Bringing Law Home

Katherine Eva Maich is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University.

"'Is there a law?' puzzled New York City employers asked West Indian domestic worker Carla, one of the subjects of Katherine Maich's revelatory book. Yes, there are laws nominally protecting household workers. But Maich shows how entrenched racial and gender hierarchies, legacies of colonialism and slavery, and the power ideological separation between 'home' and 'work' undermine those laws' effect. Full of important lessons about work, law, power, and inequality, the book also explores how we could achieve a more just future." -Chris Tilly, University of California, Los Angeles "That the law is 'all over' is a truism in socio-legal studies, but research that explores how the law operates in the most hidden places in our society is exceedingly rare. This book is bound to be a classic in law and society research and a critical empirical resource for those advocating for the expanding workforce of those laboring inside the home and beyond most employment based rights." -Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley "Given the place of the home as constitutive of the private sphere, how do we regulate it as a workplace? What does it mean to have 'labor rights at home' and what limits to labor legislation exist there? These questions allow Maich to turn the literature on its head and create space for new contributions. An exciting and compelling book!" -Carolina Bank Munoz, University of Massachusetts Amherst