This article looks at the daily mobility practices of domestic workers in Brussels. Although they live in precarious social conditions, influenced by gender, class and administrative status (in the ...case of undocumented workers), these workers are particularly mobile. A study of their care journeys – whether linked to paid or unpaid work – reveals the strategies they use to get around. In addition to their care work, these workers are required to carry out another, particularly invisible form of work, preparing and organising their journeys: a way, in short, of creating forms of proximity for themselves at the margins.
Esta reflexión aborda la organización social de los cuidados a la luz de la crisis de la COVID-19. Los argumentos aquí expuestos se apoyan en la literatura existente y en mi propio trabajo de campo, ...con el doble objetivo de esbozar un análisis sobre esta crisis y de lanzar preguntas que abran líneas de investigación en este nuevo escenario.
Los trabajos de cuidados se exploran en dos sentidos: por un lado, las actividades que normalmente se prestan como servicios públicos o privados y que durante el estado de alarma son realizados en los hogares, siendo compatibilizados en muchos casos con el teletrabajo; por otro lado, las actividades que han seguido prestándose en tanto que son "esenciales".
Public debate and research on absence care leaves of men (paternity leaves) is growing in the last years. Practitioners and scholars alike are seeking evidence-informed answers on whether and how ...paternity leave can help overcome the domestic division of labor, with growing interest in identifying factors that facilitate men's use of this leave. To assess and synthesize this field of study from a theoretical and empirical perspective, we carried out a systematic literature review putting together existing knowledge into a common framework that can inform future research in the field. We analyse trends of paternity leave research over time and its main thematic areas. Findings from this systematic process of synthesis evidence the growing interest of academics (mostly women, and European) in the topic. An organizing framework is presented for understanding male involvement in parenting work suggesting that men's use of paternity leaves is determined by both political/regulatory forces (legislation) and organizational forces (firm's culture and practices), with an impact in a varied range of organizational, psychological and family-related areas including career development, health, and relations with children. We invite future practices and lines of research that more interactively cover regulatory, organizational and family forces that hinder men's use of paternity leave and organizational development, and outline how male-focused practices such as those implemented in European policy should help pursue these goals.
•Organizational variables and outcomes have been ignored in paternity leave research.•There is a clear lack of common theoretical and empirical grounding across studies.•Research should clearly distinguish between levels and categories of paternity leave.•Macro- and meso-level forces can move paternity leave decisions significantly forward.•A comprehensive review and organizing framework of paternity leaves is proposed.
El texto examina las luces y las sombras de la nueva normativa española sobre el empleo en el hogar en el contexto de la llamada «crisis de los cuidados». Para ello se examinan dos tipos de ...condicionantes que han influido en la reforma de 2022: los jurídico-internacionales y los político-sociales, donde destaca la autoorganización de las trabajadoras del sector. El estudio fija su atención en sus demandas, en diálogo con especialistas e instituciones, a fin de identificar con precisión los problemas a los que se enfrenta la reforma.
In this article we share the findings resulting from interviews with 25 female domestic workers in Lima between August and December of 2016. We argue that the experiences of these workers, who ...migrate from the provinces to the capital city of Lima as minors, frequently qualify them as victims of human trafficking - not because they are forced to move or deceitfully recruited, but due to their exploitation as adolescent domestic workers. We also analyze the drivers behind teenage female migration to Lima to work in the domestic sector under abusive conditions and offer future policy directions.
Objective
This article examines the association between state‐level work–family resources and earnings disparities by gender and parenthood.
Background
The wage gap between childless men and women in ...the United States has narrowed, but the gap between mothers and fathers remains robust. Gendered division of labor and reduced labor force participation of women around childbirth have been raised as underlying causes. In the absence of national support, some states and migrant domestic workers have been filling the care gap, but it is unclear whether these factors are associated with the wage gap.
Method
Individual‐level data from the 2012 American Community Survey were merged with state‐level data collected for 2010. Multilevel linear regression models were used to explore variation in earnings across states, accounting for compositional differences and selection into the labor force.
Results
Temporary Disability Insurance, which enables new birth mothers to take paid leave, was robustly associated with narrower gaps between mothers and fathers. Unpaid private‐sector leave expansion and more intensive globalization of domestic work were associated with narrower gender wage gaps among parents with lower education. Provision of Head Start supplemental funding was associated with narrower wage gaps between mothers and fathers with higher education.
Conclusions
Although mothers earned more in states with more work–family resources, the wage gap remained mostly unchanged because fathers similarly earned more in states with better work–family context.
Implications
The results reflect the fragmented and incomplete nature of work–family support in the United States and calls for more comprehensive intervention strategies to reduce the wage gap.
Informality is a reality for three-quarters of domestic workers in Brazil who, without a formal employment relationship, are not protected by the legal guarantees established since 2013. This lack of ...legal protection is exacerbated by the emphasis on entrepreneurship promoted by a growing number of digital platforms offering domestic work intermediation. In this article, we examine the structural standards of digital intermediation companies for domestic work in Brazil. Four representative platforms (GetNinjas, Parafuzo, Helpty, and Crafty) were analyzed. Our research corpus consists of their websites and applications, their terms of use, as well as journalistic articles and complaints from workers and clients on the website Reclame Aqui. The results are presented in three parts: (i) the history and general characteristics of each platform; (ii) their content organized into four categories of analysis (marketing, hiring, remuneration, and reputation systems); and (iii) the accounts of clients and workers on the Reclame Aqui website. The study found that digital intermediaries for domestic work present complex challenges for workers, as they amplify existing risks in the dominant labor model, such as intense subordination, economic dependence, lack of transparency about the value of their work, and exclusion from legal labor protection, whose recent expansion has not resulted in effective change. The study also suggests that this intensification of risks increases directly with the degree of intervention by the digital intermediary in the client-worker relationship.
