Gender, Migration and Domestic Service: The Politics of Black Women in Italy (Interdisciplinary Research Series in Ethnic, Gender and Class Relations)

This edition describes the attempt by Italian women to transform the division of labour within the home. This attempt is examined alongside their decision to employ migrant women to fulfil household tasks. This documentation of the early history of Italy's transition into an immigration country, focuses on the experience of African female migrants from the 1970s to the 1990s. It shows these African migrants as women who migrated to Italy as primary migrants, as opposed to following a husband or family there, who were then employed almost exclusively as live-in domestic workers. This work also looks at the experiences of migrant women as a reflection of Italian women's transformed social roles and as a reflection of Italian society's attachment to a particular conception of Italian family life.