Beyond Convention 189

Household employees are among the least protected workers in the world. In many countries, they are not covered by general labour laws and are often even explicitly excluded from social security systems. This is due to several reasons: on the one hand, the sector is highly fragmented, which makes organizing difficult. On the other hand, the sector is situated within the broader framework of social reproduction and connected to the devaluation of care work, often performed for free by women, and is intimately linked to colonial histories whose consequences are still present today. It is therefore no coincidence that household employment is a highly feminized sector in which migrant workers play a key role. As it largely takes place in conditions of informality, workers are exposed to greater risks such as sexual harassment or even human trafficking. Feminist economists in particular have shown that the hyper-exploitation of domestic workers constitutes a fundamental pillar of the current global economy.

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Video | 10.06.2021Bey­ond 189

There is a necessary leap between the organizational practices of domestic and care workers at the…

Video | 09.06.2021Do­mestic Work Is a Polit­ical Act

Casa Fem is a feminist organization based in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. It brings together…