  migrant labor—Ecuador—Guayaquil. | Work environment—Ecuador—  Guayaquil. | Informal sector (Economics)—Ecuador—Guayaquil. Classification: LCC HD6072.2.E2 (ebook) | LCC HD6072.2.E2 C37 2019 (print) |  DDC 331.4/81640986632—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018057157

To all the women informal workers who are unseen and underpaid

Para las mujeres trabajadoras informales en reconocimiento de su lucha, trabajo, y sacrificio

Contents

Foreword by Maximina Salazar Acknowledgments

Introduction 1.  In Search of the Ideal Worker 2.  Embodied Inequality 3.  Informed but Insecure (Written in Collaboration with Leila Rodríguez) 4.  Pathways through Poverty 5.  Like Any Other Job? Conclusion Epilogue

Appendix: Research Methods Notes References Index

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Foreword

The biggest obstacle that household workers face in Ecuador is the lack of com pliance with labor laws. The laws exist, but they are not acted on, and it seems that they don’t matter to the authorities today. We the household workers have carried out a daily struggle (lucha) to achieve some changes, like respecting the eighthour workday—so that we, like any other worker (trabajador o trabaja dora), can work Monday to Friday—and requiring social security coverage. We have engaged in political activities on behalf of members of this occupation. For example, we lobbied for the ratification of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 189. But, at the moment, there is a reversal in the observance of our guaranteed rights. On the topic of social security, we conducted a research study, whose results are presented in this book, to see how many household workers are enrolled in social security. Then we launched another study to determine the education levels and work histories of remunerated household workers. Investigating the experiences of the workers is the best way to get real information that comes right out of their lives. With Erynn Masi de Casanova, at first we got to know each other casually, but as time passed she has cooperated with us, supporting us in the research about social security and other topics. She was the one who trained us so that we could conduct surveys with this important labor sector. Because we didn’t know how to do the analysis, we had to have a professional. She was the one who did the tabulation and analysis, as we had agreed. I also want to state that she is now our friend and comrade (compañera). Thanks to God and to life that we had the privilege of getting to know each other. These collaborations between academics and activists are ways of helping oth ers when there are not sufficient resources. This is true teamwork, and I see it as a way of supporting the organization. Maximina Salazar President of the Association of Remunerated Household Workers (Asociación de Trabajadoras Remuneradas del Hogar) Guayaquil, Ecuador

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