“Deae ex Machina”: migrant women, care work and women’s employment in Greece

This paper is about women’s work in the context of fast socioeconomic change. Drawing from feminist analyses on women’s work and the care sector, it highlights the link between women’s paid employment and the supply of low-paid immigrant (female) labour in Greece in the sphere of care provision. It examines three issues: First, the acceleration of women’s involvement in the paid labour force after 1990. Second, the parallel influx of immigrants in Greece –half of whom are female (of which, half are involved in service provision for households). And third, the “big picture” of the demand for care (both paid and unpaid, childcare as well as care for the elderly) in the context of ageing and rising female participation in paid work. The analysis highlights the key contribution of migrant women acting as catalysts for social change, the ‘deae ex machina’ of the story.