The Maid Narratives shares the memories of black domestic workers and the white families they served, uncovering the often intimate relationships between maid and mistress. Based on interviews with over fifty people -- both white and black -- these stories deliver a personal and powerful message about resilience and resistance in the face of oppression in the Jim Crow South. The housekeepers, caretakers, sharecroppers, and cooks who share their experiences in The Maid Narratives ultimately moved away during the Great Migration. Their perspectives as servants who left for better opportunities outside of the South offer an original telling of physical and psychological survival in a racially oppressive caste system: Vinella Byrd, for instance, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, recalls how a farmer she worked for would not allow her to clean her hands in the family's wash pan. These narratives are complemented by the voices of white women, such as Flora Templeton Stuart, from New Orleans, who remembers her maid fondly but realizes that she knew little about her life. Like Stuart, many of the white narrators remain troubled by the racial norms of the time. Viewed as a whole, the book presents varied, rich, and detailed accounts, often tragic, and sometimes humorous. The Maid Narratives reveals, across racial lines, shared hardships, strong emotional ties, and inspiring strength.

This study is the culmination of a five months survey of Honolulu's industrial conditions and how they impact the lives of working-class women and girls. Published in 1912, Frances Blascoer offers detailed insight and criticisms of the reality of life and social structures on the island of Hawaii. Alongside the spotlight on working women, there is a glimpse of tropical life on the island. Optimistic and written with passion, this fascinating account is still relevant today.

Arguing that the role of Upper Canadian women in the overall economy of the early colonial period has been greatly undervalued by contemporary historians. Jane Errington illustrates how the work they did, particularly as wives and mothers, played a significant role in the development of the colony.

This analysis of female transports to Australia reveals their significant contribution to the new economy.

There are now more servants in Britain than in Victorian times. This explosion in paid domestic employment is part of a global trend. Women from countries such as the Philippines take on domestic jobs in order to support families at home, whilst students from Eastern Europe, the EU and Brazil work as au pairs in order to study English and improve their employment prospects. Rosie Cox's timely new work examines the reality of paid domestic labour in Britain today and explores the global trends that sustain this growth of domestic employment. She shows how the economy depends on women working outside the home, how it is the employment of domestic workers that helps make this possible and examines the experiences of both employers and employees who have joined this new global labour market.

Servants of Globalization offers a groundbreaking study of migrant Filipino domestic workers who leave their own families behind to do the caretaking work of the global economy. Since its initial publication, the book has informed countless students and scholars and set the research agenda on labor migration and transnational families. With this second edition, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas returns to Rome and Los Angeles to consider how the migrant communities have changed. Children have now joined their parents. Male domestic workers are present in significantly greater numbers. And, perhaps most troubling, the population has aged, presenting new challenges for the increasingly elderly domestic workers. New chapters discuss these three increasingly important constituencies. The entire book has been revised and updated, and a new introduction offers a global, comparative overview of the citizenship status of migrant domestic workers. Servants of Globalization remains the defining work on the international division of reproductive labor.