How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the lives of the millions of domestic workers across the world who provide essential services of care but are rarely seen as essential workers?

This International Inequalities Institute seminar will compare the experiences of domestic workers in India, Argentina and the UK to address three fundamental issues. It will ask what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about the inequalities faced by domestic workers. It will explore how the impact of the pandemic on domestic care workers makes us reflect on the question of what is work. And it will investigate the implications of the pandemic on work relations between employers and domestic workers. The aim is to highlight, examine and compare the multiple crises and inequalities of care experienced by those who are essential to giving care across three continents.

Speakers: Dr Shalini Grover (Research Officer, LSE III), Professor Louise Ryan (Director of Global Diversities and Inequalities Research Centre, London Metropolitan University), Dr Lorena Poblete (National University of San Martin), Dr Joyce Jiang (Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of York), and Dr Neha Wadhawan (Freedom Program, ILO, Delhi)

Chair: Dr Alpa Shah (Associate Professor of Anthropology; Research Theme leader of ‘Global Economies of Care’, III, LSE)