Domestics and their Employers, a Relationship Cut Through by Ambiguity

Abstract

This paper analyzes the different ways in which domestics and their
employers dispute the limits of a labour and affective relationship.
Different studies (Brites, 2001; Kofes, 2001; Rollins, 1985) have pointed
out that this labour relationship is constituted in the ambiguity of the
boundaries between these women, a relationship built on the social
inequality between them. Our aim is to analyze the relationship between
employers and employees, considering the different ways in which they
establish the limits of their labour relationship, and focusing on what we
call demarcation repertoires. The methodological techniques consisted of
in-depth interviews with both employers and employees, observations
and discourses gathered from situations that unfold outside the fi eldwork.