Domestic Economies: Women, Work, and the American Dream in Los Angeles

In Domestic Economies, Susanna Rosenbaum examines how two groups of women-Mexican and Central American domestic workers and the predominantly white, middle-class women who employ them-seek to achieve the "American Dream." By juxtaposing their understandings and experiences, she illustrates how immigrant and native-born women strive to reach that ideal, how each group is indispensable to the other's quest, and what a vital role reproductive labor plays in this pursuit. Through in-depth ethnographic research with these women at work, at home, and in the urban spaces of Los Angeles, Rosenbaum positions domestic service as an intimate relationship that reveals two versions of female personhood. Throughout, Rosenbaum underscores the extent to which the ideology of the American Dream is racialized and gendered, exposing how the struggle for personal worth and social recognition is shaped at the intersection of motherhood and paid employment.

Author: Susanna Rosenbaum
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 12/08/2017
Pages: 248
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780822370024
ISBN10: 0822370026
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Women's Studies
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Hispanic American Studies

About the Author
Susanna Rosenbaum is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the City College of New York.