The study aims to understand the transformation of domestic work in the changing urban Indonesia, marked by the growing numbers of babysitters in uniform in Jakarta. They shed a light on the persistence of gender, power relation, and class differentiation despite the transforming care job itself
Paper long abstract:
The baby sitter in uniform has been visible in Jakarta, Indonesia, performing child caring tasks for middle-class and high-income families. The uniform symbolises a pseudo-professional job of domestic child carer, as they look like nurses in uniforms. The uniform is also a class marker of baby sitter, because it means they are trained domestic workers who provide care in the family, unlike the other untrained domestic workers. They are recruited, trained and channeled by an agency, having a signed work agreement, and a fixed salary each month. This arrangement is different from those domestic workers who are informally recruited by word of mouth or from friends or relatives. The baby sitter is a phenomenon of paid care work in urban Indonesia.
While there are transformations in the child care job, there are paradox of this pseudo-professional work. The employers of baby sitter are in fact prefer a loving carer instead of a trained one, because the earlier gives them confidence in caring for children - the loved one in the family. The pseudo-professionalism is also facing the persisting class differentiation between employers and employees, mostly shown in public areas.