Dust and Dignity : Domestic Employment in Contemporary Ecuador / Erynn Masi de Casanova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Casanova, Erynn Masi de, Author.

Contributor:

Salazar, Maximina

Series:

Cornell scholarship online.

Cornell scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women household employees--Ecuador--Guayaquil.

Women household employees.

Women migrant labor--Ecuador--Guayaquil.

Women migrant labor.

Work environment--Ecuador--Guayaquil.

Work environment.

Informal sector (Economics)--Ecuador--Guayaquil.

Informal sector (Economics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (189 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

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

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501739460

1501739468

9781501739477

1501739476

OCLC:

1079399395