Gap between White Upper Class Women and Latin Women Sociological studies of gender stratification confirm that housework is defined as “symbolic of women’s oppression, and it is not a new thing for hiring domestic worker to lift the burden of housework from middle class women. Fay Dudley explained, “middle class women elevated their status by supervising the work of servant and shifted the roles of ‘authority and activity, rather than passivity and isolation”. In the U. S. In recent years, white middle class women have more control over household income and more responsibilities outside home.
With many burdens, they have no time to cope with housework, so they need outsiders to keep the household running. As a result, white upper class women start to seek low-income workers to do housework in their home, and now they are able to use cheap domestic laborers to take some of the burdens away from them. On the other hand, most Latin immigrants have no choice to choose the Job because they lack English language knowledge. That is why they are provided as a cheap labor in the United States in which women often work as domestics while men work as laborers and construction workers.
The social gap between upper class white women and lower class immigrants can be seen through Latin women who work as domestics and live in their employers’ home. As female Latin immigrants are at a disadvantage for a variety of reasons, they are not exposed to much of the same kind of education that is offered in the U. S. , and they also face language barriers and cultural differences that keep them out of the white collar labor force and keep them in low paid Jobs. Given their limited options, they are often unable to find high paid jobs in the United States.
Therefore, many of them choose to be domestics or shopkeepers for middle and upper class families. To be domestics or housekeepers show the gap between white upper class women and Latin women because upper class white women think that they have more privilege than Latin women, so they not only hire them to do housework, a dirty task, but they also hire them in low-income frequently. The Reasons Why Most Latin Women Choose Housekeeper for Job There are many advantages for immigrant women who choose a Job as a housekeeper.
Molly Keeper’s study reveals that the most important thing of these advantages is flexible working hours. According to Mexican culture, Mexican women re normally obligated to be with the family and take responsibility for housework. Therefore, with this advantage, most of them are still able to be responsible for their own households, and they can arrange time to care their children and meet friends as well. In some case, they are allowed to take their children with them while they are at the employer’s house.
Besides, to be a housemaid also help Latin women can make more money to support their family household. Another advantage of the Job as a housekeeper is a freedom to choose their own employer and quit the Job anytime they want because the maids are in high demand n the United States. It is also easy to apply for a housemaid as this Job requires little or no training. Moreover, these workers can work without Visa and do not need to learn how to speak English as well.
Comparing to their peers who work in factories and restaurants, to be a housekeeper takes more advantages than those Jobs due to working hours and conditions. Consequently, all these advantages show the reason why most of Latin women choose a housemaid as their Job. Colonization One of the most difficult issues for Latin women is the language barrier that they face in the United States (Kef, 2002). As many of them have not got high education, they do not know how to speak English at all.
Without English skills, it is not only difficult for Latin women to communicate with others, but they are also restricted to do many things such as a driving license. Furthermore, language barrier may keep them away from obtaining some employment. However, Latin women, nowadays, start to learn English and send their child to school to learn English as well because they realize that to know English will give them opportunities not only to communicate with people but also to get a better Job in their future lives.