The Myth of Being “Like a Daughter”

1. The Myth of Being “Like a Daughter” By: Grace Esther Young Presented by: Sylvia Lozada

2. Lima, Peru – 1940’s -1970’s • There is a strong increase in the middle class that developed from a stage of economic growth and stability between the end of WWII and the mid 1970’s • Service Sector increased which created a high number of available jobs in this sector • Government work, nursing, secretarial and teaching positions • During this time there was a large number of women entering these white collar jobs

3. Effects on Lower Income Women • While the development in Peru lead to an increase in employment for white collar women it also lead to a decrease in manual labor which is an area usually filled by low income women. • Any slight job growth in this sector went to men • Domestic service became one of the few employment options for lower income women

4. Domestic Service • A high demand for domestic servants came from a higher number of middle and upper class women entering the service sector. • Rural lower income Indian women of Incan decent began to migrate at young ages to Lima in search of work

5. Public and Private? • From a very young age, girls are directedto fill the role of wife and mother • Charactorized by love, devotion and respect • Catholic Church reinforces the idea of duty and devotion to the family • The need to find suitable income makes lower income women go into public sphere to earn money for the family • Domestic service combines working in the public sphere with the private sphere because even though they are earning money for their families, they are doing work that is characterized by the private sphere

6. The Myth of Being “Like a Daughter” • The girls start working at a young age so they likely develop and attachment to their host family and may even be shown affection by the patron family to where she appears to be “like a daughter” • By defining her “like a daughter” it is an effort to secure dependence and devotion to the family that is cemented by the private sphere values of love, devotion and respect • In reality, though they may see her as “like a daughter” she will never be able to have the same kinds of opportunities that the actually children in the family have such as a high level of education • The work of a domestic servant actually helps the children of the family to have more freedom.

7. This also helps the woman of the house by removing her from the laborious chores that she would normally be doing around the house. The domestic servant then becomes a kind of status symbol because while she could she help around the house she no longer has to.

8. Emotional effect of being “like a daughter” • “The food they gave me was a few beans with some very hard tortillas. There was a dog in the house, a pretty, white, fat dog. When I saw the maid bring out the dogs food – bits of meat, rice, things that the family ate – and they gave me a few beans and hard tortillas, that hurt me very much. The dog had a good meal and I didn’t deserve as good a meal as the dog. Anyway, I ate it … But I felt rejected. I was lower than the animals in the house.” • Quote from I, Rigioberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

9. Marginalized Women • Domestic Service is not protected by outside institutions. • “Laws governing the sector of domestic servants support her isolation by legitimizing the separation of the family from the public sphere.” • Domestic service is defined apart from labor for profit “by stating that the relationship with those who benefit from her labor is one of trust, the government legitimates the paternalistic ideology of domestic service.”

10. These ideas are reinforced by structural aspects of domestic service • Amount of time spent working • Upper Class values • “As long as she remains ignorant of her position as a servant she will not question her marginalized position” • However in the early 1970’s domestic servants began to talk to each other about their dependent and insecure positions. “Through sharing information, a slow process of consciousness-raising began as they discovered that, while each girl’s situation had its specific characteristics, they were all subject to very similar conditions in their patron families. They began to identify with one another; as workers in homes, and as rural, Indian people.”

11. 1972 - 1981 • During this time there was a decline in manual jobs in the formal sector due to the collapse of the textile industry • This leads to an increase in economic participation by lower class women entering the informal labor market especially vending • For the first time since the 1940’s, women’s participation in the formal labor market decreased leaving many middle class women without jobs. • 1978 – Economic crisis created a long and severe recession

12. Vending • Recession effected the earning power of women in the middle class so many were no longer able to hire them • 1970 – 51% of households had a domestic servant • 1981 – 25% • Not as attractive • Have to have own accommodation • Certain amount of capital • Domestic service was then handed to extended members of the family instead of outside help

13. “Few opportunities are available to them apart from the vendor sector. The absorption of these women into the vendor sector, then, is a result of their expulsion from the domestic service sector.” • During this time however there are a number of women leaving domestic service for vending due to the increased freedom they would have. • Still marginalized members of society

14. Conclusion • Dependence on patron family is driven by the paternalistic ideals that within the culture that are emphasized by the church. As a wage earner this leaves her vulnerable not only because she has the least amount of power in the house but also because she lacks protection from the government. • Economic insecurity narrows the need for domestic servants. The few job opportunities that are available to them are just as economically unstable and equally marginalizing.