Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition.
ABWH (Association of Black Women Historians), 178
Abzug, Bella, 134
Adams, Wilhelmina, 78
AFL (American Federation of Labor), 17
AFL-CIO, 128
African American women: black women’s history as a scholarly field of study, 178, 179; black women’s household employment as a topic of research, 179–80; domestic work’s similarity to slavery for, 11–12, 14–15, 107, 174–75, 192n13; dominance in stories about domestic work, 182–83; early political activists, 14, 15–18; institutional employment, 152–53; movement out of domestic service, 151–52; NCHE’s interest in the history of, 73, 80, 177–78, 179; occupation as domestic workers (see domestic workers). See also individual women
Ahneman, Lee, 155
Aid to Families with Dependent Children, 126
American Federation of Labor (AFL), 17
American Public Welfare Association, 64
Andolan, 1, 2
Archibald, Marjorie, 214n72
Armendariz, Robert, 159
Ashkar, Eartha, 214n72
Asociación Internacional de Tecnicas del Hogar, 164
Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), 178
Atlanta, Georgia: civil rights movement’s leadership and, 37; history of domestic-worker organizing in, 38; image of, 37; labor organizing by Bolden (see Bolden, Dorothy); percentage of black women employed as domestics in 1960s, 2, 197n7; sit-ins by black students in, 37–38
Atlanta Project, 39
Atlanta Urban League, 42
Autonomous Center for Social Action (CASA), 159
Baker, Ella, 14, 37, 99
Baltimore Afro-American (newspaper), 8
Barnett, Bernice, 31
Benjamin, Ruth, 214n72
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 59, 94
Blackburn, Ruby, 38
black freedom movement: in Atlanta, 37–38; in Cleveland, 48–50, 200n70; concern for the poor, 54; “equality as a fact” goal, 41; Montgomery bus boycott (see Montgomery bus boycott); skepticism of nonviolence as an effective political strategy, 50
Blackwell, H. N., 23
black power movement, 35, 38, 39, 44, 54, 56, 72
“Black Women: An Historical Perspective” (conference), 177
Black Women in White America (Lerner), 179
Bolden, Dorothy, 6, 83f; advocacy of equal access to education, 40; association with civil rights leaders, 39; attendance at first HTA conference, 77, 205n54; background, 35–37; characteristics, 55; exposure to unions, 36; founding of the NDWUA, 34, 42–43; grassroots urban organizing by, 39; inspired by Parks, 33–34; organizing workers on buses, 42; origins of her political sensibility, 55–56; passion for organizing domestic workers, 40–41; recognition of domestic workers’ need for child care, 141–42; use of the term “household technician,” 94; view of organized labor, 118–19; work ethic and success, 43. See also Maids’ Honor Day; National Domestic Workers Union of America
Bolden, Raymond, 35
Bond, Julian, 39, 42
Boris, Eileen, 126
Bowen, Uvelia, 71
Bradley, Louise, 39
Brennan, Peter, 131–32
Bronx Household Technicians, 104, 112
“Bronx Slave Market.” See “Slave Market”
Brown, Erline, 173, 184
Bruce Klunder Freedom House, 52
Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU), 17
Bunche, Ralph, 59
Burke, Yvonne Brathwaite, 166
bus boycott. See Montgomery bus boycott
Business and Professional Women’s Club, 138–39
California Homemakers Association, 122
“Can We Lure Martha Back to the Kitchen?” (Miller), 63
Caribbean domestic workers, 158–59, 161, 221n33
Carmichael, Stokely, 54
Carr, Johnnie, 29
Carta Editorial (magazine), 162
Carter, Jimmy, 83
CASA (Autonomous Center for Social Action), 159
Castle, Barton and Associates, 156
Catholic University School of Law, 60
Charles, Beatrice, 20, 21
Charlotte Area Fund, 79
Chhetri, Narbada, 184
Chicanas and Mexican domestic workers, 159, 161–63
Chicana Service Action Center, 162
child care, 65, 66, 70, 74, 76, 98, 138, 141–42, 148, 158, 168
Childress, Alice, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18, 32, 85, 90, 170
Chinese male immigrants, 160
Chisholm, Shirley, 78, 108, 128, 166
Cigar Makers Association, 118
Civil Rights Act (1964), 143
civil rights movement: in Atlanta, 37–38; Bolden’s association with civil rights leaders, 39; bus boycott (see Montgomery bus boycott); in Cleveland, 43–44, 48–50, 200n70; and CORE, 48,49,50; in Detroit, 98; and domestic workers movement, 4, 56, 201n98; and empowerment and self-determination, 72; impetus for Sloan’s joining of, 60; Roberts’s involvement in, 50–51, 53–54; and SNCC, 37, 39-40; Title VII, Civil Rights Act, 143, 144; US Commission on Civil Rights, 44, 60
