The Contours of the Invisibilized: Domestic and Non-domestic Cleaning Work in Public and Private Spaces in Argentina

Abstract

This chapter analyzes paid domestic and non-domestic cleaning work in Argentina, focusing on its systemic invisibilization and undervaluation. Through ethnographic case studies in Buenos Aires and Córdoba, the authors examine the working conditions of two groups: domestic workers and outsourced cleaning staff. Both groups, mostly composed of poor women and migrants, perform socially essential yet stigmatized labor, often considered “dirty work.” This chapter explores how gender, class, and racial dynamics intersect to shape experiences of exploitation, with women typically assigned domestic-like tasks and men taking on more technical or physically demanding roles. Despite formal labor contracts in some cases, structural inequalities persist—exacerbated by informal arrangements, low wages, debt cycles, and lack of public infrastructure. The pandemic highlighted the contradiction of these workers being deemed “essential” while still being treated as disposable. The authors also address the moral codification and disciplinary mechanisms that regulate these workers’ bodies and behaviors. Ultimately, this chapter reveals how capitalist accumulation relies on the exploitation and expropriation of socially reproductive labor, arguing for the recognition of these workers not just in legal terms but in the broader social imagination.