Workers Like All the Rest of Them

“Deeply researched, beautifully crafted, and historiographically and theoretically sophisticated, Workers Like All the Rest of Them is a major contribution to the growing literature on domestic workers and their organizing efforts in the face of legal, cultural, social, and political barriers. Elizabeth Quay Hutchison illuminates the intricacies of social movements in Chile, uncovering the centrality of the Catholic Church to maintaining and increasing domestic worker organization. Hutchison significantly expands our understanding of the interaction between social processes, law, and social movements in the development of domestic worker activism.” - Eileen Boris, author of Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919-2019

“Presenting a series of timely, important, and often surprising arguments, Workers Like All the Rest of Them will find an audience among Chileanists, historians of gender and labor, as well as social science scholars interested in domestic work around the world.” - Nara B. Milanich, author of Paternity: The Elusive Quest for the Father

“As one of the first histories of domestic labor in Chile, Workers Like All the Rest of Them opens many questions for further research. . . . This beautifully written and engaging book visualizes Chilean domestic workers' life and work.” - Ángela Vergara, H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews

“[Workers Like All the Rest of Them] proposes that domestic workers struggled strategically and made alliances with other social actors throughout the twentieth century to obtain labor rights and recognition. . . . [Hutchison’s] book contributes not only by illuminating a hidden history, but as a tool to combat the inequalities that it uncovers." - Javiera Letelier, A Contracorriente

“A deeply researched and elegantly written work. . . . [Workers Like All the Rest of Them] is an excellent work that has wide application and relevance well beyond its Chilean context for scholars of (women’s) labor rights, urban migration, the development of democracy, and the formation of nation-states throughout the world.” - Mark Overmyer-Veláquez, The Americas

"The book allows us to situate the current dynamics in long-term processes, and so enables us to see what is new about the present struggles of domestic workers. Hutchison’s research is of great interest, not only for academics focused on Latin American labour history, but also for workers and activists. It will undoubtedly contribute to strengthening our historical perspective on the current transformations in domestic work, as well as on the advances and limitations in terms of labour rights for this sector." - Inés Pérez, International Review of Social History

"Workers Like All the Rest of Them touches on important themes in twentieth-century Chilean history while showing how domestic workers were part of many of these conversations and movements." - Joshua Savala, Hispanic American Historical Review

"I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Chilean or Latin American Feminist, Women’s, and Gender history, and also for any specialists in Chilean Labor and Social History. The text is very strong, in particular in regard to the History of the Chilean women domestic workers’ movement." - Hillary Hiner, Journal of Social History

"Workers Like All the Rest of Them is a fascinating study that makes several valuable advances. . . . This book will undoubtedly be of interest to students and scholars of labor history, gender studies, and Latin American studies, as well as those beyond academia who wish to better understand the direction that labor relations might be headed in our own era of increasingly precarious and informal employment." - Edward Brudney, American Historical Review