Maid or Madam? Filipina Migrant Workers and the Continuity of Domestic Labor

• NCJ Number: 199671
• Journal: Gender & Society Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2003 Pages: 187-208
• Author(s): Pei-Chia Lan
• Date Published: April 2003
• Length: 22 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article discusses feminized domestic labor in the context of global migration.

Abstract

Unpaid household labor and paid domestic work are viewed not as separate entities in an exclusive dichotomy but as structural continuities across the public/private divide. The concept of continuity of domestic labor is developed to describe the feminization of domestic labor as multiple forms of labor done by women in both the public and private spheres. These labor activities in different circumstances are associated with shifting meanings (money/love) and fluid boundaries (maid/madam). The life experiences of Filipina migrant domestic workers in Taiwan are used to illustrate this concept. Some of these workers are housewives in the Philippines but as overseas maids become breadwinners, transnational mothers, and domestic employers. Others are single women that become “old maids” or foreign brides. The gendered assignment of domestic labor has channeled these women’s chances in both the family and market in the local and global context. The study was based on ethnographic data and in-depth interviews collected between July 1998 and July 1999. Their life experiences revealed a disjoint between paid and unpaid domestic labor and the difficulty in performing both at the same time and in different settings. While working overseas to maintain the families of others, migrant mothers had to leave their children behind under the care of local workers, and single women gave up the option of establishing their own families. These women reconstituted the meanings of womanhood while occupying multiple positions and bargained with the interchange between monetary value and emotional value associated with their labor. Some single migrants preferred being gainful domestic workers to being unpaid housewives, while others sought international marriages to escape the downgraded status of “old maid.” 12 notes, 43 references