Live-in foreign domestic workers and their impact on Hong Kong\u27s middle class families

This paper discusses the impact of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on parental roles and family dynamics of Hong Kong\u27s middle class families. The increase in married women\u27s labor force participation in Hong Kong has led to a greater demand for childcare, which has been filled by FDWs. Based on interviews with 15 dual-earner couples in middle class nuclear families employing FDWs, how FDWs affect the mother\u27s gender role and family dynamics is discussed. Boundary work is used by parents in their daily interaction with their children and their FDWs so as to reconcile the perceived indispensability of these workers on the one hand, and the challenges they pose to the definition of parenthood on the other