Women in Paid Domestic Labour in Christchurch

WOMEN IN PAID DOMESTIC LABOUR IN CHRISTCHURCH A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment · of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science in the University of Canterbury by J.R. Watt University of Canterbury February 1985 ( i ) ACKNOWLEJ:x;EMENTS I would like to thank all those people who have assisted in the preparation and presentation of this thesis. To my supervisor, Rob Stevens, I owe a debt of gratitude for his time and energy given so freely. Also his invaluable comments and critiques of the early manuscript. The other members of my supervisory committee, Dell Small and Jim Lamare gave their comments which were of great assistance in the final preparation. A special vote of ·thanks must go to all the women who gave so generously of their time and experience to provide the raw material upon which this work is based. Their contribution is beyond measure. Without them the work could not have been undertaken. I am also much obliged to all my friends and family who supported and helped me throughout the course of the work, and provided the distractions which saved my sanity. I would like to acknowledge my debt to the Bank of New Zealand and my parents, both of whom provided bridging finance in moments of crisis. In the final preparation of the thesis, the assistance of Barbara Burtt, my proof-reader and Mrs Shand, my amenable typist was inestimable. Finally, the support, encouragement. and practical assistance of David Paterson was the only reason this thesis got beyond the planning stages. (ii) CONTENTS Acknowledgements i List of IZZustrations iii List of TabZes iii Abstract iv Chapter: I Introduction 1 II CapitaZist-Patriarchy 14 III The Historicai Situation in New Zeafond 3? IV The natUl'e of Women's Work 60 v CZass and Patriarchy 108 VI ConcZusion 158 Bib iiography 166 (iii) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Immigration Poster 39 Maids of All Work 46 Hannah Cullwick 50 Cartoon Appreciation ?8 Cartoon Pin Money 140 LIST OF TABLES: The Composition of the Female Work Force : Selected Occupations 1881 to 1936 43 (iv) A B S T R A C T This study of women in paid domestic labour looks mainly at the influence of a system of capitalist patriarchy on the lives of working-class women. The historical situation of women in New Zealand is studied in depth and compared with their situation today. The women interviewed for the study are all currently involved in paid domestic work. The interviews are used to illustrate the nature of the work these women do. These quotes are also used to illustrate the influence of class and patriarchy in today's society. 1. CHAPTER ONE - GENERAL INrROOOCfION "For a 'long time I have hesitate~ t~ w~ite a book on women; The subjeat 'l-S 'l-rr'l-ta ting, espeaiatty to women; a~d it ~s not new.· Enough ink has been sp'l-Ued 'l-n quarreUing over feminism, a~d,perhaps 1 we should say no more about 'l-t ; Simone De Beauvoir The Seaond Sex Certainly it is true that the so-called problem of women has been discussed, argued about and 'solved' in a variety of ways, especially in recent years. And now many women following academic pursuits try to deliberately avoid the subject, which has been approached by so many different people in so many different ways that a fresh perspective is difficult to discover. One aspect of women's studies has, however, only very recently been part of the general academic discussion, and that is housework. Long stigmatised as trivial and boring, housework or rather who does it and why, is now being recognised as an important contributing factor to the position of women in today's society. A woman who takes sole responsibility for the care and maintenance of her home and family is restricted in her choice of career, and to some degree her ability to follow that career to the fullest extent is also restricted. The influence of this female responsibility has been widely recognised by many writers including Marx, Engels, Oakley, Malos, Hartman2 and many others. 2. Another area of study recently being given a lot of attention is the problems of women in paid work. The characteristics of women's work, the sorts of jobs they do and the typical female working life, as opposed to the home life, have also come under a great deal of scrutiny, for exampl the studies by Ruth Cavendish of women working in factories 3 , or Susan Shipley's investigation of women's employment and unemployment in the New Zealand setting. 4 It is of note, however, that despite all this interest the two areas of concern have never been combined in a study of women working as domestic servants or 'home help'. This thesis, then, attempts to fill the gap in women's studies by combining the work of those who have studied unpaid housework, with the studies of women in paid work outside the home. As more and more women are working outside the home, more and more housework is becoming socialised. Restaurants, laundries and tailor-made clothes have taken over some of the traditional housewives' duties. Most of the workers in these industries, however, are women. This implies that increased independence for some women is bought at the expense of others. Domestic servants are one gr?UP of women who are lightening the load for middle class working women and it is important to understand their role and the effect it has on their lives. It seems that liberation and independence for women is in fact liberation 3. and independence for middle-class women, and that this liberation and independence is being provided by working class women at the cost of their own freedom and self- reliance. A study of the sort undertaken here can help to understand the predicament of these working-class women, which is important if the problem is to be dealt with effectively. Women working as domestic servants were chosen for study, rather than women working in restaurants, laundries and clothing factories for two major reasons. The work these women do is tied very closely to their role as wife and mother in their own homes, more so than work in factories, and these women are working in isolation, with no contact with other employees, but in close contact with their employers. They are also one of the few working groups which are not protected by a union or similar organisation. This is a result of their isolation, making it very difficult to organise them. Because of their special situation, then, I felt this particular group of women would repay close study. In attempting to combine the studies of unpaid house work with studies of women's paid employment use has also been made of the insights of the socialist-feminist writers such as Barrett, Weinbaum, Rowbotham and Sargent. Of especial importance is the essay by Iris Young in Sargent's 5 book. The analysis of the system of capitalist-patriarchy provided by this work is very helpful to those attempting to 4. examine the position of women in today's society. The base of my research consisted of a series of in depth interviews with a number of women working as 'home help'. I felt that the best way to study women in a certain situation was to find them and to ask them what their lives are like. In all, eight women were interviewed, for an average of about two hours each. I felt it was preferable to get the full richness of detail which could be provided by a small number of intensive in-depth interviews, rather than collect a lot of sur~ace information from a large sample. The detail provided by the technique of intensive interviewing is by far preferable as a base for research of this nature - a fact which has been fully discussed in much of the early feminist literature. The research technique also has the advantage that it allows time for a full develop- ment of the theoretical problems of a research topic, in this case the theory of capitalist-patriarchy. It is only through the detailed theoretical examination that this research technique allows that one can best uncover the fundamental forces behind a given social situation and it is this understanding that leads to effective change. One of the initial problems was to find women working as domestic servants. Many women are working for cash and operate on a one-to-one basis with their employers. There is no union or other organisation for them so personal contacts were the only way to find them. In fact personal contact, rather than contact through a common occupation, is s. the way most of these women know each other, and their employers so it is the best way of contacting them. Another factor which needed to be taken into considera tion was that some of the women work to supplement social security benefits and so would possibly be afraid of being questioned about their jobs. Personal contact through friends yielded two women, who then furnished names of friends of theirs who also work and so a web of personal contacts was developed. In fact, finding the women through this 'web' had certain advantages. I could establish a trusting relation- ship with the women, because I came to them with an intro duction from someone they already knew. Also they had more confidence that the information they provided would not cause them any problems with either the Inland Revenue Department or the Social Welfare Department.

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