Join the Center for Global Workers’ Rights for their ongoing speaker series! 

On Wednesday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m. EST, the center will feature Dr. Jennifer Chun, associate professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 

Feminist scholars have long recognized the fraught relationship between domestic servitude and the work of caring. Black and women of color feminism, in particular, developed the theoretical paradigm known as intersectionality, which has advanced understanding of how domestic workers’ experiences of abuse and resistance are shaped by intersecting relations of domination and subordination along with race, gender, class, migration, disability, and citizenship status.

Building on this rich scholarship, this paper asks: how is servitude reinforced, or undermined, when the state funds reproductive labor? In particular, it examines the experiences of Korean and Chinese immigrant women who provide non-medical, daily assistance to elderly, disabled, or chronically ill people in their own homes as part of California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program.