On her shoulders: unpacking domestic work, neo-kinship and social authoritarianism in Peru

Poorly paid – sometimes unpaid – domestic workers represent one of the few viable options for household and care support in Peru, where the state is weak in its provision of services and protection. I argue that social hierarchies established through the coloniality of power and the coloniality of gender add a layer of complexity to workers´ lived intersectionality of gender, indigeneity, rurality and migration status. It ends up positioning them as inferior in relation to their employers and co-citizens, a situation that is tantamount to social authoritarianism.