Working conditions of paid female caregivers in the domestic sphere. Qualitative study in the Great Valencia after the Great Recession

Abstract

One of the ways to provide care is by hiring paid workers/caregivers in the domestic sphere. The text has two aims: to analyse the working conditions of these workers, regardless of their country of origin, within the Great Valencia, and to determine whether these conditions have deteriorated since the Great Recession. Through a qualitative methodology – individual interviews with key informants and paid caregivers, and group interviews – it is concluded there are two large groups coexisting in this sector: immigrants and native women. Both groups work in precarious conditions, although with different intensities. Behind the situation observed lies the confluence of diverse social and economic logics that define a framework of structural precariousness.