Mary Poppins Comes Back: The Revival of Paid Domestic Work in the Informal Labour Market in Ukraine
Mary Poppins Comes Back: The Revival of Paid Domestic Work in the Informal Labour Market in Ukraine

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. The research problem addressed in this article is the formation of an informal labour market of paid domestic services as a new form of gender-specific reproductive labour in Ukraine. The key objective of the paper is to analyse domestic work as a re-emerging area of informal employment, in light of its gender specificity. The paper analyses domestic care work as an informal commercial service and highlights the implications informality has for workers, employers and policy-making. It focuses on the gendered dimensions of domestic work, placing emphasis on male involvement in this field. It also traces the specificities of paid domestic services in the informal labour market in post-socialist Ukraine, and focuses on the informal practices involved in job offers, the social underpinnings of the revival of paid domestic work, the reverse class mobility in domestic work, and the high requirements placed on domestic workers, as well as competition on the informal labour market in Ukraine.

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