By Juliana Britto Schwartz • @JulianaBrittoS • 10 years ago

Photo(s) of the Day: Domestic workers at work

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The “hidden” nature of domestic work is what first drew Ellen Jacob to begin her photo series, “Substitutes.” For the series, Jacobs photographed and interviewed nannies living and working in New York City, increasing the visibility of work that is too often relegated to the privacy of individual homes. What follows are some beautiful images of daily life while caring for the children of others.

04_©Ellen Jacob_Kim and the sisters.jpg.CROP.original-originalThis kind of visibility is essential for domestic labor rights. In September we all celebrated the day that California joined Hawaii and New York in enacting a Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights, implementing basic labor protections for this often marginalized population. This victory was largely due to the hard grassroots work of organizations like the National Domestic Worker’s Alliance, and Domestic Worker’s United.

The success stories of California, New York and Hawaii are exciting, but more importantly they serve as motivation to keep pushing. The domestic workers movements is working towards implementing similar legislation in every state, with Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut and Oregon well on their way towards doing so.

Be sure to check out the rest of Jacob’s beautiful images, and learn about ways you can support the domestic workers movement.
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Juliana probably dresses up like Frida Kahlo a little too often.

Bay Area, California

Juliana is a digital storyteller for social change. As a writer at Feministing since 2013, her work has focused on women's movements throughout the Americas for environmental justice, immigrant rights, and reproductive justice. In addition to her writing, Juliana is a Senior Campaigner at Change.org, where she works to close the gap between the powerful and everyone else by supporting people from across the country to launch, escalate and win their campaigns for justice.

Juliana is a Latina feminist writer and campaigner based in the Bay Area.

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