Transcript From Servitude to Service: Historical continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor Facilitated by: Erica Cochran.

From Servitude to Service:
Historical continuities in the
Racial Division of Paid
Reproductive Labor
Facilitated by:
Erica Cochran
What is the author trying
to argue?
 Women tend to be discussed in
comparison to men, not women amongst
women
 In this article specifically women with
power over women with out
 Racial inequalities even exist between
the minority races.
How does the author
explain the argument?
 Through a historical look at both women
in the workforce and racial segregation of
the jobs within the workforce
 Segregation of jobs according to race
and geographical location;
 South (African Americans),
 West (Asians)
 South west (Mexicans/Chicanas)
Contradictory truths…
 The labor for some races was harder than
the labor for other races.
 Very contradictory because women's work
was dirty work but “white women” were
excluded from doing it.
 “White women” were expected to be social
and proper.
 Domestics were expected to be maternal to
there employers children
 They were not seen as mothers to their
own children.
Who is the norm in this
article?
 Middle class white women
Strengths of the article…
 Tracing how race and gender have been
fashioned in one area of women’s work
helps us understand them as socially
constructed
 By understanding that they are
interlocking and socially constructed
helps strategize for change
If race and gender are socially
constructed then they must arise at specific
moments in a particular circumstance and
change as these circumstances change …
Do they in this article?
Two fundamental elements
in the construction of racial
and ethnic womanhood
 Inherent traits that
suited women for
service
 African American
women: Domestics
 Mexicans/Chicanas:
Laundresses
 Asians: Servants based
on who their husband or
father worked for.
 The denial of
women's identities as
wives and mothers
Weaknesses of the
article…
 Is there a solution?
 Are white women supporters because of
short term interest
 Gains of one group are still the priorities
because of gains of another group
require a corresponding loss of
advantage and privilege for others
In other words…
 What is more important?
 The success of women as a collective
group…
 Status of women as a collective group…
 or individual success of one race as the
dominant group…
 It’s a very problematic question
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