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Home > Winter 2014-15 > Ai-jen Poo ’96 Wins “Genius Grant”

Winter 2014-15

Around the Quads

Ai-jen Poo ’96 Wins “Genius Grant”

By Alex Sachare ’71

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Winter 2014-15
Ai-jen Poo ’96, director of the National Dom­estic Workers Alliance (NDWA), has been organizing female immigrant workers since 1996, transforming the landscape of working conditions and labor standards for domestic or private-household workers. Recently, she and her cause received a significant boost.


On September 17, Poo was named by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as one of 21 members of the 2014 class of MacArthur Fellows. Known informally as “genius grants,” the fellowships recognize “exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for significant contributions in the future,” according to the foundation.

Winners receive a stipend of $625,000, paid across five years, with no strings attached. “The fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential,” the foundation says, and allows recipients maximum freedom to follow their own creative visions.

Ai-jen Poo ’96 was named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow for her efforts to improve the conditions faced by domestic workers in the United States. Photo: Courtesy MacArthur FoundationAi-jen Poo ’96 was named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow for her efforts to improve the conditions faced by domestic workers in the United States. Photo: Courtesy MacArthur Foundation
The foundation credits Poo’s “compelling vision of the value of home-based care work” and cites her as a labor organizer who is “catalyzing a vibrant, worker-led movement for improved working conditions and labor standards for domestic or private-household workers.”


Asked what she plans to do with the grant, Poo told NBC News, “The plan is to create a fellowship for caregivers and domestic workers to be able to work for the National Domestic Workers Alliance as national public policy fellows to really get them to learn the workings of policy so that they can better impact the broad set of policies that affect their lives. They’ve already been doing that work to win expanded rights for domestic workers. We’re going to build that up to develop policy expertise.”

According to the NDWA, an estimated 1–2 million domestic workers — housekeepers, nannies and caregivers for the elderly or disabled — in the United States are excluded from most federal and state labor laws, including collective bargaining; occupational safety and health protections; sick and vacation pay; and protection from discrimination and sexual harassment.


“Domestic work is the Wild West: You never know what you’re going to get and it runs the spectrum,” Poo said in an interview with NBC. “Some people work for wonderful families who they stay in contact with for many generations. On the other end there’s human smuggling and modern slavery-like conditions. And there’s nothing there to protect these workers — no guidelines, no clear workplace standards, which means that even employers [who] want to do the right thing for their employees don’t always know what that is.”

Poo has spearheaded successful legislative campaigns at the national and international levels. As lead organizer of the New York City–based Domestic Workers United from 2000 to 2009, she spent countless hours in parks, on buses and at other gathering places for domestic workers, creating opportunities for women to share their experiences; guiding mistreated workers to appropriate legal channels; articulating the vital economic role of domestic workers; and developing with workers a framework of legal standards for the industry. In 2010, New York enacted the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which entitles workers to overtime pay, one day of rest per week, protection from discrimination and three days paid leave per year, after a hard-fought seven-year legislative campaign led by Poo and a group of workers and advocates. Several other states have passed or are considering similar legislation supported by the NDWA.

Poo and the other members of this year’s class join 897 other MacArthur Fellows whom the program has recognized since it began in 1981. Fellows, who work in diverse fields and often across multiple disciplines, are selected through a process that has involved thousands of expert and anonymous nominators, evaluators and selectors through the years. The foundation does not accept unsolicited or outside nominations.

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