女人何苦為難女人？僱用家務移工的三角關係

Jealous Madams, Anxious Mothers: Triangular Relationships in the Employment of Migrant Domestic Workers

作者針對僱用家務移工（俗稱「外籍幫傭」）的45名台灣女雇主進行深入訪談，探討這些具有相對社會優勢的女人如何透過勞力外包的方式與父權討價還價，並且協商植基於家務工作的女性角色與認同（「好太太、好媽媽、好媳婦」）。本文檢視的問題是：台灣女性基於怎樣的需求與考量，決定僱用移工來照顧家庭與小孩？她們如何區分不同類型的家務勞動，以用社會文化透鏡下的「適當」方式來安排她們與替身之間的分工？她們如何重新界定妻職、母職、婆職的意義、確保自己與女傭或保母之間的界線，以避免被另一個女人取代她們在家庭中的地位？家務移工的介入，導致了原本家庭關係的斷裂與重組，而呈現三組三角關係：(1)忌妒的太太－－家務移工－－先生，(2)焦慮的媽媽－－家務移工－－小孩，(3)現代媳婦－－家務移工－－沒有熬成婆的婆婆。本文透過這些三角關係的分析，考察漢人家庭中婚姻、母職、婆媳等主要社會關係的運作邏輯，以及台灣女雇主在建立自我之性別認同的同時，如何參與了階級支配與種族界線的形構。

This study is based on the author's in-depth interviews with 45 Taiwanese women who employ migrant domestic workers. The author explores how these relatively privileged women seek to outsource labor as a strategy to 'bargain with patriarchy' whilst they continue to negotiate their roles as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. The study poses the following questions: What are the needs that dictate the hiring of migrant women for child care and elder care? How do female employers assign and allocate housework, childcare and other various tasks between themselves and their surrogates (domestics)? How do they divide the labor in ways deemed socially appropriate and culturally acceptable? And finally, how do they redefine the meanings of domesticity, motherhood and motherhood-in-law to reinforce and confirm the many boundaries (between wife and maid, mother and nanny) so as to shield their status in the family from being displaced by market surrogates? The presence of migrant domestics has indeed disrupted and reorganized family relations, creating the following contradictory triangular relationships: firstly, between the jealous wife, the maid and the husband; secondly, between the anxious mother, the nanny and the children; and thirdly, between the modern daughter-in-law, the domestic and the insecure mother-in-law. Scrutiny of these relationships, in total, demonstrates the cultural logic and social institutions of marriage, motherhood, and inter-generational relationships among Taiwanese families. I also argue that while female employers negotiate gender identity within the framework of polarized womanhood, they conterminously and simultaneously participate in the construction of class and ethnic boundaries with regard to their migrant employees.