Perceptions of stigma : the case of paid domestic workers in Slovenia

Šadl, Zdenka (author)

In this article the author investigates paid domestic work in Slovenia to obtain information on domestic workers' perceptions of their work. Cleaning up after other people is usually considered dirty work with a stigma attached to it. Given this, we draw on indepth interviews with paid domestic workers to examine how they deal with society's negative perceptions and potential individual strategies for coping with a stigmatised social identity. On the basis of previous research on paid domestic work it was assumed that employment relationships are arranged in such a way (because of the location, domesticity, informal management - all in a relatively traditional and constraining gendered order) that those employed as domestic workers do feel stigma, but we also assume (based on many studies on dirty work) that housecleaners share a relatively high level of self-respect and pride with other dirty workers. The results show that stigma intrudes into the social interactions between paid domestic workers and their employers, leading housecleaners to seek different strategies to cope with it. At the same time, respondents' descriptions of their work and work relations reveal positive aspects of the job and thus shed light on the complexity of cleaners' work and their employment relationships within the confines of the private domestic space.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2014
• Number of pages: Str. 904-927, 999-1000
• Numbering: Letn. 51, št. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-85345
• UDC: 316.647.8:331.103.11-055.2(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 32989277
• Publication date in RUL: 20.09.2016

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Avtorica v prispevku preučuje plačano domače delo v Sloveniji in zaznave gospodinjskih delavk o njihovem delu. Čiščenje za drugimi ljudmi je običajno obravnavano kot umazano delo, obremenjeno s stigmo. S ciljem, da bi preučili, kako se plačane gospodinjske delavke soočajo s takšnimi negativnimi družbenimi zaznavami in kakšne so njihove morebitne individualne strategije za spopadanje s stigmatizirano družbeno identiteto, smo izvedli globinske intervjuje, s katerimi smo prišli do zaželenih podatkov. Na osnovi predhodnih raziskav o plačanem domačem delu smo predpostavljali, da so zaposlitveni odnosi v sferi zasebnega doma (zaradi same lokacije zaposlitve, domačnosti, neformalnega upravljanja - znotraj relativno tradicionalnega in omejujočega spolnega reda) izvajani tako, da delavke stigmo občutijo, vendar smo tudi predpostavljali (na osnovi številnih študij o umazanem delu), da čistilci izražajo relativno visoko stopnjo samospoštovanja in ponosa, ki je skupna vsem umazanim delavcem. Rezultati kažejo, da stigma je navzoča (ovira) v interakcijah med plačanimi gospodinjskimi delavkami in njihovimi delodajalci, kar čistilke usmerja v različne strategije za spopadanje s stigmo. Opisi njihovega dela in delovnih odnosov, ki smo jih pridobili od respondentov, pa obenem razkrivajo pozitivne vidike poklica ter tako osvetljujejo kompleksnost dela čistilcev in njihovih zaposlitvenih odnosov znotraj meja zasebnega domačega prostora.

• Keywords: stigmatizacija