Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement

In Household Workers Unite Premilla Nadasen places African American female domestic workers at the center of a broader social movement that spanned the labor and civil rights movements. Using oral histories and archival records Nadasen uncovers the history of African American female household workers who struggled to achieve improved working conditions, social citizenship, and dignity for their profession from the 1950s through the 1980s. Nadasen focuses her study on women activists such as Dorothy Bolden, Geraldine Roberts, and Josephine Hulett, and the organizations they led, including the National Committee on Household Employment (nche), the Household Technicians of America (hta), and later, the National Domestic Workers Union of America. Through these organizations, Nadasen argues, black women workers who labored in the homes of wealthy and middle-class families sought more than improved working conditions and wages; they wanted to “reshape the contours of the occupation” (p. 85). Household Workers Unite relies on the voices of female domestic workers. In numerous interviews and oral histories these women recounted tales of exploitation and humiliation. Early on, the nche and hta provided space for workers to come together and recount a multitude of slights and disrespect by white employers. Workers often described situations in which they were given the leftover food on children's plates, while many others complained of uncompensated work and irregular hours. Leaders of the hta called this strategy of organizing “giving voice” to female household workers. African American women used the organizations that they founded to craft a new role for household workers emphasizing the professional skills and loving dedication of domestic workers.