12 thoughts on “Prompt for “Maid to Order””

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/americas/haiti-migrants-earthquake.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront

   Basically this new york times article talks about how the U.S plans to make an effort in deporting more undocumented Haitians. I felt this had direct connection to the Ehrenreich reading because she talks about how in certain areas west carribeans were the majority of maids and a lot of them were stuck because they could’nt get any other jobs because they did not have their papers, they were undocumented.

2. Barabra Ehrenreich writes about the growing trend of hiring household help in America. She talks about how the wealthy create a “poor” class by hiring maids and cleaning services to clean their houses.

   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/americas/haiti-migrants-earthquake.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

   It connects to Maid To Order, by Barabra Ehrenreich, because the article talked about how some maids were Carribean women and a lot of them were undocumented. This article talks about how the Obama administration, responds to an extraordinary wave of Haitian migrants seeking to enter the United States. This means that it would fully resume deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants.

3. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/09/27/2016-debates-alicia-machado-former-miss-universe-donald-trump-ms-housekeeping/91156736/

   This news article connects to the reading because it describes how a Spanish women is being referred to as a housekeeper by Donald trump both because of her race (because women who are Hispanic are typically thrown under the umbrella of “maid” or “housekeepers” because of the role they are typically given in movies with this occupation) but also because she is a women. Like the article reiterates, when topics of house keeping or housework are presented, people assign it to the role of a women. This is clearly being reinforced not only in the media and society all together, but also by a presidential candidate who continuously manages to degrade a women in power by reducing her to her physical appearance.

4. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/27/no-the-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-did-not-endorse-trump.html

   The above article informs the public about a misconception that Donald Trump was endorsed by the department of U.S. Immigration and Customs. Although Trump went into great detail about how he was endorsed, he was never met with support by the department. This is mostly due to the fact that many of his statements and policies have been questionable, and quite controversial, as to how he views immigrants as human beings. It is a shame because immigrants should be viewed on the same level as regular, hardworking people that are trying to make ends meet just like the rest of us. It is very well known that immigrants go through many hardships in their lives, often sacrificing a great deal of their time just to get by. To have someone, especially a presidential candidate, be ignorant in how he generalizes all immigrants to the view of rapists, and drug lords is just pathetic.

   As this article shows a development in an issue that has been gaining more and more tension every month, we are able to see a blatant connection to the story “Maid to Order.” Within the prose, illegal immigrants, specifically women, are often oppressed and limited to performing solely housework. Although they work tirelessly, they are still deemed and perceived as second class citizens do to their inability to speak English, their citizenship status, and their career choices. This is shown specifically in the reading when the author refers to maids not even being noticed by their employers unless they were to bite the foot of a person from underneath the table. Although immigrants are viewed under a pessimistic light in both examples, they provide a meaningful impact to our society, and especially our economy. Without the hard work of immigrants, we would not be able to enjoy our lives in the matter that we are privileged to do so now.

5. http://www.tanqeed.org/2014/01/a-maids-work/

   This article relates to the reading because both authors bring awareness to how sometimes women are degraded especially in the cleaning industry. They talk about the getting on your hands and knees work and how degrading it is when the person in the room acts like you’re not there. The article is about domestic work in Pakistan. This line of work over there is only for women who are uneducated or live in poverty.

6. The reading touches on many topics and of course the most obvious being that housekeeping is mostly done by woman and woman in the minority of America at that. While Barbara does say this she lets us know it’s men and other people as well they are maids. But on the topic she speaks of when she mentions the children who grow up in an environment with “help” that may view them as “lower” than them can play a role in systematic racism and sexism as these roles are filled by not only minorities but woman as well. This article in the link describes how “Home care aides, mostly women and mostly minorities, represent one of the nation’s fastest-growing occupations, increasing from 700,000 to more than 1.4 million over the past decade.” And because of this it affects their wages.
   http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/health/home-care-aides-wages.html

7. http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/24/news/economy/trash-workers-high-pay/
   I believe that this article is closely related to Ehrenreich’s writing. Specifically, this relates to the last page of the article, which talks about the theory that those who clean up dirt are in a lower class. The article that I attached clearly disproves this theory, describing two men who clean up garbage off the streets and make six figures. One of the men described is a forty eight year old men who supports eight children.

8. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/world/asia/a-maids-pay-and-choices-of-morality.html

   This article related to “Maid To Order” because both reading talks about how bad it is being a maid. In the link above it states “A superabundance of cheap labor is built into every aspect of life here. Domestic workers are at the bottom of the work force, wage-wise and class-wise, and in 2010 they earned a national average of about $1.30 a day”. In “Maid To Order” talks about how hard and different it is being a maid. Having clean 60 houses, 250 scrub tables, bathrooms, and kitchens.

9. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/domestic-workers-overtime-law-ca_us_56ddd53fe4b0ffe6f8ea2bce

   This article talks about how housekeeping has been viewed for so long as a job for women since 95% of domestic workers are women. It also talks about the poor and undignified conditions that surround being a maid-ranging from the extremely low pay, no holidays or days off and the physical and emotional abuse most maids face. It is from these harsh conditions that according to the article, domestic workers in California are trying to break free from by demanding a higher pay, humane treatment and days off.

   Thus, this article strongly relates to Ehrenreich’s Maid to Order. This is because in her book, she explicitly talks about how badly maids are treated (how they are treated like slaves), the social consequences of house keeping (in that it becomes a gender issue because being a maid becomes associated with being a woman) and the low pay maids, most of whom are mothers, receive and struggle to make ends meet with.

10. https://www.thenation.com/article/why-it-matters-women-do-most-housework/

    Ehrenreich explains in the article that there are dependent and independent people. Although some people have to be dependent on others, like the people who are unfortunately ill with health issues. Furthermore, there are dependent people like men and husbands of a household whom depend on the wife or spouse to do all the housework. There are many similarities between the article above and ” Maid To Order”. We see the similarities where women are automatically assumed to be the person to ” clean up the sock” from the men in the house. Over the years men have significantly improved the help in the household but even today there are certain things that are dependent on the women of the house just because of her gender.

11. The article below related to “Maid To Order” because they both talk about how hard the working conductions are for house maids and how ”95% Of Domestic Workers Are Women”.The article discusses the condition of Teresita Villasenor who was a house maid, Teresita villasenor was working 12 hours a day, everyday for 18 month without any days off. Teresita Villasenor states “I felt like I was a slave,“I had no days off for 18 months,” she said. “My boss took advantage of me, and I wasn’t getting enough pay. I was working like a horse, I didn’t even have time to read a book. I felt depressed, and oppressed.”this really resonated with me , it showed me how tough it really is and i never really thought how much of a problem working condition are for a domestic workers.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/domestic-workers-overtime-law-ca_us_56ddd53fe4b0ffe6f8ea2bce

12. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/09/27/world/europe/27reuters-global-women-pay.html

    This is a good reflection to the theme provided by Ehrenreich. Women seem to have a lower social status than men. Women seem to have this entitlement to lower income and a lowered amount of respect. As a female maid, they always seem to have to act like they are lower than their employer when simply, they are just working like the employer has to work for his employer. Society has built this patriarchy that expects women to do jobs that pay less and seem less important.