Optimism and resilience among the precariat: a gendered analysis of community home-based care work in South Africa

Abstract

Community Home-Based Care (CHBC) workers around the world have not been satisfied with their work over the years. In South Africa, unfair labor practices and poor organization of CHBC work have recently led to strikes and unionization by caregivers. At the frontline of caregiving are black working-class women whose dominance illuminates how the intersections of gender, class and race contribute to care workers’ precariat position. Regardless of the gendered precarious encounters, the 20 female CHBC workers from Soweto, South Africa, who participated in this study, are optimistic and resilient. This article visibilizes the optimism, resilience, positivity, self-empowerment, control, the gendered power, and agency that care workers exercise in response to the challenges that characterize care work. Beyond merely illuminating the gendered oppositional binaries, the article calls for the deconstruction of gendered hierarchies in care work to disrupt the exclusive participation of women in the global labor markets as care workers.