Response to Glenn

In her essay “From Servitude to Service Work: Historical Continuities in the Racial Division of Paid Reproductive Labor,” Glenn comments that as family members spend more time outside the household, “they have less time and inclination to provide for one another’s social and emotional needs” (5). For me, this brought up an interesting comparison between Ehrenreich’s sentiments in her article “Maid to Order: The politics of other women’s work” that “one of the ‘better’ things employers of maids often want to do with their time is, of course, spend it with their children” (70). Although Glenn may not be specifically referring to children in her statement, it is still intriguing that she predicts a weakening of community/familial emotional and social interdependence when Ehrenreich seems to predict the opposite. The same variable – paid housework allowing the employers to spend more time out of the house – seemingly causes a breach of opinions between the two authors. What then would be an appropriate measure to gauge the accurateness of each perspective? Does this assessment vary by region, a theme which Glenn often employs in her essay? Or, do the different backgrounds of Glenn and Ehrenreich provide a cause for their difference in belief?