Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940
Housework and domestic service have become popular topics within the scholarly community. . . Van Raaphorst . . . adds to this growing literature by illuminating the efforts to organize domestics in the years from the Civil War to WWII. The book does much more than this however. It surveys the period from early colonization to the 1930s and divides the history of domestic service into four distinct chronological eras. . . . The author examines the psychology of housework and assesses the occupation from the perspectives of the employer and employee. Finally, she sketches the seemingly innumerable but inevitably fleeting attempts to better the lot of the domestic either through organization or unionization. Choice

Union Maids Not Wanted offers a comprehensive investigation of why the most populous group of the female workforce, domestic workers, was unable to establish long-lasting, powerful unions as have other groups of laborers. The author chronicles the number of colorful yet failed attempts at organization throughout the period of 1870-1940, analyzing the factors which worked together to prevent successful unionization. She systematically examines the psychology and nature of domestic work, union rejection of domestic laborers, employers' opposition to organization, and the frequent disagreements among the domestics themselves. Finally, she demonstrates how these factors affected the orientation of domestic workers to the organized labor movement as a whole and as a force within their own ranks.

1144219172
Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940
Housework and domestic service have become popular topics within the scholarly community. . . Van Raaphorst . . . adds to this growing literature by illuminating the efforts to organize domestics in the years from the Civil War to WWII. The book does much more than this however. It surveys the period from early colonization to the 1930s and divides the history of domestic service into four distinct chronological eras. . . . The author examines the psychology of housework and assesses the occupation from the perspectives of the employer and employee. Finally, she sketches the seemingly innumerable but inevitably fleeting attempts to better the lot of the domestic either through organization or unionization. Choice

Union Maids Not Wanted offers a comprehensive investigation of why the most populous group of the female workforce, domestic workers, was unable to establish long-lasting, powerful unions as have other groups of laborers. The author chronicles the number of colorful yet failed attempts at organization throughout the period of 1870-1940, analyzing the factors which worked together to prevent successful unionization. She systematically examines the psychology and nature of domestic work, union rejection of domestic laborers, employers' opposition to organization, and the frequent disagreements among the domestics themselves. Finally, she demonstrates how these factors affected the orientation of domestic workers to the organized labor movement as a whole and as a force within their own ranks.

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Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940

Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940

by D L Van Raaphorst
Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940

Union Maids Not Wanted: Organizing Domestic Workers 1870-1940

by D L Van Raaphorst

Hardcover

$95.00 
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Overview

Housework and domestic service have become popular topics within the scholarly community. . . Van Raaphorst . . . adds to this growing literature by illuminating the efforts to organize domestics in the years from the Civil War to WWII. The book does much more than this however. It surveys the period from early colonization to the 1930s and divides the history of domestic service into four distinct chronological eras. . . . The author examines the psychology of housework and assesses the occupation from the perspectives of the employer and employee. Finally, she sketches the seemingly innumerable but inevitably fleeting attempts to better the lot of the domestic either through organization or unionization. Choice

Union Maids Not Wanted offers a comprehensive investigation of why the most populous group of the female workforce, domestic workers, was unable to establish long-lasting, powerful unions as have other groups of laborers. The author chronicles the number of colorful yet failed attempts at organization throughout the period of 1870-1940, analyzing the factors which worked together to prevent successful unionization. She systematically examines the psychology and nature of domestic work, union rejection of domestic laborers, employers' opposition to organization, and the frequent disagreements among the domestics themselves. Finally, she demonstrates how these factors affected the orientation of domestic workers to the organized labor movement as a whole and as a force within their own ranks.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780275922887
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 05/12/1988
Pages: 317
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

DONNA L.VAN RAAPHORST is Associate Professor of History and Social Science at Cyahoga Community College in Ohio.

Table of Contents

An Overview: A Summary of the History of Domestic Work in the United States
The Psychology and Nature of Housework
Preservers of the Status Quo: The Workers
Preservers of the Status Quo: The Employers
Preservers of the Status Quo: Organized Labor
Against All Odds
From Collapse to Promise-to Hope-to No Change
Change Within Continuity
Appendix: Knights of Labor Composed Entirely of Women, 1882-1887

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