WOMEN’S WORK
By Nisha Varia
Published in As-Safir
March 8, 2008
New York – International Women’s Day is an opportunity not only to
evaluate women’s progress in areas such as education, employment, and
politics, but also to honor the importance of what has been
traditionally viewed as “women’s work”: cooking, cleaning, and childcare.
For many of us, an incredibly precious and important part of our lives
is the well-being of our children, the comfort of our elderly parents,
and a safe, clean home where we can count on nourishing meals. Yet
society gives little recognition to the daily labors required to nurture a
family and a home.
Lebanese women are caught in an unenviable position. While their
participation in the workforce has increased, gender stereotyping and
discrimination mean that they have retained the primary burden of household
work. Their task has been made harder by a society that clings to the
importance of a well-kept home while at the same time disparaging cooking
and cleaning as trivial and unimportant in comparison to the “real”
work of making deals at an office or clocking hours at a factory. This
societal attitude has deeply undermined the skills required to care
for the ill, raise children, and prepare meals several times a day, and
in many cases, to perform such work simultaneously.
The lack of respect for household work is shown by not only Lebanese
men, but also by many Lebanese women. This is most obvious in the
treatment of migrant domestic workers. Each year, tens of thousands of women
from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and other countries leave
their own families behind to help the Lebanese manage theirs. While many
receive good treatment from their employers, far too many others are
treated as if they are barely human and as if their work has little value.
Seeming to forget that they hired a domestic worker because they
themselves found the demands of cleaning, cooking, and childrearing to be
overwhelming, many employers think nothing of requiring domestic workers
to be “on call” around-the-clock and fail to provide them even one
day of rest per week. In fact, some employers want this help without
paying for it or even when they cannot afford it. Nonpayment of wages, for
months and sometimes years, is one of the most common problems faced
by women domestic workers.
Even the Lebanese government treats these women and their work as if
they were invisible. By excluding domestic work from the labor laws, the
government denies domestic workers the minimum standards of employment
that other workers enjoy, such as a day off once a week, limits to
working hours, and a minimum wage. This exclusion symbolizes how labor
associated with traditional female roles of care-giving is not yet given
full respect as work, and unfortunately gives employers wide latitude to
exploit domestic workers.
Those opposed to reforming the labor laws assert that domestic work is
a special case, a form of work that cannot be regulated because it
takes place in private homes. Many employers claim they treat their
domestic worker like their daughter or as part of the family. If this was
truly the case, it is puzzling that these employers would not support basic
labor protections for those they care about. Research shows that while
some Lebanese families treat their domestic workers well, many others
do not take this approach and do require guidance from the law –
common complaints made by domestic workers include inadequate provision of
food and restrictions on their freedom of movement.
In the worst cases, employers may physically or sexually abuse domestic
workers. These situations carry strikingly similar themes to domestic
violence. In such cases, employers may belittle and insult the domestic
worker, or beat her for small mistakes in her work. Violence such as
slapping or pushing a domestic worker may often be socially sanctioned
as “discipline.”
How could treatment of domestic workers, guests in this country who
spend their days and nights caring for Lebanese families get to this
point? International Women’s Day is a key moment to reflect on not only
the status of Lebanese women, but of all the women in Lebanon, including
migrant domestic workers. This day is a reminder to see the parallels
in the struggle for equal rights.
Lebanese society has a choice: to continue the status quo, liberating
itself from housework by passing it on to poorer sisters from around the
world, but leaving them open to exploitation and abuse. Or it can take
steps to value household work, such as providing equal labor rights to
domestic workers, and giving them the dignity they deserve.
Nisha Varia is a women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and
the author of several reports on migrant domestic workers, available
at:
http://hrw.org/campaigns/women/2006/domestic_workers/reports.htm
