Towards a Global History of Domestic and Caregiving Work
Background and approaches
The focus on the 2013 symposion of the International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) is on the history of domestic workers and caregivers inside the home. During recent years domestic workers and caregivers inside the home have gained interest among researchers across the world. An analysis of domestic workers from a global perspective provides an opportunity to study labour relations mainly hidden behind the walls of privacy of private homes. Domestic workers have existed for a very long time and have been an especially exposed group of workers, with a weak bargaining position.
The domestic workers and caregivers to be discussed should include both free and unfree workers (including house slaves and indentured labourers doing housework), paid and unpaid; both in-living and not in-living; both females and males as well as adults and children.
The period to be covered should therefore include a longer time span but at least include the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although contemporary issues should receive attention, contribu-tions should take a historical approach with the focus on the global and historical development of domestic and care work.
The conference shall be organized around six themes:
1. Domestic servants and migration. Many servants came or come
as labour migrants from other countries or even other continents. This is
true for both free and unfree servants. What are the im-plications for the
lives and labour relations of servant-migrants, in comparison to the labour
rela-tions of non-migrant servants?
2. Domestic servants and political economy. The labour of servants
has implications for the house-hold economy. The “lord” and
the “lady” of the house are relieved from time-consuming tasks
so that they can devote the time gained to other activities, gainful or
not gainful. Which historical pat-terns can we discern and what is their
connection with economic and political trends?
3. Domestic servants and household mechanization. The diffusion
of electric household equipment reduces the time necessary for certain household
tasks. If servant labour is very cheap, the intro-duction of household machines
can, however, be financially unattractive to the head(s) of the household.
And if machines are introduced, they may lead to a rearrangement of household
tasks.
4. Domestic servants and resistance. Servants often have a weak
bargaining position compared to their employer. What kinds of resistance
against exploitation and abuse did they invent under vari-ous types of labour
relations? Under which conditions could solidarity between servants and
other workers (e.g. household slaves and field slaves on a plantation, or
waged housekeepers and trade unions) develop?
5. Domestic servants and emotional labour. Servants often get emotionally
entangled with other members of the household, children as well as adults.
Emotional work has both been regarded as extra demanding but sometimes also
as an extra reward for migrant domestic workers, ?for instance those who
had to leave their own children behind them?. On the other hand servants
have many times been compelled to sexual services for their employers.
6. Varieties of service. Women, men and children can all be servants.
Families can become an in-living servant group within the “master’s”
household, etc. How can these different patterns be ex-plained and understood?
The conference will be combined with a workshop on domestic workers for PhD students the day before the conference.
Preparatory Committee
Co-ordinator: Silke Neunsinger (Labour Movement Archives and Library,
Stockholm)
Bruno Groppo (Centre d’Histoire Sociale du 20e siècle,
Université de Paris I)
Eva Himmelstoss (ITH)
Dirk Hoerder (Fachbereich Geschichte, University of Salzburg)
David Mayer (Institute of Economic and Social History, Vienna University)
Berthold Unfried (Institute of Economic and Social History, Vienna
University)
Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History,
Amsterdam)
Raquel Varela (Instituto de História Contemporânea,
Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Contact
Eva Himmelstoss
International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH)
Altes Rathaus, Wipplingerstr. 8, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Fax +43 (0)1 2289469-391, e-Mail: ith@doew.at