On her shoulders: unpacking domestic work, neo-kinship and social authoritarianism in Peru

Abstract

Poorly paid–sometimes unpaid–domestic workers represent one of the few viable options for household and care support in Peru, where the state is weak in its provision of services and protection. I argue that social hierarchies established through the coloniality of power and the coloniality of gender add a layer of complexity to workers´ lived intersectionality of gender, indigeneity, rurality and migration status. It ends up positioning them as inferior in relation to their employers and co-citizens, a situation that is tantamount to social authoritarianism.