The Myth of being "Like a Daughter" by Grace Esther Young

1. The Myth of being "Like a Daughter" by Grace Esther Young Presented by Paajnyag Yang

2. From Family of Origin to Patron Family: Socialization and Marginalization • Feminist analysis of the subordination of women is the relationship of the Public Sphere and the Family • Relevent to the interdependence of the two realms • Sacks and Rapp

3. Peru and Western Society - Ideologies that cross class and cultural boundaries that are reinforced by the cultural forms of church and state. • Private sphere is one's work of voluntary nature, given in love and devotion • Public sphere is ruled by economic laws of wage labor, business cycles, and profit motives. An overlap of these notions provide guidance for the domestic servant when she enters into the new family. Once she enters the private sphere, the stress and duty, and work is a voluntary contribution, the young woman becomes "like a daughter" in the patron family

4. Paternal family ---> Paternal new family Serving and Working in the home becomes her identity. Senora - the Mrs, mistress, female head of household The servant becomes like one of the children, receiving affection and looked at as a step-daughter or a god-child

5. The Catholic church plays an important role in legitimating the idiom of duty and devotion to the family • They are the intermediaries between domestic servants and patron homes • Recruit and train young women • Teaching them the framework of duty and respect to their patron families to be

6. Early 1970's Domestic servants meet informally to confront their dependent and insecure positions - met in neighborhood street parks - met after classes if they went to school Created an awareness for who they were as rural, Indian people and as workers in homes.

7. Domestic Service Vs. Vending: New Option or Last Resort • Economic Crisis of 1978 • Viewed as the long, severe recession • Brought a decline in manual jobs available to women in the formal labor market (resulted in the collapse of the textile industry- female dominated) • After the Crisis • Informal labor market increased because most of the poor women were entering this market while women with higher incomes were entering the formal labor market

8. After Crisis Cont'd • A study of women in Villa Salvador showed that 47% of women worked outside of the house, the majority in the vendor sector • 66% had worked in the domestic sector, but after forming families they began working for their own domestic sphere as vendors.

9. Recession Impact on Middle Income Families • Decrease in available jobs for domestic help • Demand for Domestic help lowered by 50% • A drop in middle income family wages also had a dramatic drop in domestic wages by 50% • Substitution of domestic help for extended family help • Forcing women to look for other jobs, such as becoming vendors.

10. As women move from the domestic sphere to become vendors the cultural conception of the domestic servant has changed. • Senoras say that maid now seek their freedom in the street and that good maids are hard to come by these days because they no longer act like family and want to be free from their senoras. • This comes from the petitioning of minimum wages and minimum working hours. • But the government marginalizes them also by excluding them from the public sphere and from an unprotected position.

11. Conclusion • The church and government enhance a dependent paternalism by marginalizing domestic workers • This marginalizing is due to dependency of the patron family and her economic insecurity • Although awareness is being made in confronting the fundamental nature of their situation the future still remains uncertain.