| This thesis helps gain a better understanding of the family and social lives (outside work) of women immigrant service workers, who compose a multiply-marginalized group in terms of their social location in U.S. society. In order to analyze how their everyday lives intersect with multiple axes of social inequalities, I conducted semi-structured interviews with eight women immigrant commercial cleaners in the Washington DC area. This type of employment has been given little academic attention despite the large proportion of women immigrant service workers so employed. Through the participants' immigrant experiences, this study elaborates on both the women's autonomy and structural constraints on their agency. Specifically, their limited socio-economic resources seem to have increased a sense of social isolation, and their unequal gender division of household labor further prevents them from joining various social activities. The findings also call for social attention to the urgent need for appropriate childcare options for women workers like the participants in this study. |
