POWER OF THE POWERLESS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE "POWER" OF MAIDS

Abstract

In every society, some groups of people, due to reasons of the stratification of class, status and perhaps in the Singaporean society, occupation, are deemed as "powerless". Naturally then, some other groups on the other end of the spectrum are assumed to enjoy power, or even labeled "powerful". This HT attempts to explore the lives of one such class of people who have been considered to be "powerless" and almost absolutely powerless as such, to see the possibilities of power or influence of these people. This means a closer look at the sources, forms and effects of power of these "powerless". The subject of the study in this HT is the Filipino maid. Here, power is still viewed as relational in nature, between the maids and their employers, but is treated from the perspective of the subordinated maid. On the outset, this study focuses on the hypothesis that the maid's power can be seen in the various ways she reacts to her employer. The data shows this to be true, but also illuminates the role maids play to perpetuate their subordination, the existence of exchange relationships between maids and their employers and the role of communication in the determination of the degree of the power of the maid.