Women’s Domestic Workers’ Narratives on Their Work

Abstract

For some working women, becoming a domestic worker is the only way for them to support their families. When they choose to work as domestic, they automatically become associated with negative stereotypes from the community. Through in-depth interviews conducted with three female domestic workers as informants, this study presents narratives related to their experiences working as domestics. The narratives from these three women who work as domestics showed that they were able to explain clearly the job that they do, and that they have positive associations to their profession, even though they realized that they are doing a job that is considered dirty and lowly by the community. A good relationship with the employer, as well as a comfortable working atmosphere, is one of the factors that determined the construction of meaning related to the job. Narratives from women domestic workers in this study showed that they are able to create positive meaning related to a job associated with negative stereotypes because they have a good relationship with their employer and family.