“An incredible container for transformation.”

“I believe that love is the most powerful force for change in the world. I often compare great campaigns to great love affairs because they’re an incredible container for transformation.”—Ai-jen Poo quoted in Yes! magazine, November 2011

An Interview with Labor Organizer and Feminist, Ai-jen Poo

Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), speaks lyrically about social movements, about how they transform people and the world. But what her words render most is her deep sense of the meaning of justice, as well as how to achieve justice through strategic movement-building. Her resolve leaves a seeker of truth like me in amazement and relief: the future can’t be bad if Ai-jen is fighting for it.

Evidence of her resolve is not just in her words. A lifelong activist, Ai-jen and her colleagues have achieved critical results over the last decade, successfully passing a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York, Hawaii, and California to provide basic labor protections for the mostly immigrant women who labor as nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers for families in the United States; there has also been significant progress reforming federal wage and hour regulations to include domestic workers. These laws help ensure that domestic workers have the right to overtime pay, a day of rest every seven days, disability benefits, and other protections most “traditional” positions afford. I first connected with Ai-jen when I was writing about the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, legislation that is similar to the New York law and also the fruit of NDWA’s labor. Several more states are poised to launch campaigns for domestic workers’ rights. Aside from legislation, the movement has built partnerships with employers, prominent politicians and even Hollywood elite like Amy Poehler to build awareness about the lives of those who toil inside American homes.

As the movement for domestic workers continues to gain momentum throughout the country, it is notable the ways in which it intersects with sister movements. Specifically, given that the vast majority of domestic workers are women, the interconnectedness of the labor rights and feminist movements is clear. Feminists have been fighting for economic rights since Mary Wollstonecraft’s days, but the focus on domestic workers brings to light the particular vulnerability women in the domestic labor force experience.

And nobody conveys this interconnectedness better than Ai-jen: she manages to bring nearly every question about feminism, including political representation and socio-cultural influence, back squarely to the topic of domestic workers’ rights. When I met with her in NDWA’s modest Manhattan office, the topic of iconic feminist leadership came up, and Ai-jen pushes hard against the idea that an icon is ever central to achieving social change. The more important truth,...