An analysis of chapter two of the book “Nickled and Dimed” (entitled “Scrubbing in Maine”) which examines the ethnic composition of America’s poor.
It is often assumed in modern American discourse about the nature of poverty that the poor in America are largely minority in their ethnic composition. The book shows that in Chapter Two of Nickel and Dimed, the author and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich makes clear that this is not always the case. It shows that to prove her thesis, Ehrenreich goes to Maine to examine the conditions of laborers in largely white New England. The paper describes Ehrenreich’s methodology which is particularly unique, in that she chooses not to go as a reporter, but to actually work in Maine as one of the people whom she is attempting to study, working for a company called “Merry Maids”.
“By the nature of this service, the very poor work for the very rich. The labor is hard, physical manual work that drains both the bodies and the spirits of its employees. Furthermore, the occupation of a maid is so despised by society, comprising one of the lowest female forms of work in America’s class system, even individuals ,who spot the Maids when they are still in their uniforms, but not working chose to ignore them. The individuals whom the Maids labor for also have a mixed feeling about the Maids because the workers are performing a traditionally female occupation that is supposed to be accomplished by the female homeowner herself. Only by rendering such work invisible, and ignoring the individuals who perform such work can society come to terms with the existence of janitorial workers.”