Gender and Sociology
Work, Labour and Cleaning: The Social Contexts of Outsourcing Housework, First Edition
Hardback | Jul 2019 | Bristol University Press | 9781529201468 | 216pp | 234x156mm | RFB | AUD$185.00, NZD$214.99
The outsourcing of domestic work in the UK has been steadily rising since the 1970s, but there has been little research which has considered white British women working as independent cleaning service-providers.
A cross-cultural analysis of two particular social contexts (one within the UK and one within India) based on new research argues that outsourced domestic cleaning can be undertaken either as work (using mental and manual skills) or as labour (usually defined as unskilled, 'natural' women's work) depending on the social context and working conditions.
The book challenges feminist dogma and popular myths about housework.