Nancy Perez | Cal Poly Humboldt (original) (raw)

Papers by Nancy Perez

Conceptualizing the Foundation of Inequalities in Care Work

American Behavioral Scientist, 2015

Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and... more Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and family have written extensively on the care work crisis and globalized care work. Depending on how broadly care work is conceived, these writings emphasize unique aspects of gender, race, class, and/or citizenship inequalities. Second wave of feminist perspectives, for instance, identify housework and most work culturally defined as “women’s work”—including all paid health occupations dominated by women, such as nurses, direct care workers, and hospital workers but also possibly even health, education, and social service occupations—as central to gender subordination. Another important research stream, focusing on domestic labor as women’s work, but recognizing its traditional outsourcing to slaves, servants, and later employees, highlights the complexities of the inequality generated, not only in terms of gender but race, class, and citizenship as well. Bringing these two bodies of lit...

Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, 2022

Master of Arts in Chicana and Chicano Studies Domestic workers have long received attention from ... more Master of Arts in Chicana and Chicano Studies Domestic workers have long received attention from academia-research has been written about them through global, sociological, or historical perspectives. However, the innovative character of this study is that it focuses on the experiences of domestic workers through the perspective of the body. This feminist ethnography based on indepth interviews with three immigrant women who have been domestic workers for more than twenty years, will examine the impact that paid domestic work has had on their bodies. It offers narratives about how they perceive their bodies as a result of performing menial labor for many years, and how they feel it has transformed through inscriptions of pain, emotion, intimidation, and most importantly, power. They all portray images of bodies that have been overworked beyond capacity, bodies through which rigid movements, strict environments, and injuries have all been absorbed. Nonetheless, the women did proclaim a sense of empowerment through their spirituality, which contributed to their sense of self-healing.

Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and... more Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and family have written extensively on the care work crisis and globalized care work. Depending on how broadly care work is conceived, these writings emphasize unique aspects of gender, race, class, and/or citizenship inequalities. Second wave of feminist perspectives, for instance, identify housework and most work culturally defined as "women's work"-including all paid health occupations dominated by women, such as nurses, direct care workers, and hospital workers but also possibly even health, education, and social service occupations-as central to gender subordination. Another important research stream, focusing on domestic labor as women's work, but recognizing its traditional outsourcing to slaves, servants, and later employees, highlights the complexities of the inequality generated, not only in terms of gender but race, class, and citizenship as well. Bringing these two bodies of literature together in conversation initially pointed to the inaccurate assumption that care work was valued when it became wage labor. The paid labor of domestics, nannies, and elderly care workers, however, remains deeply devalued, most often with those with limited options entering the profession. This article both assesses contradictions within dominant approaches to care work and highlights the cultural and political foundations of the very inequalities that domestic care workers experience.

“Pain, Embodiment, and Memory in the Experience of Migrant Domestic Workers.” Migration and Memory: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. Central American Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. April 2014.

“(Il)legible Inscriptions of Resistance: The Transformative Process of “Making” in The Worker’s Rug.” Decolonizing Future Intellectual Legacies and Activist Practices (Critical Ethnic Studies Association). University of Illinois- Chicago. September 2013.

Conceptualizing the Foundation of Inequalities in Care Work

American Behavioral Scientist, 2015

Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and... more Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and family have written extensively on the care work crisis and globalized care work. Depending on how broadly care work is conceived, these writings emphasize unique aspects of gender, race, class, and/or citizenship inequalities. Second wave of feminist perspectives, for instance, identify housework and most work culturally defined as “women’s work”—including all paid health occupations dominated by women, such as nurses, direct care workers, and hospital workers but also possibly even health, education, and social service occupations—as central to gender subordination. Another important research stream, focusing on domestic labor as women’s work, but recognizing its traditional outsourcing to slaves, servants, and later employees, highlights the complexities of the inequality generated, not only in terms of gender but race, class, and citizenship as well. Bringing these two bodies of lit...

Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, 2022

Master of Arts in Chicana and Chicano Studies Domestic workers have long received attention from ... more Master of Arts in Chicana and Chicano Studies Domestic workers have long received attention from academia-research has been written about them through global, sociological, or historical perspectives. However, the innovative character of this study is that it focuses on the experiences of domestic workers through the perspective of the body. This feminist ethnography based on indepth interviews with three immigrant women who have been domestic workers for more than twenty years, will examine the impact that paid domestic work has had on their bodies. It offers narratives about how they perceive their bodies as a result of performing menial labor for many years, and how they feel it has transformed through inscriptions of pain, emotion, intimidation, and most importantly, power. They all portray images of bodies that have been overworked beyond capacity, bodies through which rigid movements, strict environments, and injuries have all been absorbed. Nonetheless, the women did proclaim a sense of empowerment through their spirituality, which contributed to their sense of self-healing.

Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and... more Over the past decade, social science researchers in the area of feminism, labor, immigration, and family have written extensively on the care work crisis and globalized care work. Depending on how broadly care work is conceived, these writings emphasize unique aspects of gender, race, class, and/or citizenship inequalities. Second wave of feminist perspectives, for instance, identify housework and most work culturally defined as "women's work"-including all paid health occupations dominated by women, such as nurses, direct care workers, and hospital workers but also possibly even health, education, and social service occupations-as central to gender subordination. Another important research stream, focusing on domestic labor as women's work, but recognizing its traditional outsourcing to slaves, servants, and later employees, highlights the complexities of the inequality generated, not only in terms of gender but race, class, and citizenship as well. Bringing these two bodies of literature together in conversation initially pointed to the inaccurate assumption that care work was valued when it became wage labor. The paid labor of domestics, nannies, and elderly care workers, however, remains deeply devalued, most often with those with limited options entering the profession. This article both assesses contradictions within dominant approaches to care work and highlights the cultural and political foundations of the very inequalities that domestic care workers experience.

“Pain, Embodiment, and Memory in the Experience of Migrant Domestic Workers.” Migration and Memory: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. Central American Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. April 2014.

“(Il)legible Inscriptions of Resistance: The Transformative Process of “Making” in The Worker’s Rug.” Decolonizing Future Intellectual Legacies and Activist Practices (Critical Ethnic Studies Association). University of Illinois- Chicago. September 2013.