NDWA is building on the powerful legacy of domestic worker leaders and organizations that came before us.
NDWA is building on the powerful legacy of domestic worker leaders and organizations that came before us. By studying the history of our movement, we learn how systems of oppression have shaped the sector, how organizers in generations past waged powerful campaigns to win recognition and respect, and how our current strategies can align to meet the needs and opportunities of the moment.
From 2018-2021, NDWA worked in deep collaboration with activist scholars Jennifer Guglielmo, Michelle Joffroy, and Diana Sierra Becerra to produce a multimedia suite of tools available in 6 languages, designed to put domestic worker history in domestic worker hands — and to bring to public view the rich tradition of domestic worker organizing for a more just economy and democracy. We invite you to explore and be inspired!
A History of Domestic Work and Worker Organizing is an interactive timeline of hundreds of years of domestic worker history in the United States.
We Make History a 17-workshop curriculum on domestic worker organizing history and on NDWA’s core strategies to make domestic work good work. A history study cohort of domestic worker leaders played a key role in curriculum development, and the course is now facilitated for domestic workers in more than 30 NDWA chapters and affiliate organizations.
I wish our ancestors were here to see the history they created and the work that you have done in projecting it to us and the masses. I see us in those past worker organizers.
NDWA Member
A documentary film that traces the history of multiracial domestic worker organizing in the United States, from workers’ everyday acts of rebellion to their collective and large-scale forms of organizing.
Trailer for Demanding Justice: A History of Domestic Workers:
Trailer for Demanding Justice: A History of Domestic Workers:
A documentary film exploring the history of anti-Black racism in the United States from the perspective of Black domestic workers, past and present.
Trailer for You Just Want to Feel Free: Domestic Workers and Antiblackness:
“I wish our ancestors were here to see the history they created and the work that you have done in projecting it to us and the masses. I see us in those past worker organizers.”
“I’m excited about building solidarity across different groups and having shared language to discuss the roots of oppression and strategies for change.”
“I can’t wait to use the curriculum and the timeline to build pride in our work. This is such an incredible resource for us to see ourselves in a new light, and feel supported by our ancestors, with room for creating our stories into the future!”
For press inquiries related to this project, contact [email protected].