The New Maids is a pioneering book, grounded on rich, empirical evidence, which examines the relationship between globalization, transnationalism, gender and the care economy. Expertly addressing the thorny questions that surround the increasing number of migrant domestic workers and cleaners, child-carers and caregivers who maintain modern Western households, the author argues that domestic work plays the defining role in global ethnic and gender hierarchies.

Using a central ethnographic study of immigrant domestic workers and their German employees as its starting point, The New Maids uses the voices of such women themselves to provide unique conceptual and evidential support for this vital new approach argument. This exciting book will not only enhance the reader's understanding of the new care-economy, it also sets standards for feminist global methodology.

Helma Lutz is professor of women and gender studies in the Department of Social Sciences at Goethe University, Germany. She is an associate editor of the European Journal of Women's Studies.

1: The New Division of Domestic Labour
2: The Household as a Global Market for Women's Labour
3: Domestic Work and Lifestyles: Methods and First Results
4: Domestic Work - A Perfectly Normal Job?
5: Exploitation or Alliance of Trust? Relationship Work in the Household
6: Transnational Motherhood
7: Being Illegal
8: Migrant Women in the Globalization Trap?