Mothering the ‘other’: The sacrificial nature of paid domestic work within Black families in the post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Domestic labour, in South Africa, is one largest single-sector where African women remain ‘quintessentially’ oppressed. Even after the democratization of South Africa paid domestic labour has remained undervalued because of its link to ‘unproductive’ work. This study draws from 37 interviews and participant observations of three households to investigate the work experiences and conditions of domestic workers within black, peri-urban, African, middle-class families in the Limpopo Province. The article affirms and provides evidence that race is not necessarily a ‘core axis’ along which domestic workers exploited but that paid domestic workers experience oppression along various intersectional lines, among other, race, class and gender. The study reveals that paid domestic labour remains exploitative even within the single race. It demonstrates that domestic workers continue to be oppressed within the black, middle-class, African families. The article reveals that despite the legislative reform, paid domestic labour remains oppressive, exploitative, and fraught with hierarchical power relations between domestic workers and their African female employers.

Key Words: Gender, Intersectionality; Triple Oppression; Domestic Labour