My dissertation aims to analyse the impact of the development of the private care sector (in particular in-home personal services such as childcare, cleaning and other reproductive work) on intersectional gender equality in France and Germany. I approach the notion of “gender equality” with an intersectional lens, focussing particular attention on inequality among women, positing on the idea that “woman” is not a uniform, homogenous category. The transfer of reproductive work from women employed on the formal labour market to other marginalised women poses questions of hierarchy based on racism and classism within the group “women”. My question could thus be reformulated as: How do policies promoting the development of personal care services impact on equality between men and women, and on equality among women? Social care is linked to various policy fields, including migration, labour market, gender equality and family policies. I seek to uncover how the four policy domains are articulated on the issue of care: How do migration and labour market policies address the demand for labour in the care sector? How is gender equality reconciled with the growth of the highly feminised private care sector marked by precarious working conditions?

Answering these questions presupposes an in-depth analysis of the relation between white supremacy, class exploitation and gender inequality. My work analyses how these overlapping systems of privilege intersect to create specific conditions leading to discrimination on the labour market for women of colour, excluding them from the legal framework promoting gender equality on one hand, and “diversity” on the other. In a comparative perspective, my dissertation looks at how political, economic, institutional and representational intersectionality combine to affect women of colour on issues of gender equality, working conditions, access to and position on the labour market and immigration status.