Big Sisters’ are Better Domestic Servants?! Comments on the booming au Pair Business

Bibliographic Data

ID11634887
AuthorsSabine Heß (0000-0002-7069-5069, corresponding author), Annette Puckhaber
Year2004
Volume77
Issue1
Pages65-78
Publication date2004-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400177
OpenAlexW2048191867
LanguageEN
Citations received40
References cited4

The au pair program in general is still known as a form of cultural exchange program and a good possibility for young women to spend a year abroad, although it has undergone great changes during the last 10 years. This article argues that due to different socio-economic and cultural processes in Western postindustrial societies as well as in the eastern and southern parts of the world the au pair program is becoming a form of domestic work with quite similar working and living conditions to that of live-in migrant domestic workers. This article which is based on two empirical studies on the globalizing au pair business in Eastern and Western Europe as well in the United States looks into the motivations and expectations, the living conditions and interactions between the au pairs and the employer families and contrasts these findings with the discourse of the au pair agencies still advertising au pair as a form of cultural exchange. In doing so the paper can show that it is the still dominant image of au-pair as a cultural exchange program (disarticulating the work aspect) that leaves the young au pair women even more vulnerable to exploitation: ‘big sisters’ are the best domestic servants. This article draws attention to the racialized economization of the private sphere and care work, the inherent traps and exploitative features of this very specific work place

Political science · Post-industrial society · Sociology · Work (physics · Engineering · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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