"El lenguaje de la familia": ¿ideología patriarcal, falsa conciencia o ética del cuidado? Un análisis a partir de los relatos de trabajadoras domésticas (Colombia, Líbano)

Abstract

The present article is based on two ethnographic researches with women engaged in paid domestic work in the cities of Bogotá and Beirut. Many of the workers' accounts outline the political and subjective complexity of family as a social institution that is more or less naturalized. We inquire into the references to family, or rather what we term the "language of family" that often characterizes the relations of employers and domestic workers. From this perspective, familism, as a set of discourses and practices involved in the exploitation of domestic workers, is not only a facade to cover up the violence of these social relations. In turn, an analysis of familism sheds the light on family as a site of domination, also fostering negotiations or tactics of resistance. At the same time, the value given to the "language of family" also tells a truth about family as "what matters": its importance draws from an ethics of family, founded on ideals of care, solidarity and inclusiveness.