Maid in the U.S.A.

Studies of household labor have largely neglected the employment of domestic workers nor have they sufficiently addressed the issue of unpaid housework. Focusing on both paid and unpaid domestic work, Maid in the USA expands the theoretical understanding of reproductive labor to explain the dynamics of race, class and gender in housework. Through interviews with 25 Chicana private household workers, Mary Romero provides a unique exploration of their working conditions, and the social constraints which shape their personal lives.

Mary Romero is Director of the Ethnic Studies Program and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon.