Servicing the Middle Classes investigates the recent rise in demand by middle class families for waged domestic labour and the consequent growth of a new `servant' class.
Examining the position of nannies and cleaners, the authors explore the national socio-economic trends which have led to this new phenomenon and the profound changes this reflects in our concepts of motherhood and class and gender relations.
"Servicing the Middle Classes" investigates the resurgence in demand for waged domestic labor in Britain during the 1980s and early 1990s and the consequent growth of a new "servant" class. Examining the conditions and trends which have cojoined to produce and reproduce this labor force, the books draws extensively on two case studies to explore the day-to-day practices, composition, geography of demand, and social relations of the two major forms of waged domestic labor in contemporary Britain--nannies and cleaners.
The book concludes by considering the effects of the ideologies of motherhood, false kinship relations, and caring on the ways in which domestic workers are employed, and examines the broader theoretical implications of the study for debates on class and gender and its implications for feminist politics.
