Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Maid to Order
1. I think this was geared towards the middle-upper class families who can afford a cleaning lady to clean their houses. Ehrenreich expresses the work one by these lower class women and describes how they work on their hands and knees, lower to the ground, and how it's different down there than it is walking around watching the work be done. The author describes that the work should be done by the owners of the house, which goes to show that the author is speaking from a lower class position, because someone willing to pay another to clean their own house would not be saying this. Through evaluating women who are hired to clean homes and those who are doing the hiring, Ehrenreich's essay points out the labor that it takes for these women and the mentions the fact that it often goes by unnoticed.
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Hi Emilie,
ReplyDeleteI like how you support the idea that this article was written for middle-upper class families. It shows this specific audience what maids and cleaning people actually deal with on a daily basis. Things do go unnoticed in this world and this is one of them. People do not realize how much effort goes into cleaning in order to make a house look presentable. I agree that work should be done by the owner of the house too and if this occured, there would be less people working for pay by cleaning.
i agree...something i noticed was that when she spoke of the peoples houses that these maids have to clean she sort of grouped all the middle to upper class people together and portrayed them as snobby and stuck up. Something i would like to know is does Ehrenreich, being a person most likely in the upper class, herself have a maid or cleaning service? if so how does she treat them?
ReplyDeleteI agree that Ehrenreich is trying to show how under appreciated maids are but i feel that she is trying to defend not only house cleaners but other low wage workers as well such as lawns men even though she specifically focuses on maids in her piece. All of these positions are often looked down upon by the upper middle class who don't appreciate how hard they work in order to make a living.
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