Of Mops and Maids: Contradictions and Continuities in Bureaucratized Domestic Work

Changing social organizations of care: a comparison of European policy reforms encouraging paid domestic work

“…This is especially noticeable in the countries with domestic service reforms that enable private households to employ individuals to perform domestic work. This study is not adapted to the traditional work legislations and tax regulations; instead, its existence is dependent on exceptional rules and regulations, rendering this work exceptional (Peterson 2007;Mendez 1998;Calleman 2007;PfauEffinger and Geissler 2005). However, in the cases where there are established companies selling domestic services, domestic work is still being performed within the privacy of the homes and therefore not likely to be scrutinized by work inspections or other forms of external controls (Lutz 2007(Lutz , 2008Calleman 2007).…”

Contextualizing dirty work: The neglected role of cultural, historical, and demographic context

“…For instance, Thiel (2007) discusses how notions of (white) working-class masculinity helped normalize the physical taint of British construction jobs; Mendez (1998) As alluded to above regarding Thompson's (2010) study of Latino lettuce pickers, the danger of having particular categories of socioeconomic status, gender, and racioethnicity cluster in low-prestige dirty work is that the clustering may come to seem normal and expected to insiders and outsiders alike. And this danger is only abetted by normalizing ideologies that provide explanations for the clustering.…”

Problematising public and private work spaces: Midwives' work in hospitals and in homes

“…In the case of work conducted in others' homes, most of the recent research has considered those providing child care or domestic work, where the class and sometimes racial distinctions between worker and client can be made (Meagher, 1997;Mendez 1998). Others have explored the isolation and possibility of abuse inherent in such work, which in the case of home care workers can result in a reduced commitment to the organisation, physical withdrawal from work and a search for alternate employment (Barling et al, 2001).What has been addressed to a much lesser extent is the work of professionals in other people's homes and how that compares to more formal work settings.…”

“…Similarly, Foley and Faircloth (2003) detail how hospital-based midwives contrast the 'natural practice of midwifery' with various hospital policies that are heavily influenced by the medicalised model of birth. Even household service agencies have become bureaucratised in ways that reproduce gender ideologies to control domestic workers so as to increase productivity and mask the typical low pay workers receive (Mendez, 1998).…”