Cleveland, Ohio: black activism in, 48–50, 200n70; black leaders’ skepticism of a nonviolence strategy, 50; Roberts’s forming of the DWA, 43–44, 52–53; segregation and racial inequality in, 49–50
Club from Nowhere, 29–30
Cobble, Dorothy Sue, 56, 210n76
Colen, Shellee, 159, 221n33
Coley, Soraya Moore, 207n20
collective bargaining, 118, 122
Collier-Thomas, Bettye, 177, 178
Collins, Patricia Hill, 31
Colvin, Claudette, 22
commerce clause, 127
Committee on Street Corner Markets, 14
Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, The (Spock), 65
Communist Party, 16
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), 48, 49, 50
Connor, Bull, 37
Convention on Domestic Work, International Labor Organization, 175
Conyers, John, 78, 129
Coody, James, 86
Cooke, Marvel, 14, 15, 72, 99
Cooksey, Dealy, 195n40
Cooper, Esther, 17
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), 48, 49, 50
Corona, Bert, 159
Coser, Lewis, 148
Costa, Maria Dalla, 137
Cranston, Alan, 166
Crisis (magazine), 14
Daily Compass (newspaper), 14
Daily Worker (newspaper), 15
Davis, Angela, 138, 178
Detroit, Michigan, 78, 98, 99, 100. See also McClendon, Mary
Dial-A-Maid, 120
Diaz, Antonia, 167
Ding Ho, 162, 167
Dixon, Al, 30
Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, 119–20
Domestic Services, Inc., 155
Domestics United Incorporated, Charlotte, North Carolina, 78–79
domestic workers: absence of stories told from workers’ perspectives, 2–3; abuse by employers, 1–2, 14, 183; attachment to their employers, 88, 207n20; author’s intellectual reasons for writing about, 182; author’s personal connections to, 182; and black left feminists, 15–18; bus-riding experiences, 26–27, 33–34; calls for unionization, 16–17, 32, 193n25; Caribbean-born, 158–59, 161, 221n33; Chicanas and Mexicans, 159, 161–63; complexity of the mistress-maid relationship, 25; desire for recognition of their humanity and rights, 9–10, 20–23, 24, 25, 89, 93–94, 144–45, 182, 208n38, 219n70; domestic work’s ties to slavery for black women, 11–12, 14–15, 107, 174–75, 192n13; economic rights campaign (see economic rights); and emotional labor requirement, 91–92; employer testimonies about, 85–87; employers’ white racial power and, 10, 89–93, 97; estimated number of domestic workers in 1970, 111, 211n28; ethnic and regional histories of the domestic labor force, 10–11, 192n8; from Europe, 62, 63, 155, 160–61; health status stipulations by employers, 89–91; impact of the Depression on, 13–15; importance of history in their struggle for rights, 176–77; interest in the theory and practice of feminism, 178; intimacy of work, 5, 90, 95; Irish Catholic, 160, 164; “mammy” stereotype and symbolism, 11–13, 19, 32, 84, 86, 160, 193n16, 210n76; middle-class societal changes’ impact on, 65, 67–68, 149–50; naming and terminology, 93-94, 101, 109, 208n38; NCHE’s advocacy of (see National Committee on Household Employment); number of black women domestic workers in Montgomery (1950s), 194n31; occupational expansion in the 1990s, 172; organizing efforts (see domestic workers movement; labor organizing); percentage of black women employed as domestics in Atlanta (1960s), 2, 197n7; from Puerto Rico, 155–57, 161, 221n24, 221n28, 223n42; reality about claims of familial rights for, 87–89; societal views of their status as workers (see women and household labor); as a topic of research, 179–80; trends in numbers and ethnicities of domestic workers, 11; white households’ dependence on their maids, 25, 195n52
domestic workers movement: absence of stories told from workers’ perspectives, 2–3; activists’ inclusion of noncitizens, 165–66; argument for gender solidarity, 140; calls for unionization, 16–17, 32, 193n25; campaign for social citizenship, 126–27, 130, 144–45, 219n70; choice of the term “household technician,” 94–95; codes of employment standards adopted by workers, 69, 96, 209n50; connection between domestic work and slavery (see slavery and domestic work); connection to the civil rights movement, 4, 56, 201n98; degradation of domestic labor and, 6, 10, 20–22, 56, 89–90, 95, 101, 102, 103, 115, 125, 136, 140, 146–47, 169; Domestic Workers of America and (see Domestic Workers of America); Domestic Workers Union and, 16–17; Domestic Workers United and, 1–2, 173–75; employer-needs bias in Maids’ Honor Day, 87; employers’ power, 51, 90–93, 97; goals of domestic-worker organizers, 4–5, 84–85, 95–97; Household Workers Organization, 78, 98, 99; HTA conference, 77–79; influence of the politics of race on the occupation, 161; issue of forms of address used by employers, 93–94, 208n38; labor organizing (see labor organizing); “labor” versus “care” construct of the work, 84, 87–89, 93, 103, 206n4, 207n23; lack of public recognition of the status of the workers, 6, 85; leveraging of bus ridership for organizing workers, 42; nationwide efforts to honor household workers, 82–83; NDWUA and (see National Domestic Workers Union of America); nonproductive labor construct of household work, 89, 137; political identity of domestic workers, 4, 5, 6–7; postwar increase in women’s labor force participation rate and, 64–65; racial boundaries established by employers, 89–90; reality about claims of familial rights for, 87–89; Reed’s vision for a household workers’ union, 119; reforms in Europe, 62, 63; role in the bus boycott (see Montgomery bus boycott); significance of, 5, 6–7, 169–71; slavery’s legacy and (see slavery and domestic work); storytelling’s role in, 2–4, 58–59, 61, 73, 76, 103, 136, 176–77, 183; strategic legacy of black domestic-worker organizing, 12; struggle for dignity, 17, 51, 56, 69, 72, 76, 81, 82, 85, 93-95, 97, 101, 103, 106, 130, 136, 139, 146, 170; struggle for economic rights, 34–35, 38, 41, 56–57, 59, 126, 142–43, 197n5; struggle for occupational equality, 5, 7, 62, 72, 103, 119, 146–47, 152, 210n76, 210n79, 219n70; struggle for a transformation of the power structure, 31, 93–95, 96, 97; support from the women’s movement, 140, 141 (see also feminism and domestic work); training programs (see training programs); unionization attempts (see labor organizing); victimization theme prevalence, 2; view of organized labor, 118–19
Domestic Workers of America (DWA): focus of its activism, 56–57; inclusion of white women, 54–55; legacy of, 55; Roberts’s forming of, 43–44, 52–53
Domestic Workers Project of South Africa, 165
Domestic Workers Union, 16–17
Domestic Workers United (DWU), 1–2, 173–75, 185
Dominick, Pete, 132
Du Bois, W. E. B., 160
DWA. See Domestic Workers of America
Eaton, Isabel, 160
Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, 37
economic rights: domestic workers’ campaign for, 34–35, 56–57, 126, 142–43, 197n5; DWA’s focus on, 56–57; exclusion of household labor from the benefits of economic citizenship, 126, 127, 130; NCHE’s advocacy of, 166–68
Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, 60
emotional labor, 91–92
employers: abuse of workers, 1–2, 14, 183; advances made against third-party employers, 121–22; demands for better workers, 66–67, 68; designing of NCHE programs to meet employers’ needs, 70; employer-employee relationship model, 5, 108–11, 150–51; employer-needs bias in Maids’ Honor Day, 87; failure to comply with the FLSA, 145, 177; household workers’ attachment to, 88, 207n20; issue of forms of address used by, 93–94, 208n38; parallels between domestic workers and middle-class women employers, 139–40; preference for whites and Europeans, 53, 160–61; racial boundaries established by, 89–90; retaliations by white employers during the boycott, 30; stipulations about domestic workers’ health status, 89–91; themes in employer testimonies about their domestic help, 85–87; training programs used to educate, 100–101; white employers’ beliefs about the bus boycott’s origins, 23–24; white racial power and, 10, 89–93, 97
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 143
Equal Pay Act (1963), 143, 144
Esquivias, Becky, 78
Essence (magazine), 58, 138, 160
European domestic workers, 62, 63, 155
Everhart, Jeanette, 85
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA, 1938), 127
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Amendments (1974): antidiscrimination legislation’s impact on domestic workers, 143–44; enforcement and compliance, 145, 177; excluded categories of workers, 145–46; importance of the amendments, 142; legislative victories and exclusions for household workers post-WWII, 142–43; minimum wage campaign (see minimum wage campaign)
Fauntroy, Walter, 78
Feminine Mystique, The (Friedan), 135
feminism and domestic work: advocates’ leveraging of the gendered middle-class conflict around household labor, 133–34; alliance between middle-class feminists and household workers, 124–25, 141, 215n5; argument that availability of household labor helped middle-class women enter the labor force, 137–38; domestic workers’ interest in theory and practice of feminism, 178; domestic workers and black left feminists, 15–18; and ethical issues of paid household help, 139; irony of feminists discriminating against black household workers, 138; parallels between domestic workers and middle-class women, 139–40; support from socialist feminists, 136–38; and women’s movement, 133–36, 138, 140, 217n36
Ferguson, Herman, 200n70
Fisk University, 20, 44
Flores, Francisca, 162
FLSA. See Fair Labor Standards Act
Folbre, Nancy, 206n4
Foon Hong, Gil, 167
Ford Foundation, 69, 71
Frances Green Employment Agency, 157–58
Franklin, Mable, 88
Freedom (newspaper), 8
freedom buses, 42
Freedom Fighters, 48
Friedan, Betty, 135
Fulwood, Ophelia, 214n72
Gardner, Zora, 101
Georgia Council on Human Relations, 42
Gibbs, Marla, 170
Giddings, Paula, 178
Gil-Campbell, Joyce, 184
Gilligan, John J., 83
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 89
Gilmore, Georgia: bus-riding experiences, 26–27; Club from Nowhere and, 29–30; firing and blacklisting of, 30; participation in the bus boycott, 28, 30–31; support received from movement leaders, 30, 196n68
Gone with the Wind (Mitchell), 13
Great Migration, 49
Green, Venus, 143
Grosse Pointe Human Relations Council, Michigan, 100, 101
Halsted, Anna, 72
Hamer, Fannie Lou, 43
Harlem Renaissance, 15
Harley, Sharon, 178
Hart-Celler Immigration Act (1965), 154
Hartsfield, William, 37
Hatcher, Lillian, 119
Height, Dorothy, 62, 63–64, 68, 80
Help, The (film), 2
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks, 178
Hine, Darlene Clark, 92, 178
Hochschild, Arlie, 91
Holt Street Baptist Church, 28
home health-care assistants, 122, 125, 144, 145, 152–53, 154
Homemaker Service Demonstration Project, Kansas State University, 70
Hondagnue-Sotelo, Pierrette, 172, 218n49
House and Garden (magazine), 148
Household Employment Project, Chicago, 69
Household Management, New York, 69
Household Technicians of America (HTA): alliance with feminists, 141; commitment to interracial organizing, 166, 224n67; establishment of, 57, 61, 79; first conference, 77–79; institutional legacy longevity, 169; lobbying for passage of a minimum wage bill, 129–30; relationship with organized domestic workers in South Africa, 165; role as a link between disparate local struggles, 79; storytelling’s role in its effectiveness, 80–81; support of cross-race cooperation, 164–65
household workers movement. See domestic workers movement
Household Workers Organization (HWO), Detroit, 78, 98, 99
Household Workers Organizing Committee, 122
HTA. See Household Technicians of America (HTA)
Hulett, Josephine, 6; advocacy for domestic workers, 90, 92; background, 74; belief in fair pay, 139–40; on the choice of the term “household technician,” 95; on the cross-racial experience of household work, 165; domestic-work experiences, 74–76, 108; efforts to improve her economic situation, 75, 102; exit from the NCHE, 169; lobbying for passage of a minimum wage bill, 129; on the need for domestics and employers to work together, 139; sparking of her political activism, 76–77; storytelling’s role in her activism, 77; on the struggle for equality, 146; work at NCHE, 73–74, 77, 84
Hunter College, New York, 59
HWO (Household Workers Organization), Detroit, 78, 98, 99
immigrant domestic workers: activists’ understanding of labor rights and, 163–66; Chicanas and Mexican, 159, 161–63; contract provisions from employment agencies, 157–58; employers’ preferences, 160–61; employment vulnerability of, 159–60; hiring of women from the Caribbean, 158–59, 161, 221n33; history of racialization of paid domestic labor, 146–47, 160, 161, 192n13; immigration laws and, 154–55; impact of immigrant workers on the labor dynamics, 163, 168–69; NCHE efforts to include immigrants, 161–63, 164, 166–68; recruitment as household workers, 155; undocumented, 6, 154, 159, 165
International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 120
International Institute of Los Angeles, 159
International Labor Organization, 62, 175
International Labour Review (journal), 62
International Monetary Fund (IMF), 172
International Women’s Year, 167
Irish Catholic immigrants, 10–11, 160
Isales, Carmen, 156
Jackson, Esther Cooper, 15
James, Selma, 137
Jane Addams Vocational School, Cleveland, 67
Jeffersons, The (TV show), 170
John F. Kennedy Middle School, Atlanta, 40
Johnson, Bonita, 179–80
Jones, Claudia, 15, 16
Jordan, Thomas E., 30
Julien, Allison, 184
Kennedy, Florence, 134
Kennedy, John F., 60
Kessler-Harris, Alice, 143, 178
Keyserling, Mary Dublin, 68
King, Leola, 85
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 19, 21, 28, 30, 37, 39, 41
Klunder, Bruce, 50
Koontz, Elizabeth, 69
Ku Klux Klan, 12, 54, 60
labor organizing: advances made against third-party employers, 121–22; advocacy against abuse, 1–2; antidiscrimination legislation’s impact on domestic workers, 143–44; attempts to unionize workers, 119–20; collective demands and mobilization’s importance to the movement, 110, 116–17, 118, 122; distinctiveness of the model used, 6, 105–6, 170–72; domestic activists’ view of organized labor, 118–19; dominance of African American women’s experiences in, 182–83; and employer-employee relationship, 5, 108–11; estimated number of domestic workers in 1970, 111, 211n28; exclusion of domestic workers from key labor rights, 117–18; goal of household workers in charge of their own union, 121; historical progression of movements, 175–76; history of domestic-worker organizing, 17–18, 105, 176–78 (see also specific organizations); household labor legislation in New York, 121–22; immigrant activists’ understanding of labor rights, 163–66; inspiration of Rosa Parks, 43, 175, 176-177; manufacturing unions’ organizing model, 117, 212n58; organizing victories of home-care workers, 122; outreach efforts by organizers, 39, 104–5, 116–17; Professional Household Workers Union and, 120–21, 214n72; quitting as a form of resistance, 78, 108–9; recognition of domestic workers’ need for child care, 141–42; service-sector organizing model, 117; significance of the domestic workers movement, 6–7, 169–71; social justice education and, 184–85; storytelling’s role in, 174, 176, 183; strategies used and results for domestic workers, 122–23, 183, 214n78; and struggle for equality, 146–47; unions’ contribution to the marginalization of household workers, 118; use of public spaces for organizing efforts, 6, 104–5, 111–12; view that domestic workers are unorganizable, 35, 118; workers’ use of the power of loyalty to win demands, 109
La Guardia, Fiorello, 14
Latina women, 159, 161
Lerner, Gerda, 178, 179
Lewis, Christine, 184
Like One of the Family (Childress), 8, 9, 16, 18, 90
Lloyd, Irene, 94
Love, Annie, 144, 169
“Low Income Woman’s International Woman’s Year Action Plan,” 168
Maccraken, Brooks Wiley, 66–67
Maids’ Honor Day, 6, 82, 83f, 85–86, 87, 88
“mammy” stereotype and symbolism, 11–13, 19, 32, 84, 86, 160, 193n16, 210n76
Manpower Development and Training Program, 69
Manuela, Sister, 164
March on Washington (1963), 107, 115, 197n5
Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum, 178
Materson, Lisa, 224n67
May, Vanessa, 17
McClendon, Mary: attempts to unionize workers, 119; connection with the HTA, 78, 99; creation of training programs, 100–101; fight for minimum wage and, 129, 130; founding of the HWO, 98–99; results of certification as a home-care aide, 153; view of worker exploitation as a legacy of slavery, 99
McLaurin, Benjamin, 104, 120–21, 214nn70-71
Medgar Evers Rifle Club, 50
Meredith, James, 53–54
Meredith March, Jackson, Mississippi, 53
Mexican and Mexican American women, 11, 159, 161–63
MIA (Montgomery Improvement Association), 28
Miller, Frieda, 62–63, 64, 72, 80
Miller, Geraldine: attendance at first HTA conference, 78, 107–8; background, 106–7; on the choice of the term “household technician,” 95; on the cross-racial experience of household work, 166; desire to see household workers in charge of their own union, 121; domestic-work experiences, 88, 108; on employers’ preference for immigrants, 163; on the exploitation of workers, 107, 165; founding of the Bronx Household Technicians, 112; interest in labor rights, 107; interest in the theory and practice of feminism, 178; job training initiatives, 98; relationship with the women’s movement, 134; on the structure of employer-employee negotiation, 108–9; use of public spaces for organizing efforts, 111; view of McLaurin’s work, 121; worker organizing efforts, 104–5
Milliken, William, 83
minimum wage campaign: alliance between middle-class feminists and household workers, 124–25, 215n5; enforcement problem, 141, 177; exclusion of household labor from the benefits of economic citizenship, 126, 127, 130; FLSA amendments and, 127–29, 142–43; ideology of, 130; importance of, 125, 130; leveraging of the gendered middle-class conflict around household labor, 133–34; lobbying for passage of a congressional bill, 125, 127–30; male politicians’ anti–minimum wage argument, 130–33; the New Deal’s fostering of inequality, 126; racialized inequality under labor laws, 126, 215n8; social citizenship concept and, 126–27, 130; storytelling’s role in, 128, 177; strategic alliance developed to pass the FLSA amendments, 138–39, 218n52; support from the women’s movement, 140
