Day 11: Labor as Love: Domestic Workers Organize.
Nannies, housekeepers, eldercare aides – these workers, often immigrant women of color, sustain our daily lives. Historically excluded from labor protections, they are rising up in movements like the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Care work is work – and it deserves dignity, safety, and fair pay.
“They call it help. We call it work.” – National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA)
Domestic labor – so often invisible, undervalued, and done behind closed doors – is the quiet engine of society. The nannies who love and guide our children, the housekeepers who create clean and safe spaces, the eldercare aides who ensure dignity in aging – these workers provide care that is essential, intimate, and foundational.
A Legacy of Labor, A Future of Power
From enslaved African women forced into domestic labor to today’s undocumented caregivers, domestic work has long been racialized and feminized. In the U.S., the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act deliberately excluded domestic workers – many of whom were Black women – as a compromise with Southern lawmakers. That exclusion continues to shape inequity today.
But domestic workers are not powerless.
“We are the ones who care for America’s families. It’s time America cared for us.” – Ai-jen Poo, Director of NDWA
Workers Rising: Movements of Care and Courage
Led by women of color, immigrants, and organizers with lived experience, domestic workers are creating powerful change:
- The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) has fought for inclusion in labor laws, winning Domestic Workers’ Bills of Rights in multiple U.S. states.
- In Mexico, domestic workers helped pass a groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing labor protections.
- Across Asia, migrant domestic workers from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia have formed transnational networks demanding rights and protections from exploitation.
Love Is Labor
Care work is often framed as “natural” or done out of love – especially by women. While care is indeed sacred, that framing has been used to justify poor pay and lack of rights. Love and labor are not opposites. Love is labor. And labor deserves justice.
Learn More & Take Action
- ORG: National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) – Campaigns, stories, and policy initiatives.
- FILM: Roma (2018) – A powerful cinematic tribute to the life of an Indigenous domestic worker in Mexico City.
- BOOK: The Age of Dignity by Ai-jen Poo – On transforming care work in America.
- TOOLKIT: We Dream in Black – Black domestic worker organizing across the U.S.
- CAMPAIGN: Follow the #CareIsEssential campaign to uplift domestic workers’ rights.
Know someone who employs a nanny or housekeeper? Encourage ethical employment practices – written contracts, fair pay, time off. Ask your local lawmakers where they stand on domestic workers’ rights. Consider organizing a UU teach-in or worship service on care labor and justice.
“We are building a movement of love and power. We take care of others – it’s time the world takes care of us.” – Rosario Dawson, actor and NDWA supporter
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