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A review by mkwojcie
In a Day's Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America's Most Vulnerable Workers by Bernice Yeung
4.0
"To start, there is the predictable list of barriers: fear of losing their jobs, fear of being blamed by their husbands and partners, and the immutable sense of shame. They're terrified of what it might feel like to talk about the assault, and they have real concerns about what it would mean for their safety. They worry about what would happen to their families if they were deported as a result of coming forward. Then, for women like Hernandez, who were desperate and driven enough to cross borders to leave impoverished and violent homes, there is one more complication to add to the list: you have to ask how they were living before they got here."
Yeung explores the daily realities of sexual violence and rape at work for low-income, and often immigrant, women of color who perform custodial, agricultural, and domestic labor through (very hard to read) case studies of the rare women who have come forward. She also powerfully distills decades of research into the factors that keep these women and the violence that they endure invisible to the public, the effects of trauma on memory, and the rape myths and legal technicalities that impede justice in the 2% of cases that make it to trial. A very clear, accessible, and moving account of a intersectional #metoo that has been unfolding by way of immigrant and labor advocacy organizations for decades. And one even more crucial at this particular moment given current atrocities at the border and the recession of labor regulations under this administration.
Yeung explores the daily realities of sexual violence and rape at work for low-income, and often immigrant, women of color who perform custodial, agricultural, and domestic labor through (very hard to read) case studies of the rare women who have come forward. She also powerfully distills decades of research into the factors that keep these women and the violence that they endure invisible to the public, the effects of trauma on memory, and the rape myths and legal technicalities that impede justice in the 2% of cases that make it to trial. A very clear, accessible, and moving account of a intersectional #metoo that has been unfolding by way of immigrant and labor advocacy organizations for decades. And one even more crucial at this particular moment given current atrocities at the border and the recession of labor regulations under this administration.