In the Grips of Work/Family Imbalance: Local and Migrant Domestic Workers in Slovenia

Abstract

Gender equality policies determine the inclusion of women into the labor market as a fundamental indicator of equality between men and women — women should participate in the labor market in the same way as men do. In the reconciliation debates between work and family life, women’s labor market participation sometimes uncritically associates paid work with the success and self-fulfillment of the careers of affluent women, while marginalizing the experiences of working-class women and overshadowing problems of inequalities in work/life balance among women with various statuses and experiences. As Peterson (2011, 52) argues, the dominant discourses of reconciliation privilege some women over others, and policies on work/family balance put forward an exclusionary vision of gender equality, defining it as equality only for “white”, middle-class, heterosexual mothers in dual-career families; other women (older women, working-class and migrant women, single mothers) are marginalized in the reconciliation policy debates. Peterson, therefore, accentuates the importance of analyzing reconciliation issues as intertwined with multiple intersecting inequalities according to class, ethnicity/race, and migrant background.