Minnesota Commission on the Status of Women, 209n50
Miss America Pageant and bra burning, 2
Mitchell, Margaret, 13
Montgomery bus boycott: black domestic workers’ role in, 19–20, 25–27, 31–32, 194n32; black women’s bus-riding experiences, 26–27, 33–34; carpool arrangements and support, 28–30; cross-class alliance, 21; fed-up attitude of working-class bus riders, 23, 24–25, 27; Gilmore’s Club from Nowhere and, 29–31, 196n68; mass meetings, 28–29; politics of respectability during, 22–23, 195nn43–45; retaliations by white employers, 30; sentiment of household workers at the start of, 20–22; white employers’ beliefs about the origins of the boycott, 23–24
Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), 28
Moody, Curt, 162
Ms. (magazine), 165
NAACP, 14, 53
National Archives for Black Women’s History, 178
National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, 64
National Black Feminist Organization, 134
National Committee on Household Employment (NCHE): advocacy for domestic workers, 61–62, 77, 80; argument for reforming domestic work, 64, 67–68, 204n68; change in the character of domestic work in the 1950s, 65–66; codes of employment standards adopted by workers, 96, 209n50; designing of programs to meet employers needs, 70; efforts to include Mexican Americans, 161–63; efforts to upgrade the status of the occupation, 68–70; forming of, 64; hiring of Hulett, 73–74; history of African American women and household labor and, 73, 80, 177–79; HTA and (see Household Technicians of America); immigrant workers’ impact on the labor dynamics, 163; involvement in the campaign for economic rights, 166–68; leadership of Sloan, 59, 61; link between degradation of domestic work and middle-class women’s entry into the labor force and, 136; legacy, 169; lobbying for passage of a minimum wage bill, 129–30, 141; middle-class employers’ demands for better workers and, 66–67, 68; middle-class societal changes’ impact on domestic work arrangements, 65, 67–68; paternalistic nature of the reforms, 70–71; political sensibility and, 72–73; postwar increase in women’s labor force participation rate and, 64–65; professionalization of the occupation goal, 96; shift to organizing workers, 71–73, 204n39; shortage of household workers, 64; support for labor rights for all workers, 168–69; support of cross-race cooperation, 164–65
National Conference on Race and Education, 60
National Congress of Neighborhood Women, 134
National Council of Catholic Women, 64
National Council of Jewish Women, 64
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), 63, 64, 177, 178
National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), 175
National Domestic Workers Union of America (NDWUA): founding of, 34, 42–43; involvement in the campaign for economic rights, 34–35, 197n5; kinship with the civil rights movement, 39; Maids’ Honor Day, 82, 85, 87, 88; recognition of domestic workers’ need for child care, 141–42
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, 1935), 117–18
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 105, 117–18
National Negro Labor Council, 16
National Organization for Women (NOW), 134, 138
National Urban League, 42, 64, 120, 169
National Women’s History Week, 178–79
National Women’s Political Caucus, 134
NCHE. See National Committee on Household Employment (NCHE)
NCNW (National Council of Negro Women), 63, 64, 177, 178
NDWA (National Domestic Workers Alliance), 175
NDWUA. See National Domestic Workers Union of America (NDWUA)
Negro Cultural League, Atlanta, 38
Negroes with Guns (Williams), 200n70
Nesbitt, Gussie, 20
New Deal, 64, 117, 125–27, 130, 141, 147
Newman, Pauline, 62
New York Amsterdam News (newspaper), 14
New York and labor organizing, 16, 121–22. See also Miller, Geraldine; Reed, Carolyn
New York Radical Feminists (NYRF), 136
New York State Coalition of Household Technicians, 115
New York State Department of Labor, 157
New York State Household Technicians, 104
New York Urban League, 60
Nixon, E. D., 23, 30
Nixon, Richard, 129
NOW (National Organization for Women), 134, 138
NOW Women of Color Task Force, 134
Oalican, Linda, 184
Old Age Assistance, 126
Olivarez, Grace Gil, 160
Omolade, Barbara, 178
Operation Bootstrap, 156–57
Operation Breadbasket, 197n5
Operación Manos a La Obra (Operation Bootstrap), 156–57
“Our Right to Know” (history project), 179–80
Palmer, Phyllis, 215n5, 217n36
Parker, Martha, 43
Parks, Rosa, 2, 20, 21, 22, 30, 33, 43, 177
Party Aide Training Program, 67
Patterson, Georgia Mae, 35
