Running Hard to Stay in One Place: Low-Wage Poverty Among Immigrant Women in Los Angeles

Abstract

Emphasis on the problems of the “underclass” has diverted attention from the problem of low-wage poverty. Yet low-wage poverty is becoming more prevalent in cities such as Los Angeles. The downgraded manufacturing and service-sector jobs emerging there are increasingly filled by women. This article relies on fieldwork among immigrant domestic workers to argue that popular theoretical explanations of low-wage poverty are inadequate in the case of women, relying on simplistic assumptions about women's roles at home and the organization of their households. They result in policies meant to force households and women to conform to these outmoded assumptions. Through field research, the author documents the diversity of household forms in one community of women workers. Within households, differing domestic burdens for women are identified and related to the composition of each household and to relationships among household members. These burdens, in turn, are linked to women's ability to work consistently. Finally, the author advocates increased support for those community organizations best able to develop appropriate services for poor working women and recommends a program of systematic evaluation of the largely undocumented universe of current programs.