The employment relationship in the domestic workspace in South Africa: beyond the apartheid legacy

Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Afri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial dynamics Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 395 - 409
Main Authors du Preez, Jeffrey, Beswick, Claire, Whittaker, Louise, Dickinson, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 01.01.2010
Subjects
Apartheid
Blacks
domestic employment
Domestic workers
Domestics
Employment
employment relationship
Exploitation
Legislation
Racism
South Africa
Women workers
Workers
Working conditions
Working Women
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Summary:Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Africa so that the power asymmetry and exploitation that so characterise these relationships have been labelled an artefact of the racist apartheid regime and its legislation. By reviewing literature on domestic workers globally and drawing on a study into the impact of the Sectoral Determination for the Domestic Worker Sector, which was promulgated in 2002, we argue for a broader understanding of this relationship: one that takes into consideration its global similarities.
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ISSN:0253-3952
1940-7874
DOI:10.1080/02533952.2010.483826