Part 2 of Nickel and Dimed

In part two of Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, she emphasizes how hard it is to work as a maid. Her second choice was Portland, Maine when she worked as a maid. Having the thought that since there was many Caucasian she would probably be able to mix in with other low-income workers. She finds two jobs one as a maid for a housekeeping service during the week and another as a dietary aid in a nursing home on the weekends. The nursing home was pretty much cleaning food items and feeding the residents on the nursing home. However, she is really concerned and scared of that job because many of the patients are diabetic and if they are given the wrong food their health is at risk and it could worsen their health. During the week, her housekeeping job gets really hard having to go through mentally as well as physically challenges which leads to her struggle in working completing her duties as maid. Her boss, Ted, is very strict with the women who work for him he pretty much keeps them on check and many of the women don’t even have time to actually have a lunch break even though some don’t even have enough money to actually bring and eat since they are paid very little. During the time that she worked as a maid she met two other workers- Marge and Holly. Marge was the older women who had to struggle physically because she had arthritis and she needed to keep up with the work she had many back pains as a result to the kind of vacuumed that they used. Holly was much younger who late on finds out she is pregnant one day during her work day she twist her ankle which causes her to have problems in achieving her daily work. Ehrenreich notices how scared Holly is in missing a day since she doesn’t want to lose her job and rejects going to see a doctor. Ehrenreich protests for Holly and Ted gives her a day off furthermore, Ehrenreich reveals her true reasons in why she has each job she had however she doesn’t receive the surprise she expected to.

Key Points:

1. She was able to see with her own eyes the maltreatment that many women have to go through because of their status or just for the simple fact that they are women.
   
2. Ehrenreich witness for herself how hard it is to find a job and to actually keep up with 2 jobs. She witnesses for herself also how it is to live under a couple of dollars and many times not eating or taking a lunch break.
   
3. Even though she spoke out for someone else’s rights no one else backed her up, she noticed that since she has a career she had the courage to speak up since this life isn’t really hers while other women cant because unfortunately this life it theirs.