Hullo,

Today we look at work and organising and fighting for rights!

Let’s kick off with this (long, good) story about the women who clean the hotel Harvard own and use for conferences. Some pretty awful details on what it is to be a cleaner in a hotel here, and a grim indictment of corporate versus actual feminism:

Nothing has a longer lineage in feminism than chronicles of cleaning—how much it hurts, how little it is respected. Dorothy Lee Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Workers Union of America in the 1960s, declared that housekeepers, nannies, and in-home caregivers had built the nation from “the sweat of their brow” as surely as their parents had by working in the fields. Nearly half a million people work as housekeepers in hotels nationwide, about 90 percent of them women. Boston’s hotel industry thrives on university business—at Harvard, Boston University, Boston College, and others—putting up conference participants, parents of college kids, and visiting scholars.

https://www.thenation.com/article/housekeepers-versus-harvard-feminism-for-the-age-of-trump/

Speaking of the difference between corporate and actual feminism:

Being a upper middle-class white woman from Massachusetts, I am of course well-versed in oppression; I am victim of it every morning on my way to buy a cruller at Dunkin Donuts. Do you know how awful it is to be catcalled at 8 am? I am more than just a pretty face — I am an intellectual. In the moments following my feministic Google search, I felt empowered. A renewed sense of purpose and energy flowed through me like I was Maya Angelou reciting “Phenomenal Woman” on Oprah. It was then I knew I would become the best intersectional feminist in the world.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-googled-intersectionality-so-now-im-totally-woke

Also also, have you guys been following the Uber story? As a former woman in start ups, this is hideous even by my standards and well worth a read. Of course, Reductress are also on the case:

“It’s probably some kind of spirit portal or energy vortex,” explains Kalanick, who admits he is new to the world of spirit phenomenon. “And our new corporate policy won’t stand for it. We’re going to install some crystals and do everything we can to eradicate the spirits that are tormenting our employees.”

http://reductress.com/post/uber-ceo-hires-psychic-to-get-to-the-bottom-of-all-the-bad-vibes-in-here/

Have a great day, team,

Alex.