Siobhan Allen

Mission Statement

Over this ten week program, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the oppressions that domestic workers in Spain. At this point, I have already worked in the United States with an organization called Domestic Workers United, or DWU. At DWU, I was able gain a deeper insight to the struggles that domestic workers in the United States, specifically New York City, face. Overall, I hope to find the same sort of understanding of the plights of the women of Servicio Domestico Activo, or SEDOAC. I hope to gain knowledge and understanding from SEDOAC, and part of that knowledge and understanding for me will be learning what I can contribute. I feel as though I have learned to take a backseat in discussions of oppression and privilege, and I do not wish to presume what SEDOAC could need from me. I sincerely hope that part of this experience will involve me learning what I could contribute to them in a meaningful way that does not overstep my place as an outsider.

Throughout this experience, I also hope to improve my research skills, especially research that does not involve purely academic readings. I feel as though in the past, I have usually limited myself to an analysis of purely academic books and articles, and I would like to be able to branch out beyond that to be able to flesh out my skills in other areas of research. I also want to develop my ability to assimilate easily into unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations, and I think being a total outsider both in Spain and in the context of SEDOAC will give me practice to do just that. I think the easiest part of  this experience will be the academic research and increasing my content knowledge of the issues surrounding domestic workers’ rights. I am most comfortable with academic research, and I believe that this part should not prove too challenging for me. I truly think the experience with SEDOAC outside of the academic research sphere will prove much more challenging, and I am eager to face that challenge head on.

Lastly, I hope to improve my abilities in cross-cultural communication. I already have some experience in this area, but I think my time with SEDOAC will bring me to another level. I believe that this cross-cultural communication will not only strengthen me personally and academically, but will also strengthen and deepen my research for this fellowship. I think that although this summer may be a very challenging experience for me, it will also allow me to grow, and to gain new skills that would have otherwise been unavailable to me.

Overall, I hope to research on the current problems that domestic workers in Spain face through SEDOAC, and to use the academic component of my research to research on the roots and reasons for these oppressions throughout Spain. I believe that my experiences with SEDOAC will allow me to develop these skills, and I am excited to push forward and grow as an academic, professional, and person throughout this summer.

Final Reflections

As my summer wraps up, I am beginning to think more and more about the aspects of this experience that I thought went very well for me, and other aspects that I wish had been different. I loved having the connections with the women of SEDOAC, if not just for personal reasons, I think the…

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The Downward Flow of Discourse

Due to the nature of SEDOAC’s work, it was impossible to get one-on-one time with the women during the meetings, and they all worked full hours during the week, and did not have free time to sit down and talk about interviews. What I decided to do to compensate for this was to use an…

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Self-Defense and Solidarity

For my last unprompted blog post, I was inspired to branch out a bit from what I have been focusing on for my research, and it has actually led me to some new conclusions about what SEDOAC does that matters most to their members. A couple weeks ago, SEDOAC had an even that focused on…

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Delving Into Comparisons

At the start of my research, my goal was to inform my experiences working with SEDOAC through my experiences with Domestic Workers United (DWU), a similar organization in New York. A large difference between the two organizations is that SEDOAC focuses its work around Latinx female migrant domestic workers, while DWU focuses its work around…

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Mapping Solidarity

SEDOAC is an interesting organization to map out, because they do not have an office or a traditional workspace. Therefore, there do not have a “home base” from which to map, or a set location for their events or for their members to convene. This is partly because all of the members of SEDOAC have…

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Labor Unions and the “Right to the City”

As I have previously explored, SEDOAC has a complicated relationship with the groups it is most similar to, other organizations that work towards advancing domestic workers’ rights. SEDOAC also has a complicated relationship within general labor movements and far left-wing movements within Spain, where they often wish to align themselves with labor movements so that…

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Individual Goals and Collective Movements

SEDOAC works within the “field” of domestic workers rights throughout Spain. Over the past week, I have been able to see exactly how SEDOAC works within this context, and how a coalition of different domestic workers can work together as a collective movement in order to reach a wider audience and have a bigger influence….

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Sources, Intersectionality, and Confirmation Biases

Over the past few weeks starting my research, I have begun to develop a solid list of sources to aid me in my research. At this point, I am mostly relying on academic articles and portions from books. Because there is a lack of research surrounding domestic workers, I have found that the best research…

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The Context Surrounding SEDOAC – Race, Gender, and Class

Rather than focus on the history of Madrid while researching the context in which I am doing my research, I elected to focus on the history of domestic workers specifically throughout Spain. More importantly, why domestic workers are abused in Spain, and the roots that lead to the oppressions of domestic workers in Spain. The…

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