I believe this piece was written for men and wealthy people. Men are rarely cleaning and wealthy people have enough money to pay for a cleaning service. These two groups often don't give the respect that is deserved to house wives and cleaning ladies. Ehrenreich had her own personal experience with this when she was a maid. She makes the assumption men and wealthy people do not appreciate the work that work that they do. She said she felt as if she was invisible most of the time when cleaning and she was constantly ignored. She relates the work of maids to sweatshops due to the fact that maids are underpaid.
Cameron, I completely agree that men and the wealthy did not respect their house wives or the cleaning ladies but, do you think that this piece was directed towards women at all?
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought that Ehrenreich's piece was just direced toward women, but your agruement brings up several really good points. After reading your post I definitly think that Ehrenreich was also addressing men in her piece. She wanted men, just like middle and upper class women, to know what it was like to live and work as a cleaning woman.
ReplyDeleteEven though she focuses on female house workers, i feel that Ehrenreich is trying to inform all people, not just men and the wealthy, who have never performed low wage labor. They don't realize how challenging and under appreciated these occupations are or how essential they are to the efficiency of our society.
ReplyDelete