Patterson, Louise Thompson, 15, 16
PCSW (President’s Commission on the Status of Women), 61
Peterson, Esther, 61, 62, 63, 64, 69, 78, 80
Philadelphia Negro, The (Du Bois), 160
Phillips, L. Frances, 157
Pollard, Mother, 19
Poo, Ai-Jen, 176
Posner, Seymour, 121
Powell, Rosie, 86
President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), 61
Prim, Lydia S., 23
Primas, Lula, 52
Professional Household Workers Union, 104, 120–21, 136, 214n72
Progressive Household Technicians, 115
Puerto Rican Department of Labor, 156
Puerto Rican domestic workers: exploitation of, 156, 221n24; government-sponsored labor programs, 156–57, 221n28; recruitment by private companies, 155–56; reputation of, 161, 223n42
racialization of paid domestic labor: employers’ white racial power and, 10, 51, 89–93, 97; HTA’s and DWA’s commitment to interracial organizing, 55, 166, 224n67; immigrant domestic workers and, 146–47, 160, 161, 192n13; inequality under labor laws, 126, 215n8; issue of forms of address used by employers, 94, 208n38; “mammy” stereotype and (see “mammy” stereotype and symbolism); politics of race and, 4, 5, 9, 12, 16, 18, 57, 131–32, 135, 161, 164
Ragland, Theresa, 43
Randolph, A. Philip, 120
Reed, Carolyn: alliance with feminists, 134, 140, 141; appointment as NCHE executive director, 177; background, 112–13; commitment to professionalization of household labor, 124; consternation over employers’ power, 114; domestic-work experiences, 93, 113–14, 116; founding of worker organizations, 115; impetus to organize fellow workers, 114; interest in the theory and practice of feminism, 178; issue of forms of address used by employers, 94; joining of the Bronx Household Technicians, 112; lobbying for passage of a minimum wage bill, 130; organizing ability, 116; political awakening, 115; on quitting as a form of resistance, 109; stepping back from her leadership role, 171; support of cross-race cooperation, 164; use of public spaces for organizing efforts, 111, 115–16; view of domestic work, 89, 91, 135; vision for a household workers’ union, 119
Reid, Geneva, 79, 134
Revolutionary Action Movement, 200n70
Rivchin, Julie Yates, 122
Roberts, Geraldine, 6; attendance at first HTA conference, 77, 205n54; background, 43–45; and black power movement, 35, 38, 39, 44, 54, 56, 72; characteristics, 55; dedication to her profession, 144; domestic-work experiences, 46, 89–90, 91–92; dream of attending school, 44, 46, 151; forming of the DWA, 43–44, 52–53; growing awareness of racial disparities in her life, 46–48; on the imperative of dignity, 103; impetus for organizing domestic workers, 51–52; inclusion of noncitizens, 224n67; involvement in civil rights movement, 50–51, 53–54; on the lowering of standards for cleanliness, 149; origins of her political sensibility, 55–56; personal insecurities, 53; politicization of, 48; stepping back from her leadership role, 171; use of the power of loyalty to win demands, 109; view of organized labor, 118, 213n63; view of worker exploitation as a legacy of slavery, 51; views on forms of address used by employers, 94
Roberts, James, 45
Robeson, Paul, 8
Robinson, Lewis G., 48, 50
Rollins, Judith, 210n76, 217n36
Romero, Mary, 151, 217n36
Ruiz, Elva, 162
Sarah Lawrence College, 178, 179
Saulsberry, Johnnie, 87
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), 37
Scott, Louise, 43
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), 122
Sheehy, Gail, 137
Shelton, Anita, 163, 223n53
Simms, Benjamin, 31
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, 60
“Slave Market,” 4, 14, 15f, 16, 58, 59, 62, 99, 107, 157, 176, 193
slavery and domestic work: similarity between, 4, 5, 10, 11–12, 13, 14–15, 51, 58–59, 73, 80, 89–90, 91, 92, 95, 99, 102, 107, 158, 174, 192n13; slave market for domestics, 4, 14, 15f, 16, 58, 59, 62, 99, 107, 157, 176, 193
Sloan, Edith Barksdale: background and education, 59–60; campaign for economic rights, 167; connection to the history of domestic-worker exploitation, 58, 59; efforts to include Mexican Americans in NCHE, 162; exit from the NCHE, 169; impetus for joining the civil rights movement, 60; leadership of the NCHE, 61, 71–73; lobbying for passage of a minimum wage bill, 129; professionalization of the occupation goal, 96; on the struggle for equality, 147
Sloan, Ned, 60
Smith, Mary Louise, 22
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), 37, 39–40
social citizenship concept, 126–27, 130, 144–45, 219n70
Social Security, 62, 69, 93, 99, 101, 120, 126, 137, 142
