6. “You Can’t Have It All”: Patterns of Gender and Class Segregation in Paid Domestic Work in the City of Buenos Aires

Until slavery was abolished in the Río de la Plata in 1813, African slaves or descendants of the African diaspora mainly worked as wet nurses, laundresses, or in domestic service (Langa Pizarro, 2011). Toward the end of the nineteenth century, after successive military campaigns to colonize those parts of what is now Argentina that were then still held by indigenous populations, indigenous women and children were “viewed as spoils of war and handed out to [white] households for domestic service” (Lobato, 2007). Their placement with families in big cities was conceived as part of a policy for “civilizing” indigenous peoples.

At the time when we did this fieldwork, and the periods that Ana has discussed so far, the legislation did not contemplate such rights for domestic workers.

Until very recently, this work was excluded from the general frame existing for labor laws, and it was regulated through a special structure which created restricted rights and benefits to cover house help workers vis-à-vis salaried workers. In 2013 a new law was passed (Act 26844, special work contract items for house help workers in private houses) which aims to harmonize working conditions in this sector with those established by the general legal framework. Among the most important transformations is access to maternity leave. This leave was not supported under the previous law, whereas the new law addresses full salary indemnity, as well as laying off due to presumed pregnancy, while also covering work risks (on the impact of said transformations, see Pereyra, 2017). As to union organizations, as per MTE and SS Registers, in the years 2015, 17 groups were identified for home help workers nationwide, although we did not have access to exact data regarding membership. The two organizations located in Buenos Aires City were established over half a century ago. However, several studies point out that their political weight was historically low (Birgin, 2009; Gogna, 1993; Cárdenas, 1986).