Segmentación del trabajo del hogar: cuidado y trabajo doméstico en la Argentina durante la pandemia de Covid-19

Abstract

A new division has begun to emerge among domestic workers in Argentina in recent times, distinguishing those whose main responsibility is care work from those who perform domestic work (such as cleaning, cooking, shopping). This article addresses this segmentation process from a historical perspective. First, it analyzes how “private household work” – trabajo en casas particulares – was legally constructed and the rights guaranteed to it in the mid-twentieth century, as well as the processes of scission and hierarchization that it implied. Secondly, we characterize the current working conditions of this sector, highlighting the differentiation that is taking place between those who perform domestic and care work. Finally, it examines the strategies of home care workers to hierarchize their work and compares them with those developed by other domestic workers in the first half of the twentieth century. The article concludes with a question about the impact that the process of delegitimization of labor rights and the change in the political climate that crystallized in the country at the end of 2023 may have on the working conditions and political strategies of domestic and care workers.