In a Day's Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America's Most Vulnerable Workers
2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction
Winner of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award
Winner of the 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
"In a Day's Work is a . . . much-needed addition to the literature on sexual harassment in the U.S."
--The New York Review of Books
A searing exposé about the hidden stories of immigrant workers overlooked by #MeToo--at turns heartrending and hopeful--by acclaimed journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Bernice Yeung
Apple orchards in bucolic Washington state. Office parks in Southern California under cover of night. The home of an elderly man in Miami. These are some of the workplaces where female workers have suffered brutal sexual assault and shocking harassment at the hands of their employers, often with little or no official recourse. In this harrowing yet often inspiring tale, investigative journalist Bernice Yeung exposes the epidemic of sexual violence levied against women farmworkers, domestic workers, and janitorial workers and charts their quest for justice in the workplace.
Yeung takes readers on a journey across the country, introducing us to women who came to America to escape grinding poverty only to encounter sexual violence in the United States. In a Day's Work exposes the underbelly of economies filled with employers who take advantage of immigrant women's need to earn a basic living. When these women find the courage to speak up, Yeung reveals, they are too often met by apathetic bosses and underresourced government agencies. But In a Day's Work also tells a story of resistance, introducing a group of courageous allies who challenge dangerous and discriminatory workplace conditions alongside aggrieved workers--and win. Moving and inspiring, this book will change our understanding of the lives of immigrant women.
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Praise for In a Day's Work
2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction
Winner of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award
Winner of the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
One of BuzzFeed's "21 Amazing New Books You Need to Read This Spring"
"In a Day's Work is a . . . much-needed addition to the literature on sexual harassment in the U.S. . . . [B]uilding a cross-class movement as Yeung shows, will mean learning to stop unseeing the working women around us."
--The New York Review of Books
"[Yeung] tells compelling stories that illustrate systemic problems without reducing people to mere players in a legal argument. She skillfully knits case studies into rigorous policy analysis. Most important, Yeung traces paths toward progress beyond merely raising awareness."
--The Washington Post
"As pundits opine about #MeToo in the pages of every major newspaper, Yeung does something better: Rather than giver her own view on how to solve the scourge of sexual violence, she shows us what these workers themselves have been doing to address it. . . In a Day's Work shows us how to stamp out sexual violence: We don't have to reinvent the wheel; these women have been leading the way. All it takes is to join them."
--Bookforum
"The author mitigates the difficult material by bringing humanity, empathy, and hope to each page. . . . The book concludes with guardedly hopeful descriptions of workplace training programs, government regulation, and union advocacy. Even more moving, however, is the sense of a reporter deeply committed to her sources and her material ."
--Publisher Weekly
"A timely, intensely intimate, and relevant exposé on a greatly disregarded sector of the American workforce."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In a Day's Work is exactly what I've been waiting for--some serious attention to the great majority of sexual harassment victims, who aren't Hollywood stars but the low-paid women whom we depend on to pick farm produce, clean offices, and care for our children. Bernice Yeung's scalding exposé should dramatically affect the way we see women's abuse in the workplace."
--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
"In a Day's Work is a must-read for all who believe time's up on abusive employment practices for all workers. Yeung shows us through these courageous stories that the time to change the balance of power is now."
--Saru Jayaraman, author of Behind the Kitchen Door
