Methodological considerations in the study of work and occupations: The case of domestic workers in New York City

One of the best examples of the gendered division of labor-the degree to which some tasks in a society are assigned based on one's sex-is domestic labor. Viewed primarily as belonging to the female domain, domestic work has increasingly become associated with low-wage work for immigrant women from the developing world. Recent scholarship on domestic servants has explored some of the political and economic factors that influence this global trend (Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001; Palmer 1989). Hondagneu-Sotelo (2001), for instance, notes that Latinas are the group most likely to perform domestic work in California. She explains the phenomenon as a function of U.S. labor demands, increasing immigration restrictions on Latin American countries that favor service work and transformations in women's understanding of family relationships-most specifically, parenting. Increasingly, U.S. families are able to purchase from domestic servants the work that was once performed by wives and mothers.