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9 Yale J.L. & Feminism 51 (1997)
Spiritual and Menial Housework

handle is hein.journals/yjfem9 and id is 57 raw text is: SPIRITUAL AND MENIAL HouSEWORK Dorothy E. Robertst Feminists have demonstrated how the ideological dichotomy between home and work has helped to subordinate women. This critique is part of a larger feminist project of shattering the mythical separation of public and private spheres that has justified women's exclusion from the market, sheltered male violence from public scrutiny, and disqualified women's needs from public support. This critique overlooks, however, how work inside the home is itself the subject of an ideological split. Domestic labor is divided into two aspects-the spiritual and the menial. Some work in the home is considered spiritual: it is valued highly because it is thought to be essential to the proper functioning of the household and the moral upbringing of children. Other domestic work is considered menial: it is devalued because it is strenuous and unpleasant and is thought to require little moral or intellectual skill. While the ideological opposition of home and work distinguishes men from women, the ideological distinction between spiritual and menial housework fosters inequality among women. Spiritual housework is associated with privileged white women; menial housework is associated with minority, immigrant, and working class women. Recent welfare reform laws, which require poor women to leave home to assume menial jobs, highlight the importance of identifying and shattering this dichotomy in women's domestic labor. This Article explores the relationship between the spiritual/menial dichotomy and the racialized structure of women's work. I describe the forces that assign different women to each category, how the distinction between menial and spiritual housework reflects and supports a racial division of domestic labor, and how this dichotomy ultimately helps to depress the value of all women's work. In Part I, I provide background about the gendered separation of work in the home and work in the market. The public/private dichotomy of all labor and the spiritual/menial dichotomy of housework overlap and reinforce each other. I discuss how my focus on spiritual and menial housework relates to the feminist critique of the distinction made between public and private labor. Part II explains the fragmentation of domestic labor into its spiritual and menial elements. I demonstrate how privileged women have delegated their menial household duties to other women while retaining their roles as spiritual housekeepers and mothers. Part III argues that this spiritual/menial dichotomy is inextricably connected to a racialized hierarchy among women workers. I trace the history of women's domestic labor from its confinement to the home to its t Professor, Rutgers University School of Law-Newark. Thanks to Risa Lieberwitz, Cameron Macdonald, and Twila Perry for helpful suggestions and encouragement, and to Regine Dupuy-McCalla, Bronwen Mantlo, and Theodora McCormick for their research assistance. Copyright * 1997 by the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism

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