Domestic Workers from Margin to Center: Pandemic Politics, Protest, and Policy

• In Event: Relevance, Quality, and Expedience: Political Science Responds to COVID-19: Identity and Responses to COVID-19

Abstract

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has made savage inequalities worse, especially in terms of economic opportunity, working conditions, and access to health care. Those who work in informal employment – overwhelmingly women – are especially disadvantaged by pandemic conditions. Domestic workers already experience precarious working conditions and have been slow to be recognized for full workers’ rights around the world. Prior to the pandemic, protest was a primary avenue for workers to catalyze change, but lockdown conditions and other pandemic-related challenges make both working conditions and the political responses to those conditions more challenging for domestic workers. Here, we focus on how feminist movements are integral to efforts to spark legislative protections for marginalized workers and how the pandemic halts these efforts. We present new evidence on the ways in which feminist mobilization has bolstered legislative change for domestic workers' rights on a global scale. We also employ a case study of regions in India, including Delhi, Kerala, and West Bengal, to illustrate how the pandemic paused advocacy for domestic workers at a time when they were most vulnerable, and what implications this has for women in domestic work worldwide.

Authors

• S. Laurel Weldon, Simon Fraser University

• Amber N Lusvardi, Purdue University

• Kaitlin Kelly-Thompson, Tufts University

• Summer Forester, Carleton College

• srijani datta, Simon Fraser University