This is a women's work: two generations in the domestic sector / Esto es trabajo de mujeres: dos generaciones en el sector doméstico

Abstract

Women’s work in the domestic sector has been invisible and underestimated for centuries. This article is the result of an investigation realized with Spanish women of two different generations, who have worked in the domestic sector. The aim of the article is to understand and analyze differences in this kind of work within more than fifty years. It is a qualitative investigation, and it has made clear that instead of being a minority work, lots of women have carried it out, and still do. Contrary to what is thought, it means a basic mean of support for many families’ finances but it has been relegated to the irrelevant for being a “women’s” work in the “women’s” area.

Keywords

• Gender
• history of work
• domestic generations
• housework employees
• domestic migrations
• history of labour