Doing the Dirty Work

TLDR

Reproductive labor—cleaning, cooking, child care, and other women’s work—is central to gender inequality analyses, as it is often devalued in the paid labor market. The article uses historical census data to trace twentieth‑century transformations of paid reproductive labor, examining occupational segregation through an intersectional lens of gender and race‑ethnicity. It analyzes these changes by integrating cultural and structural explanations of occupational degradation, focusing on gender and race‑ethnicity intersectionality. The shift from private household servants to institutional settings altered the demographics of workers in cooking and cleaning, transforming the gender balance while preserving entrenched racial‑ethnic hierarchies.

Abstract

The concept of reproductive labor is central to an analysis of gender inequality, including understanding the devaluation of cleaning, cooking, child care, and other “women's work” in the paid labor force. This article presents historical census data that detail transformations of paid reproductive labor during the twentieth century. Changes in the organization of cooking and cleaning tasks in the paid labor market have led to shifts in the demographics of workers engaged in these tasks. As the context for cleaning and cooking work shifted from the dominance of private household servants to include more institutional forms, the gender balance of this reproductive labor workforce has been transformed, while racial-ethnic hierarchies have remained entrenched. This article highlights the challenges to understanding occupational segregation and the devaluation of reproductive labor in a way that analyzes gender and race-ethnicity in an intersectional way and integrates cultural and structural explanations of occupational degradation.