“Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy” by Barbara Ehrenreich

The June 2009 issue of Be the Best Nanny Newsletter discussed the issue of cultural differences between nannies and mothers who hire them to care for their children. “Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy” perfectly compliments the discussion.

Women are moving around the globe as never before. But for every female executive racking up frequent flier miles, there are multitudes of women whose journeys go unnoticed.

Each year, millions leave third world countries to work in the homes and nurseries of the first world. This broad-scale transfer of labor results in an odd displacement, in which the female energy that flows to wealthy countries is subtracted from poor ones—easing a “care deficit” in rich countries, while creating one back home.

The book confronts the importation of Mexican and Latina nannies in Los Angeles and Filipina housekeepers in Hong Kong. “Global Woman” offers an original look at a world increasingly shaped by mass migration and economic exchange. Collected and with an Introduction by bestselling social critics Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this groundbreaking anthology reveals a new era in which the main resource extracted from developing nations is no longer gold or silver, but love.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for suggesting a real meaty book and for excepting the fact that some domestic workers can actually read adult books, (not just children’s books or fluffy nanny books). Real topic, difficult subject, effecting all women.

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