More than a paycheck: nannies, work, and identity

Abstract

Nannies are paid childcare providers employed in private households. In Northeastern cities, they vary by many personal characteristics, including race, ethnicity, immigrant status, and education. This study compares the identity work of two groups of nannies: one composed of immigrant women of color and the other composed mainly of US-born white women. Building upon existing research on the difference between precarious work and precarious working conditions in domestic work, this study finds that immigrant women of color respond to disrespect and discrimination by defending the respectability of their work and their personal dignity. In contrast, US-born and white women respond to the stigma of doing socially devalued work by distancing themselves from their work. The implications of workers’ agency and identity on organizing and social movements are considered.

Keywords:

• Nannies
• childcare
• domestic work
• identity work
• precarious work
• low-wage labor

Acknowledgments

This paper was presented at the Law and Society Association Conference on May 30, 2015. I am grateful for the comments, guidance, and editing of Jerry Jacobs, Annette Lareau, Robin Leidner, Amada Armenta, Grace Kao, Tanya Golash-Boza, Phoebe Ho, two anonymous reviewers, and the guest editors of this special issue. I am especially grateful for the time and candor of my respondents. All errors are mine.

Notes

1. Whether domestic workers are ‘vulnerable,’ and the social and political consequences of this label are explored by Ally (2009).

2. The focus of this paper is on the US. For global context, see Ehrenreich and Hochschild (2004), Lan (2006), Parreñas (2008).

3. Working intimately with children and families, all nannies perform emotional labor, which Arlie Hochschild defines as ‘the management of feelings to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display; emotional labor is sold for a wage’ (2003, 7). This paper does not focus on the emotional labor of nannies, but for further discussion see England (2005), Macdonald (2010), Folbre (2012).

4. This city has no domestic workers’ bill of rights, and a nascent local attempt to organize nannies years before the interviews were conducted was unsuccessful.

5. Some respondents in both groups had heard of domestic workers’ movements in other cities, but they were mostly disengaged on the topic. Only one respondent, a Latina immigrant, expressed enthusiasm about unionization.

6. “Nanny,’ and ‘babysitting’ are terms that are often used colloquially and interchangeably by respondents, although technically, ‘nanny’ refers to a full-time, regular caretaker while ‘babysitting’ is synonymous with short-term care, often in shifts lasting a few hours at a time.

7. For further discussion of public surveillance, see Brown (2011).

8. For a discussion of emotion work, and the intimate nature of paid care, see Hochschild (2003), England (2005), Folbre (2012).