Friday
Nov092012
Links
- Domestic workers in the United States are struggling to gain basic workplace protections, such as overtime pay, rest and meal breaks, and adequate sleeping conditions for live-in workers:
http://www.domesticworkers.org/ca-bill-of-rights/
http://www.domesticworkersunited.org/index.php/en/ - The interviews that became the book Gig: Americans Talk About their Jobs first appeared on this website:
http://deadword.com/site/pay/work/archive.htm
Thursday
Oct182012
Books
- Shadow Work by Ivan Illich
A fascinating look at how unpaid labor, like housework, enables the capitalist system. - The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home by Arlie Hochschild and Anne Machung
The classic sociological study on how families divide housekeeping tasks and how women continued to be responsible for housework even after entering the paid workforce. - Never Done: A History of American Housework by Susan Strasser
An in-depth examination of 200 years of housekeeping practices in the United States. - Working: People Talk About What They Do all Day and How They Feel About What they Do by Studs Terkel
First-person accounts of how it feels to be everything from a Steelworker to a Stockbroker. This engrossing book is the inspiration for Cleaning: People Talk About Housework. - Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, Sabin Streeter and Daron Murphy
An excellent update to Studs Terkel's 1972 book Working, Gig was published in 2001, with about 100 interviews of people in various professions. - Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence by Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo
In-depth interviews with domestic workers and their employers in Los Angeles.
- Between Women: Domestics and their Employer by Judtih Rollins
The sociologist who wrote this book did field work employed as a domestic worker. Intimate and honest interviews, with thought-provoking analysis.
- Maid in the USA by Mary Romero
A sociological study on the lives of immigrant domestic workers.