Publication details
Panie k deťom a na upratovanie. Podoby platenej práce v domácnosti
| Title in English | Doing Cleaning and Providing Childcare : Paid Domestic Work in Slovakia |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Monograph |
| Citation | |
| Description | The monograph focuses on the demand for paid domestic workers in Slovakia and situates the employment of paid domestic workers (nannies, babysitters, and cleaners) in Slovakia within the dominant conceptual frameworks used for interpreting paid domestic work. This study uses qualitative research methods allowing for a deeper insight into the practices and interpretations of research participants. The first part of the monograph introduces the market for paid domestic work in Slovakia. I argue that the employment of local women in Slovakia cannot be explained either by global or by local care chains: neither paid domestic workers nor their employers are migrants, and paid domestic workers are local women who live out and do not have young children. The second part of the book deals with the context of hiring paid domestic workers. I focus on the welfare regime and demonstrate how employers fill gaps in the welfare regime through hiring full-time or part time nannies. Then, I argue that if we want to explain the demand for paid domestic workers, we have to consider also the ideology of childcare and ideas on leisure time. The third part of the monograph describes the gendered division of labour in households, analyses the gendered division of labour involved in hiring paid domestic workers, and reveals the processes leading to the reallocation of housework or childcare to other woman The fourth part of the book analyses employers’ ideas about who should work as a particular type of domestic worker. While ethnicity, nationality, and race are not relevant categories for examining paid domestic work in Slovakia, it is clear that employers prefer people with specific characteristics for particular types of paid domestic work. These characteristics are related to specific gendered experiences based on age (or rather, life stage) and reproduction. |