Engendering Democracy: Domestic Labour and Coalition-Building in South Africa

This article examines aspects of social change in South Africa through an analysis of paid domestic labour after the 1994 inception of a new democracy. Race, class and gender divisions continue to define this social institution as the ‘last bastion of apartheid’. Sharp power asymmetries between women positioned as either domestic workers or employers present distinctive challenges to the accessibility of gender rights that remain central to South Africa's democratisation. Although domestic workers comprise one of the largest sectors of working women, their location in private households poses severe obstacles to formalising this particular labour. In the South African case, domestic work continues to reinforce social constructions of the household as a feminised and racialised space, through the paid labour of black women. While domestic workers face severe marginalisation as a result of continuing social inequalities, women are also actively confronting barriers to democracy in the private employment sphere. Drawing upon 85 interviews and extensive field research, this article explores how domestic workers have collectively organised through unionisation and coalition-building to restructure the apartheid legacies contained within this institution. By aligning with South Africa's Gender Machinery, the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers' Union realised pivotal social security policy change through the first formal inclusion of the domestic work sector in unemployment insurance. This legislative victory emphasises the importance of engendering democracy at both the public and private levels to enhance the accessibility of women's rights, particularly within this isolated and highly gendered labour sector.