Books are rarely written in isolation. They are woven into and emerge from the fabric of everyday life. The intellectual work for this book was shaped in the archives, as well as in daily conversations and seemingly unrelated experiences. The many household workers I have known over the course of my life are reflected in these pages. I owe my first thanks to them for enabling me to understand this occupation in a way I otherwise would not have. They include the members of Domestic Workers United, Adhikaar, Mujeres Unidas Y Activas, Damayan, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Numerous archivists and librarians facilitated access to material and assisted in the research process: Kenneth Chandler of the National Archives for Black Women’s History at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Abby Lester at Sarah Lawrence College, archivists at the Southern Labor Archives at Georgia State University, Margaret Jessup at Smith College, Joellen El Bashir at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, Andrew Salinas at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, Tom Hodgdon at the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina, Sarah Moazeni at the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, Shannon O’Neill at the Barnard College Library, Walter LeFeber and Kristen Lynn Chinery at the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University, and Sarah Hutcheon at the Schlesinger Library. I was lucky to have access to interviews of domestic worker activists conducted by other researchers. They include Gerda Lerner, Robert Hamburger, Tamar Carroll, Loretta Ross, Martha Sandlin, Donna Van Raaphorst, Chris Lutz, Malaika Lumumba, and Debra Bernhardt. Their foresight to document the lives of household worker activists provided a foundation for this book, as did the work of numerous black feminist scholars and women’s historians who began to write about black working-class women’s history many decades ago. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to meet any of the household workers from the 1970s featured in this book. I did have a chance to speak to Mary McClendon a few times on the telephone, although she felt unable to have a face-to-face interview. Sadly, as I was completing the final round of edits, I learned from her granddaughter that she had passed away.
Funding from the PSC-CUNY Research Foundation, Barnard College; the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center; and the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center enabled me to conduct research and complete the writing. I had the opportunity to share portions of the manuscript at a number of seminars: the Center for the Humanities; the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics; the Columbia University Social Rights and Democracy Workshop; Sister Scholars; the Boston Seminar on the History of Women and Gender; the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism; the Barnard Center for Research on Women’s Gender, Justice, and Neoliberal Transformations Workshop; and the Intimate Labors Conference at the University of California–Santa Barbara.
I have the good fortune of being a part of enriching academic and nonacademic communities that helped make this book what it is. Individuals who influenced me in one way or another include Mimi Abramovitz, Patricia Antoniello, Bill Ayers, Rosalyn Baxandall, Asha Best, Martha Biondi, Grace Chang, Amy Chazkel, Yvette Christianse, Cathy Cohen, Kathy Coll, Sarah Covington, Aimee Cox, Grace Davie, Angela Davis, Dana-Ain Davis, Gina Dent, Lindsey Dayton, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Bernardine Dohrn, Sujatha Fernandes, Leon Fink, Jennifer Fish, Bill Fletcher, Eric Foner, Pablo Foster, Pablo Foster Jr., Valerie Francisco, Zinga Fraser, Josh Freeman, Pam Galpern, Ruth Gilmore, Stephanie Gilmore, Harmony Goldberg, Linda Gordon, Dayo Gore, Anna Gueverra, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Victoria Haskins, Nancy Hewitt, Cheryl Hicks, Elizabeth Kai Hinton, Tarry Hum, Tera Hunter, Lynette Jackson, Janet Jakobsen, Anne Jonas, Amy Jordan, Temma Kaplan, Robin Kelley, Alice Kessler-Harris, Madhulika Khandelwal, Alice Kim, Lisa Lee, David Levine, Manning Marable, Vanessa May, Sonya Michel, Keesha Middlemass, Nara Milanich, Nancy Mirabal, Michele Mitchell, Chandra Mohanty, Leith Mullings, Lisa Murray, Cheryl Mwaria, Celia Naylor, Alondra Nelson, Immanuel Ness, Mae Ngai, Mojubaolu O. Okome, Francois Pierre-Louis, Michael Ralph, Sheri Randolph, Beth Ritchie, Sam Roberts, Gunja Sengupta, Carla Shedd, Irene Sosa, Marie Cruz Soto, Pam Sporn, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Jeanne Theoharis, James Thindwa, Ethel Tungahon, Peter Vellon, KC Wagner, Rhonda Williams, Barbara Winslow, and Komozi Woodard. Barbara Ransby, Peter Sporn, Jason Ransby-Sporn, and Asha Rosa Ransby-Sporn are like family. Barbara has for decades been an important source of support and love. I have been especially impressed by Asha’s growing commitment to activism and her demonstrated leadership on and off Columbia’s campus. I appreciate Lelanie Foster-Sporn finding the time to take an author photograph for me. Special thanks to Linda Burnham, research director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, whose sharp insight and decades-long commitment to organizing has taught me a great deal, and to Ai-Jen Poo, whose unwavering dedication was so important to building the local and national movement of household workers. Eileen Boris has been a friend and collaborator on research and writing related to domestic worker organizing for many years.