A informalidade é uma realidade para três quartos das trabalhadoras domésticas, que, por não possuírem um vínculo de emprego formal, não estão cobertas pelas garantias legais conquistadas a partir de 2013 no Brasil. Esse distanciamento da proteção legal é reforçado pela ênfase no empreendedorismo alardeado por um crescente número de plataformas digitais que realizam a intermediação do trabalho doméstico. Assim, este artigo tem por objetivo analisar os padrões estruturais apresentados pelas empresas de intermediação digital do trabalho doméstico no Brasil e, para tanto, quatro plataformas (GetNinjas, Parafuzo, Helpty e Crafty), escolhidas em função de sua representatividade, foram analisadas. Suas páginas de internet e aplicativos, seus respectivos termos de uso, além de matérias jornalísticas e reclamações de trabalhadoras e clientes formuladas no site Reclame Aqui constituem o corpus de nossa investigação. O resultado é apresentado em três partes, nas quais são examinados: (i) o histórico e as características gerais de cada plataforma; (ii) seus conteúdos organizados em quatro categorias de análises (marketing, contratação, remuneração e sistemas de reputação); e (iii) os relatos de clientes e trabalhadoras no site Reclame Aqui. Ao final, constata-se que os intermediários digitais do trabalho doméstico apresentam desafios complexos para as trabalhadoras, potencializando riscos já existentes no modelo hegemônico de trabalho, tais como subordinação intensa, dependência econômica, obscuridade quanto ao valor do seu trabalho, tudo isso com exclusão da proteção legal trabalhista, cuja expansão recente não se traduziu em modificação de sua frágil efetividade. O estudo sugere, ainda, que essa intensificação de riscos cresce de modo diretamente proporcional ao grau de intervenção do intermediário digital na relação entre cliente e trabalhadora.
The domestic service sector in Argentina is significant for many women workers. It is a highly feminized sector, closely tied to caregiving, and extremely diverse due to the variety of tasks, work ...modalities, and hours involved. Performed behind “closed doors”, this profession inherently faces challenges in unionization and collective organization. This article analyzes the experiences of organization and collective participation sustained through digital mediation by paid domestic workers. The study ethnographically examines two organizations in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires mediated by digital technologies: a small traditional union holding online assemblies via Facebook and a non-unionized workers’ WhatsApp group. The common thread is that engagement and participation were made possible through the use of socio-digital platforms. Several questions are explored through participant observation in these spaces: How do workers experience participation in collective spaces mediated by digital technologies? What are the scope and limitations of using these platforms in their daily lives and union participation? What other forms of political-union participation exist in virtual interstices? The creation of political-union networks has great potential as they can alter workers’ material conditions and defend their labor rights. They can also serve as spaces for recognition and self-valuation that transform how workers perceive themselves and their fellow workers as a collective
Domestic and care work is a largely feminized sector marked by high levels of informality, low wages, and precarious working conditions worldwide. Over the past decade, particularly in the United ...States and Europe, new intermediaries have emerged, organizing search and hiring services through digital platforms. More recently, significantly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, these platforms have proliferated in Latin America, raising questions about the effects of this new form of intermediation in the region. While the dominant global view on digital labor platforms is that they lead to the precarization of working conditions, emerging international literature questions whether they might contribute to the formalization of the sector. This hypothesis is based on recognizing certain characteristics of digital intermediaries that can institutionalize the employment relationship in an activity that largely operates outside of regulation, where direct hiring and personalized negotiation of working conditions prevail. At the same time, the literature warns that certain business models of these platforms contribute to non-formalization and promote hiring practices that deepen precariousness. Within this debate, this article aims to contribute to understanding the intermediation methods of these new actors in Latin America, considering that the employment classification of workers is crucial for their access to rights. To this end, the article presents a regional mapping of digital platforms operating in the sector and proposes a typology based on the business models and types of hiring promoted by the studied platforms
Within the field of studies on digital intermediaries in the domestic and care work sector, some research suggests that these intermediaries exacerbate and perpetuate the inherent labor ...precariousness of the sector and the social inequalities that sustain it, while others highlight the ambivalence of their effects. Focusing on the organizational structures assumed by digital platforms, the purpose of this article is to shed lights on the differential effects of the various modes of intervention that develop in each context according to their specificity. Through the study of the digital platform Zolvers in Argentina, we analyze its adaptation to a sector characterized by two opposing trends: the formalization of labor relations and the increase in hourly work. This gives rise to three hiring modalities: regular hires managed by the digital platform, regular hires managed by household employers, and occasional hires. Although workers use these hiring modalities interchangeably and even accumulate jobs that correspond to all of them, the effects on working conditions vary significantly. In the first modality, the platform’s intervention automates certain rights; in the second, working conditions are more heterogeneous as the legal framework is challenged by employers; in the third, working conditions are extremely precarious due to the sporadic and short-term nature of the work. This study highlights that the effects of digital platforms on working conditions depend on the type of intermediation. The research used a quantitative-qualitative methodology, including a survey of 300 workers, 20 semi-structured interviews with workers, two focus groups with workers, and four with employers who use Zolvers
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