Domestic economies : women, work, and the American Dream in Los Angeles

In Domestic Economies, Susanna Rosenbaum examines how two groups of women—Mexican and Central American domestic workers and the predominantly white, middle-class women who employ them—seek to achieve the "American Dream." By juxtaposing their understandings and experiences, she illustrates how immigrant and native-born women strive to reach that ideal, how each group is indispensable to the other's quest, and what a vital role reproductive labor plays in this pursuit. Through in-depth ethnographic research with these women at work, at home, and in the urban spaces of Los Angeles, Rosenbaum positions domestic service as an intimate relationship that reveals two versions of female personhood. Throughout, Rosenbaum underscores the extent to which the ideology of the American Dream is racialized and gendered, exposing how the struggle for personal worth and social recognition is shaped at the intersection of motherhood and paid employment. Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 14 Chapter 1: Producing In/Visibility in Los Angeles 40 Chapter 2: Middle-Class Dreaming and the Limits of “Americanness” 62 Chapter 3: Making Mothers Count 96 Chapter 4: Organizing, Motherhood, and the Meanings of (Domestic) Work 128 Chapter 5: Dreaming American 161 Conclusion 190 Notes 198 References 218 Index 238 A 238 B 238 C 238 D 239 E 240 F 240 G 240 H 241 I 241 J 242 L 242 M 242 N 242 O 243 P 243 Q 243 R 243 S 243 T 244 U 244 V 244 W 244 X 245 Z 245 Susanna Rosenbaum examines how immigrant Mexican and Central American domestic workers in Los Angeles and the predominantly white, upper-middle-class women who employ them seek to achieve the ""American Dream, "" underscoring how the American Dream's ideology is racialized and gendered while exposing how pursuing it lies at the intersection of motherhood and domestic labor