Several people read portions of the manuscript and provided feedback: George Aumoithe, Eileen Boris, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Nancy Cott, Lisa Levenstein, Erik McDuffie, Ruth Milkman, Celia Naylor, Annelise Orleck, Barbara Ransby, Mary Romero, Robyn Spencer, Lisa Tiersten, and Lara Vapnek. Their brilliance and insight made this a better book. Two research assistants, Jessica Mendez and Tess Domb Sadof, helped me at critical moments in the completion of the book.
When I started this project, I was teaching at Queens College, an institution with dedicated faculty and students with unmatched maturity and life experience. Although I am no longer at Queens, I still deeply value its mission of public education. I also had the privilege of serving as visiting Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Brooklyn College, where I developed lasting friendships. My move to Barnard has exceeded my expectations. I have a fabulous set of colleagues, both in my department and across the college and the university, and an outstanding chair, Lisa Tiersten, who made my transition into Barnard a smooth one. The Barnard Center for Research on Women has been a particularly supportive space to think and talk about household worker activism. I am impressed by the sense of community, as well as the intellectually stimulating environment, at Barnard.
Gayatri Patnaik, Rachael Marks, Susan Lumenello, Marcy Barnes, Melissa Dobson, and the entire staff at Beacon have been a real pleasure to work with. Even in those moments when I was in my writing doldrums, Gayatri and Rachael always knew exactly what to say to guide me through to the other side. They cheered me when I needed cheering and pushed me when they thought it would be productive. I thank them for their faith in the project and their insightful feedback as the book underwent many rounds of revisions.
Friends and family members helped out in big and small ways. John Johnson, Luciano Dos Santos, David Fletcher, Jeffrey Palichuck, Nicole Martin, Dave Martin, Amina Khalil, Jaycinth Hyman, and Robyn Spencer and her daughter Sira all serve as surrogate family. My extended family in South Africa, especially my aunt Saroj and cousins Anthony, Rajes, Deysie, Leo, Tracy, and Marshall and their children, are dear to my heart. Kasie and Sheila Padayachee hosted me in Michigan while I visited the Reuther Library, and Nicole Nadasen took care of my daughter. Sally Gladstone, Allan Hruska, Peggy Calkins, Andy Calkins, Emily Coombs, Kitty Gladstone, and all my nieces and nephews—Charlie, Caroline, Jack, Bonnie, Liza, Grace, and David—always have an abundance of love to share. I am grateful for the love and support of Denise Nadasen, Tom Reynolds, Jeff Nadasen, Carol Nadasen, Timothy, Clay, Jeremy, Jackie, Zoe, Mitchell, and Sophia. Denise read drafts of chapters and encouraged me to carry on. Clay Nadasen-Reynolds made a trek to the library for me, for which I am grateful.
This book prompted me to think more about my own family history. Although my mother passed away as I embarked on this project, I spoke to a number of family members about her early life. I have also begun interviewing my father and have come to appreciate his own hardships and struggles—from dirt poor to tenured professor late in life. Despite his rise in status, he has always carried himself with humility. Bill Gladstone, Tyler Nadasen-Gladstone, and Indira Nadasen-Gladstone were all enormously patient and supportive through the process of writing this book. I know it took its toll on them, as I was often holed away during family vacations, and, ironically, as I was intellectualizing about the value of household labor, they ensured that not only their but my chores were completed. Both Tyler and Indira have turned out to be magnificent human beings—filled with compassion, intelligence, self-confidence, and a clear sense of justice. Bill has gone above and beyond the call of duty, not only reading drafts and running the household while holding down his own job but doing so with humor and grace. He is a model partner, whose love sustains me.