Female paid domestic work in Lima : A contemporary case study on informality and changed forms of emploment

Abstract: The objective of this thesis on the paid feminized domestic work is to describe the two current forms of employment of the live-inside maids and the live-outside domestic workers of paid domestic work in Lima Peru. The live-inside employment, cama adentro is the traditional form of maids living inside the household, and secondly, the live-outside employment, cama afuera, describes the working woman as an independent worker who lives outside the household. By focusing on the two forms of employment in the 1970s, the 2010s and the 2020s, this study aims to describe the changes on the urban labor market wherein 95% are women and almost 87% have informal employment. The feminized domestic work and the women domestic workers are objects of devaluation and subjects of discrimination. The critical case in this study is to understand the impact of informality and the informal working conditions. Vulnerability and precariousness are concepts frequently used in the current debate and research which describes the feminized remunerated domestic work as a forced labor. Who are the domestic working women, and how do they describe their work and life situation? What are the preferences or the facts of the persisting informality in the domestic labor sector that still have a great impact on the work situation as well as the women’s life situation? By considering women’s right to decent occupation this study also focuses on female empowerment, autonomy, economic independence in the urban domestic sector with influence from the market-oriented labor market in Lima. This case study is grounded in feminist care economy theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s human capital theory.