Inferiorisation and deference: the construction of social hierarchies in the context of paid domestic labour

ANIA TIZZIANI, DÉBORA GORBÁN

Women's Studies International Forum

ELSEVIER

Año: 2014 p. 54 - 62

0277-5395

In Argentina, domestic service is one of the main occupations for women from low-income sectors. As in other Latin American societies, it is one of the most paradigmatic forms of contact between the different social classes. As such, this labour relationship has been analysed in numerous studies as a critical location for the reproduction of social differences and inequality. The interpersonal relationships between employers and workers mobilise categorisation criteria and stereotyped images that reveal wider dynamics regarding the construction of social hierarchies. On the basis of a qualitative study, the objective of this article is to analyse, in the city of Buenos Aires, the processes of constructing social hierarchies that are implied by this particular labour relationship. This analysis seeks to reveal the operations through which employers construct a stereotype of social inferiority for domestic workers through which they legitimise their dominant position in the labour relationship, and to examine the tensions and ambiguities of this.