Not just children, not just workers: an intersectional analysis of violence against child domestic workers in Myanmar

Background: Evidence repeatedly suggests that violence against child domestic workers can have irreversible physical and psychological impacts on health and wellbeing. Yet, little is known about how intersecting factors (age, gender, class, and place, etc.) shape children's lived experiences. Objective: This study centres the voices and lived experiences of former child domestic workers in Myanmar to consider how their individual experiences of violence affected them while working in employer households. Methods: We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 32 former child domestic workers (CDW) (aged 14–24) in Myanmar. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated from Burmese to English. We used thematic analysis as our method of analysis to examine participants’ reflections on their experiences and perspectives on conditions of child domestic work. Findings: Applying an intersectional lens, participants described many of the intersectional links between the violence they experienced and intersectional characteristics, including their age, ethnicity, social position and household power differentials, which both made these abuses likely to happen and influenced how they experienced them. Our participants reported that shared ethnicity with employers could sometimes serve as a protective buffer, providing a degree of familiarity and trust. Conclusion: Our analysis underscores the importance of an intersectional lens that demonstrates how age, gender, social norms, class, ethnicity and their live-in arrangements intersect to either constrain or protect from violence. Equally, incorporating violence against child domestic workers within the broader discourse on violence against children is critical, as their exclusion perpetuates invisibility.