The Servant Problem
by Rosie Cox
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- IB Tauris ISBN 1 85043 619 3 HB
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- Product link
- http://www.ibtauris.com
Rosie Cox has a sharp eye for the paradoxes of domestic labour. Still regarded as ‘women’s work’ it is consequently given less importance than other forms of labour. There are more servants now than there were in Victorian England; and although not in rigid hierarchies of 19th-century servitude, there is still plenty of scope for exploitation of nannies, domestic helps and au pairs, particularly when these are women who have migrated to the West in search of livelihood. Rosie Cox looks at ways in which living and working conditions of domestic workers can be improved, but she is well aware that it is the spaces between terrible global inequalities that permit exploitation to flourish. The reappearance of a leisured class that is willing to take poor women away from their families in the Philippines or Sri Lanka to maintain the flawless home and glossy lifestyle of the Western dream. The distortions this creates in Western countries are magnified in the South, where the middle classes regard their domestic employees as a different order of humanity. In Dhaka, I met countless women who employ girls of 10 or 11 to work a 15-hour day, saying sweetly ‘Oh, she is like my daughter.’ I never met one girl who saw the faintest resemblance between her employer and her mother.
This is a good and timely read: it shows how a world which many thought had vanished into history is still flourishing under our very noses.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
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