Academics

Maich invited to document international congress in Cape Town, South Africa

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Katherine Maich, assistant professor of labor and employment relations, sociology, and Latin American studies, joined more than two hundred advocates at the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) 2nd Global Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, from Nov. 16 to 19, 2018.

Katherine Maich, Penn State professor of labor and employment relations, attended the International Domestic Workers Federation 2nd Global Congress in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2018. Credit: ProvidedAll Rights Reserved.

Representatives from 55 countries converged at the event held at Salt River’s historic Community House — a longtime site of anti-apartheid political activism and labor and community organizing — to discuss many of the challenges domestic workers experience globally.

The congress provided IDWF members an opportunity to share their knowledge, confirm goals and develop priorities surrounding key issues facing the movement. Topics included strategies for organizing migrant workers, ending gender-based violence, implementing ILO Convention 189, addressing the rapidly growing care crisis and striving for occupational health and safety. 

Since its founding in Montevideo, Uruguay in 2013, IDWF now includes more than half a million domestic workers and is the first global union led by women. 

Maich attended IDWF as part of a research team that also included sociologists Mary Romero and Jennifer Fish, and historian Eileen Boris. 

Last Updated January 10, 2019