Domestic Workers Archives - Page 2 of 4

Don’t Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

For centuries under common law, a daughter or a wife was the property of the family father or husband or, upon his death, the closest relative with a penis. Whatever was theirs was his, but most importantly the family patriarch oversaw her most valuable asset: her womb. In earliest medical thought, a womb was fertile ground in need of guarding and fences to make property rights clearer, and she to be plowed and planted with seed, quite literally semen.

We thought such laws and cultural metaphors were behind us. But now the cowboys of Texas have put a bounty on women’s wombs. The stakes are women’s civil rights as citizens, surely, but also financial ones.

The Real Reason Childcare Doesn’t Work? It Isn’t What You Think.

Erica Phillips

Women have disproportionately left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to a lack of child care. However, the U.S. childcare system was broken well before the pandemic. Racist and sexist beliefs have allowed this market to fail and ensured we never had a system designed to work for all families, childcare providers or children.

Too Often, Daughters Are Family Caregivers. Better In-Home Care Options Would Change That

Shurupa Muzumder

Without access to in-home care, women tend to take up the unpaid responsibilities of caregiving. In my family, it fell to me—the oldest daughter.

Congress has finally agreed on a framework for Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda. This includes an unprecedented investment in home care to expand access to caregivers by improving their pay and training. Congress must invest in home care. Young girls and young women deserve to experience their childhood.

First Federal Legislation on Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Reintroduced in Congress: “No More Silence, No More Complacency”

Meredith Abdelnour

The BE HEARD in the Workplace Act was reintroduced in Congress on Wednesday. The act expands current protections, eliminates the tipped minimum wage, and stops mandatory arbitration.

"At 9, I Had Already Started Working": Labor Activist and Former Farmworker Norma Flores López Demands Basic Workplace Protections for Agricultural Workers

“At 9, I Had Already Started Working”: Labor Activist and Former Farmworker Demands Workplace Protections for Agricultural Workers

Lily Sendroff

Loopholes in labor law allow agriculture to be the only industry where children can legally work virtually unlimited hours beginning at age 12. As a child farm worker herself, activist Norma Flores López is fighting for labor protections in agriculture—especially for children and women.

The Case For the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights: “Called Essential, Treated As Expendable”

Lily Sendroff

Domestic workers, organizers and activists have been working with members of Congress to mend the precarity of domestic work. On July 29, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) reintroduced the historic Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, first introduced by Jayapal and then-Senator Kamala Harris in 2019.

The Caregiving Crisis Didn’t Start with COVID-19—It Won’t End With Biden’s $400 Billion Plan

Juliet Schulman-Hall

Feminists are calling President Biden’s proposed $400 billion investment in caregiving “a great deposit” but “not nearly enough.” Programs Biden’s plan is proposing to invest in—such as community-based care—have been underfunded for decades

In Lebanon, Migrant Workers Are Facing More Abuse Than Ever

Elianor M.A.

During the pandemic, lockdown policies in Lebanon have made migrant workers even more vulnerable to exploitation.

The system protects abusive employers who may choose to not pay wages and offer vacations, and above all, to refuse paying for COVID-19 treatment.

Why Caregiving Is Key to Biden’s American Jobs and Families Plan

Ann O'Leary and Julie Kashen

If we do not build out our care infrastructure and open up physical infrastructure jobs to women, we will exclude half of our work force from the opportunities that will shape our economic future, potentially exacerbating and permanently extending the “she-cession” of 2020.

"Care is Infrastructure, Silly": Feminists React to the American Jobs Plan

“Care is Infrastructure, Silly”: Feminists Defend Caregiving Funding in Biden’s Jobs Plan

Katie Fleischer

The American Jobs Plan devotes billions of dollars towards transportation, clean energy and innovation. But—as is too often the case—the “controversial” funding is the provision that will help women recover from the disproportionate harm they faced during the pandemic.

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