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Hired Daughters: Domestic Workers Among Ordinary Moroccans
Contributor(s): Montgomery, Mary (Author)
ISBN: 0253041007     ISBN-13: 9780253041005
Publisher: Indiana University Press
OUR PRICE:   $79.20  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: February 2019
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social
- Social Science | Customs & Traditions
- Social Science | Women's Studies
Dewey: 640.460
LCCN: 2018289943
Physical Information: 0.69" H x 6" W x 9" (1.19 lbs) 276 pages
Themes:
- Sex & Gender - Feminine
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Hired Daughters examines a fading tradition of domestic service in which rural girls familiar to ordinary Moroccan families were placed in their homes until marriage. In this tradition of bringing up, the girls are considered daughters of the house, and part of their role in the family is to help with the housework. Gradually, this tradition is transforming into one in which workers unfamiliar to their host families are paid a wage and may not stay long, but where the Islamic ethics of charity, religious reward, and gratitude still inform expectations on both sides. Mary Montgomery examines why Moroccans so often talk about their domestic workers as daughters, what this means for workers and employers, and how this is changing in contemporary Morocco. Prioritizing the experiences and perspectives of these women, Montgomery charts the tension that has developed between socially embedded, loyal domestic workers who operate within narratives of kinship and obligation and women who seek greater individualization, privacy, and self-empowerment. Hired Daughters offers a nuanced understanding of a world that bridges public and private, morality and money, family and outsiders. In doing so, it provides an intimate consideration of contemporary Moroccan households as economic enterprises and sites of navigation between the traditional and the global.