John —

Women's HIstory Month is just getting underway. How are you celebrating those who paved the way and those who are blazing trails?

At NDWA, we’re spending the month uplifting domestic worker leaders who used their skill and passion for domestic work — work to care for our children, our homes and our loved ones — to propel themselves into careers as changemakers, activists and educators. Women like Josephine Hulett.

We honor Josephine Hulett for building a local organization in her hometown and for co-founding a national domestic worker organization.

Josephine “Jo” Hulett worked in households for over twenty years. She became a domestic worker out of necessity because, as with many Black women of her generation, racist laws and beliefs left her with few options for work. She was often forced to endure degrading and inhumane working conditions. 

After working for a rare employer who offered her pay increases, sick leave, and more, Ms. Hulett became determined to win benefits and protections for all domestic workers so these jobs could become good jobs. She formed a domestic workers' rights group in Youngstown, Ohio in 1968. Storytelling became her signature strategy — she was able to speak powerfully about her experiences, which resonated with other workers.

After all, there’s a sense in which all women are household workers. And unless we stop being turned against each other, unless we organize together, we’re never going to make this country see household work for what it really is — human work, not just “woman’s work”; a job that deserves dignity, fair pay, and respect.
— Josephine “Jo” Hulett

In 1970, Ms. Hulett became the full-time field organizer for the National Committee on Household Employment (NCHE). Though the NCHE brought domestic workers and employers together, middle-class white women set the agenda and continually emphasized that their goal was not to unionize workers. Hulett was hired to help build a national domestic worker rights movement from the bottom up. She traveled across the country to meet with workers and support their organizing.

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Josephine Hulett’s efforts were needed then and are still needed now.

Nannies, housecleaners, and care workers like Ms. Hulett – the majority of whom are women of color – drive our economy. Yet, they have been overlooked, abused and exploited since the time of slavery. Even today, many domestic workers are still struggling to feed themselves and their families.

That's why we are focused on our advocacy and organizing efforts to win a historic investment in our care infrastructure and to pass the National Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. We are carrying forward the work of the women like Ms. Hulett who came before us so that we can ensure those who come after us know true equity.

Thanks for all that you do,

Care Team
National Domestic Workers Alliance