IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v31y2024i1p319-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caring is resisting: Lessons from domestic workers' mobilizations during COVID‐19 in Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Louisa Acciari

Abstract

Domestic workers were one of the most negatively affected groups by COVID‐19 in Latin America, yet they have also been resisting and mobilizing in impressive and innovative ways. This article shows that domestic workers' organizations were able to adapt to an extremely adverse context in order to protect their members and defend their rights. Furthermore, their mobilizations provide an alternative vision of society grounded on love and solidarity and offer concrete ways forward to “build back better.” Indeed, their core campaign, “Care for those who care for you”, demands the recognition of care work as real work and fair treatment for those who provide this care. Based on an analysis of this campaign, I have identified 3 repertoires of care‐resistance: the promotion of self‐care and well‐being, concrete practices of solidarity through the distribution of humanitarian aid, and legal mobilizations for the recognition of care as a fundamental right. I argue that these forms of action contribute to feminist ethics and theories of care and that putting forward the right to care and be cared for in times of crisis is an act of resistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Louisa Acciari, 2024. "Caring is resisting: Lessons from domestic workers' mobilizations during COVID‐19 in Latin America," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 319-336, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:1:p:319-336
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13085
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.13085?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smriti Rao & Sarah Gammage & Julia Arnold & Elizabeth Anderson, 2021. "Human Mobility, COVID-19, and Policy Responses: The rights and Claims-Making of Migrant Domestic workers," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 254-270, April.
    2. Emmanouela Mandalaki & Noortje van Amsterdam & Ajnesh Prasad & Marianna Fotaki, 2022. "Caring about the unequal effects of the pandemic: What feminist theory, art, and activism can teach us," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1224-1235, July.
    3. Martha Alter CHEN & Erofili GRAPSA & Ghida ISMAIL & Michael ROGAN & Marcela VALDIVIA & Laura ALFERS & Jenna HARVEY & Ana Carolina OGANDO & Sarah Orleans REED & Sally ROEVER, 2022. "COVID‐19 and informal work: Evidence from 11 cities," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(1), pages 29-58, March.
    4. Lui, Ingrid D. & Vandan, Nimisha & Davies, Sara E. & Harman, Sophie & Morgan, Rosemary & Smith, Julia & Wenham, Clare & Grépin, Karen Ann, 2021. "We also deserve help during the pandemic: the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114310, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Layla J. Branicki, 2020. "COVID‐19, ethics of care and feminist crisis management," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(5), pages 872-883, September.
    6. Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray, 2010. "Understanding union power: resources and capabilities for renewing union capacity," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 16(3), pages 333-350, August.
    7. Magali Natalia Alloatti & Ana Luíza Matos de Oliveira, 2023. "Deepening and widening the gap: The impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on gender and racial inequalities in Brazil," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 329-344, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Louisa ACCIARI & Chirlene DOS SANTOS BRITO & Cleide PEREIRA PINTO, 2024. "Essential yet excluded: COVID‐19 and the decent work deficit among domestic workers in Brazil," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 163(1), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Hrvoje Butković & Jan Czarzasty & Adam Mrozowicki, 2023. "Gains and pitfalls of coalitions: Societal resources as sources of trade union power in Croatia and Poland," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 29(1), pages 43-61, March.
    3. Radka Dudová & Alena Křížková, 2024. "Czech Parents Under Lockdown: Different Positions, Different Temporalities," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 29(1), pages 184-203, March.
    4. Heidi Reed, 2024. "“When money is more valuable than people…”: The pandemic as a call for business to care," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 435-455, March.
    5. Jeremy Waddington, 2014. "Workplace representation, its impact on trade union members and its capacity to compete with management in the European workplace," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 20(4), pages 537-558, November.
    6. Jørgen Svalund & Heidi Kervinen, 2013. "Trade union power during labour adjustments – comparison of company-level cases," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(4), pages 489-505, November.
    7. Heidi Reed, 2023. "“When money is more valuable than people…”: The pandemic as a call for business to care," Post-Print hal-04461114, HAL.
    8. Torsten Geelan, 2013. "Responses of trade union confederations to the youth employment crisis," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(3), pages 399-413, August.
    9. Heather Connolly, 2020. "‘We just get a bit set in our ways’: renewing democracy and solidarity in UK trade unions," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(2), pages 207-222, May.
    10. Corsi, Marcella & Ilkkaracan, Ipek, 2022. "COVID-19, Gender and Labour," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1012, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Julia Smith, 2022. "From “nobody's clapping for us” to “bad moms”: COVID‐19 and the circle of childcare in Canada," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 353-367, January.
    12. Gregor Gall & Jack Fiorito, 2012. "Union Commitment and Activism in Britain and the United States: Searching for Synthesis and Synergy for Renewal," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 189-213, June.
    13. Mehtap Akgüç & Marta Kahancová & Jaan Masso, 2024. "One-way street to the European Union? Between national and EU-level social dialogue 20 years after eastward EU enlargement," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 30(1), pages 33-49, February.
    14. Ana Carolina OGANDO & Michael ROGAN & Rachel MOUSSIÉ, 2022. "Impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic and unpaid care work on informal workers' livelihoods," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(2), pages 171-194, June.
    15. Tom Hunt & Heather Connolly, 2023. "Covid‐19 and the work of trade unions: Adaptation, transition and renewal," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 150-166, March.
    16. Winata, Fikriyah & McLafferty, Sara L., 2023. "Therapeutic landscapes, networks, and health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study among female domestic workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    17. Gabriella Nassif, 2024. "“If we don't do it, who will?” Strategies of social reproduction at the margins," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1582-1602, July.
    18. Ajnesh Prasad, 2023. "What is the real perversity of racism?," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 1785-1794, September.
    19. Nathaniel Tetteh & Stephen Mustchin, 2023. "Contrasting union orientations and engagement with international private regulation: The agency and role of labour in MNC subsidiaries in Ghana," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 506-525, September.
    20. Genevieve Coderre-LaPalme & Ian Greer & Lisa Schulte, 2023. "Welfare, Work and the Conditions of Social Solidarity: British Campaigns to Defend Healthcare and Social Security," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 352-372, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:31:y:2024:i:1:p:319-336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.