Sojourners for Truth and Justice, 16
Sophie (maid), 86
South Africa, 165, 181
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 37
Southern Negro Youth Congress, 15
Spanish Catholic Center, 164
Spock, Benjamin, 65
Stackhouse, Ollie, 214n72
Stanford, Max, 200n70
Steinem, Gloria, 124, 139, 140–41
Stephen E. Howe Elementary School, Glenville, Ohio, 49
Stinson, Charles, 42
storytelling and domestic work: creation of the domestic workers movement and, 3–4, 58–59, 61, 73, 76, 78, 103, 136, 176–77, 183; employer-needs bias in Maids’ Honor Day, 87; political purpose of stories of social movements, 2–3; role in labor organizing, 174, 176; role in minimum wage campaign, 177; slavery’s significance in individual experiences (see slavery and domestic work); stories told in Like One of the Family, 8–9; work experiences of different women, 20, 46, 74–76, 88, 89–90, 91–92, 93, 108, 113–14, 116, 173
Stovall, Irene, 21, 24
Strayhorn, Mary C., 214n72
street-corner markets, 14–15
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 37, 39–40
SURGE, 70
Swedish Domestic Worker Act (1944), 63
Swerdlow, Amy, 178
Talmadge, Betty, 86
Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn, 178
Terrell, Mary Church, 13
Thompson, Abraham, 36
Thompson, Bernice, 78
Thurber, Cheryl, 12
Title VII, Civil Rights Act (1964), 143, 144
Toon, Ralph (Mrs.), 85
training programs: educating of employers, 100–101; goal of elevation of the status of the work, 5, 43, 63, 64, 69, 70, 78, 97–98, 102, 121, 145, 162, 167, 173; legitimacy of programs organized by domestic workers, 101–2; middle-class employers’ demands for better workers, 61, 66–67, 68, 159, 160; professionalization of the occupation goal, 84, 95–98, 100–101; suggested employment conditions in a manual, 100–101; upward mobility goals of some programs, 97, 152–53
Turner, Ruth, 48, 50, 52
Tutu, Leila, 165
undocumented immigrant domestic workers, 6, 154, 159, 165
United Daughters of the Confederacy, 13
United Domestic Workers, 193n25
United Freedom Movement (UFM), 48, 49
United Nations, 62, 167
United Nations Decade for Women, 167
United Workers Congress, 168–69
Urban League, 104
US Commission on Civil Rights (1967), 44, 60
Valien, Bonita, 20
Valien, Preston, 20
Vine City, Atlanta, 39
“wages for housework” movement, 137
Wallace, Willie Mae, 23, 24, 195n46
Wallace-Sanders, Kimberly, 12, 193n16
War on Poverty, 72
Washing Society, 38
Washington, Mary Helen, 16
welfare rights movement, 38, 126, 137, 141, 144, 149
Westside Neighborhood Service Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, 79
Wheat Street Baptist Church, Atlanta, 43
Williams, Jessie, 102, 205n54, 210n76
Williams, Robert, 200n70
Wolfe, Alan, 210n79
Woman Today (magazine), 16
women and household labor: African American women’s move out of domestic service, 151–52; argument that paid household labor is antiquated, 148; degradation of domestic labor, 6, 10, 56, 85, 89–90, 95, 101, 102, 103, 115, 125, 136, 140, 146–47, 169; labor force growth from immigrant women (see immigrant domestic workers); labor force participation rate of married women in 1980, 149; labor rights of home-care workers, 153–54; male politicians’ anti–minimum wage argument for domestic work, 130–33; market solutions to reducing the need for household help, 148–49; middle-class women’s turn to hiring household help, 138; new employer-employee relationship model in 1970s, 150–51; nonproductive labor construct of household work, 89, 137; percentage of black women employed as domestics by 1980, 152; societal conditions keeping paid household labor relevant, 149–50; unpaid household labor, 35, 125, 126, 133, 140; women of color’s status in institutional jobs, 152–53. See also feminism and domestic work; women’s movement
Women’s Action Alliance, 134
Women’s Bureau, US Department of Labor, 61, 62, 63, 68, 69, 143, 204n68
women’s movement: minimum wage campaign support, 140; relationship with domestic workers movement, 133, 134–36, 139, 141, 217n36; view of domestic work, 135, 138. See also feminism and domestic work; women and household labor
Women’s Trade Union League, 17
Wooten, Jesse Mae, 177
World Bank, 172
Wright, Allean, 20
You and Your Household Help, 100
Young, Barbara, 184; background, 173; domestic-work experiences, 173; on domestic work’s link with slavery, 174–75; hiring by NDWA, 175; history of labor organizing, 174; involvement with the DWU, 173–75
Youngstown Household Technicians, Ohio, 77
Your Maid from Mexico: A Home Training Course for Maids, 159
YWCA, 64
Zelizar, Viviana, 206n4