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Black Women and Work: The Impact of Racially Constructed Gender Roles on the Sexual Division of Labour; Part Two
In my last article, I discussed the impact of racially constructed gender roles on the sexual division of labour, indicating generally the extent to which "Black women's work" is historically rooted in slavery in the Americas. As a consequence, it is hidden, devalued, and marked by gender. In this article, I want to focus more closely on the "domestic" aspect of Black women's work, and discuss the racial construction of gender roles within this particular framework.
Because of the nature of "Black women's work," on one hand, it is seen as productive work, but, on the other hand, it is positioned in what we can call the reproduction of labour power in the society. Because of this, it has an ad hoc quality. That is, no one in the society acknowledges that it is socially important work, yet it is acknowledged at some level as work that has to be done; as a group "Black women" are appointed to do it. So although it is necessary labour, it is seen as degraded labour. Hence the terms of the relationship between worker and employer are always fluid, the disadvantage of the flexibility falling to the worker. Further, the degradation of the labour, coupled with its role within the reproduction of labour power in the society, makes the actual work and its means opaque, leaving Black women in the position of plugging the holes of the services with their own unpaid energies and labour.
Institutionalised domestic work on a large scale is performed in nursing homes, hospitals, homes for the aged and so on (privately as well as publicly run) where nursing attendants and aides carry out the tasks of caring. These involve lifting,...