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workers open to abuse and exploitation and unable todemand safe and protected workplaces.“Because women are so chronically under-representedin positions of power and wealth, the work of womencontinues to be undervalued and exploited and nowhereis this clearer than in how we treat our domestic workers,”says Ai-jen.“While there has been a huge shift in the role of women inthe workplace, there remains an assumption that all of thework that goes into raising families is just done by women.Plus there is the historic race dynamic. The attitude thatthis kind of work would be done for free or for very littlemoney by women of colour persists and remains deeplyembedded and qualified by labour laws across the world.”Around 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom arewomen from outside of the United States, are employed asdomestic workers in New York City. Yet until 2010, none ofthese workers were protected or even recognized in NewYork State law.In 2000, a group of domestic workers from the Philippinesliving and working in the city started mobilizing to tryand change this. They founded Domestic Workers United(DWU) with the aim of trying to build power collectivelyas a workforce and establish fair labour standards for theindustry.Through a series of monthly meetings, DWU startedto take shape, with hundreds and then thousandsof domestic workers from across the city becomingmembers.Daily outreach programmes in parks, playgrounds,churches and the street, helped to organize workers in theneighbourhoods where they lived and worked.A network of alliances with unions, employers, churchleaders and members of the New York State legislaturebuilt momentum for DWU’s aim of creating a Bill ofRights for domestic workers, which for the first timewould provide them with the same basic rights that otherworkers had been entitled to for decades.Ai-jen marching with members of NDWA and National People’s Action to demand accountability for the financial crisis, in Washington, DC.Photo: NDWA