Paisanitas cama adentro: un nicho laboral para mujeres del campo

Abstract

This essay addresses live-in domestic service as a labour niche specifically oriented towards single young women defined as indigenous in Northern Patagonia in the mid-20th century. Based on experiences shared by old women that now live in Bariloche, Río Negro province, the essay describes different aspects of this labour market from the workers point of view. The argument focuses on the conditions that enable this market including the actors involved in selection and distribution of workers, and the way in which ethnicity, gender, age and class intersect in the construction of labour demand. By studying this niche, the essay approaches the way in which racism, patriarchy and adultcentrism interlock in the constitution of post-genocidal society.