Care Work and Class

Domestic Workers’ Struggle for Equal Rights in Latin America

Merike Blofield

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780271053271
• eBook ISBN: 9780271058894
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Storia dell'America Latina e dei Caraibi

Despite constitutions that enshrine equality, until recently every state in Latin America permitted longer working hours (in some cases more than double the hours) and lower benefits for domestic workers than other workers. This has, in effect, subsidized a cheap labor force for middle- and upper-class families and enabled well-to-do women to enter professional labor markets without having to negotiate household and care work with their male partners. While elite resistance to reform has been widespread, during the past fifteen years a handful of countries have instituted equal rights. In Care Work and Class, Merike Blofield examines how domestic workers' mobilization, strategic alliances, and political windows of opportunity, mostly linked to left-wing executive and legislative allies, can lead to improved rights even in a region as unequal as Latin America. Blofield also examines the conditions that lead to better enforcement of rights.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• CIP page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• List of Acronyms
• Introduction
• Notes to Introduction
• Chapter 1: Domestic Workers in Latin America Today
• Notes to Chapter 1
• Chapter 2: Overcoming Elite Resistance
• Notes to Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: Working in Chronic Informality
• Notes to Chapter 3
• Chapter 4: Bolivia and Costa Rica: Social Mobilization and Reform from the Bottom Up
• Notes to Chapter 4
• Chapter 5: Uruguay and Chile: Basic Universalism Versus Top-Down Incrementalism
• Notes to Chapter 5
• Conclusion
• Notes to Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Index
• COVER Back