In the house but not at home [microform] : house-girls in Vanuata
- Bib ID:
- 3987029
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Kraemer, Daniela
- Online Version:
- http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MQ86292
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- Description:
- 237 p.
- ISBN:
- 9780612862920
- Summary:
-
In their talk about themselves and their work, ni-Vanuatu house-girls working for ni-Vanuatu and expatriate employers in Vanuatu, a group of islands in the South-West Pacific, constructed and resisted notions of ni-Vanuatu 'house-girl identity'. Especially intriguing in their narratives, is the distinct and complex relationship between identity and exploitation. Recognizing the exploitative nature of paid domestic work, ni-Vanuatu house-girls seem to separate exploitative conditions of work from the work itself. Rather than adopting their employers' perceived denigration of paid domestic work, most ni-Vanuatu house-girls see paid domestic work as important work. Moreover, despite the exploitative conditions within which many ni-Vanuatu house-girls work, many ni-Vanuatu house-girls are able to retain their sense of self-dignity and self-respect.
In this thesis I suggest that in Vanuatu, employers' race, class, gender and/or cultural discriminations and prejudices shape the material and social conditions within which ni-Vanuatu house-girls work. I argue that employers' discriminations and prejudices are rooted in particular constructions of difference, difference in terms of racial identity, gender identity, and class identity, and that employers construct notions of ni-Vanuatu house-girls as 'different' in order to justify exploitation and/or to rationalize the social and economic inequality around them. I further contend that because employers' constructions and perceptions of 'house-girl identity' are framed and informed by race, gender, class and cultural assumptions, these constructions are, in actuality, 'misconstructions'. They neither nor represent who house-girls think they are.
- Notes:
-
- (UnM)AAIMQ86292
- Adviser: Margaret C. Rodman.
- Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 42-04, page: 1144.
- Thesis (M.A.)--York University (Canada), 2003.
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- York University (Canada)
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 2003
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