Untidy Gender
, by Ozyegin, Gul
- ISBN: 9781566398084 | 1566398088
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 12/15/2000
Untidy Gender takes readers into the interconnected worlds of Turkish maids and the women who employ them, tracing the incorporation of rural migrant women into the interiors of the domestic spheres of the urban middle classes. Firmly grounded in data collected through a representative survey of 160 domestic workers, in-depth interviews, and participant observation in the kinship-based communities of domestic workers, this book forges a new understanding of the complex interaction between gender and class subordination.
Ozyegin traces the lives of two kinds of workers: those from the squatter settlements who work in a number of locations, and those who live with husbands employed as "doorkeepers" or building superintendents in the basements of middle-class apartment buildings. In a literal "upstairs, downstairs" arrangement, the latter women sometimes take on apartment cleaning for clients in the building.
At the center of the book are a number of ironies about patriarchy. On the surface, husbands have absolute control over whether or not their wives work,
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