Join Oregon Humanities for a conversation about trust, work, and poverty with Stephanie Land, author of the books Maid and Class. In her two best-selling memoirs, Land writes about cleaning houses and struggling to get by as a single mom in the Northwest. During this time she found herself both trusted and distrusted: Her clients entrusted her with the intimate details of their lives, but she was forced to demonstrate over and over again that she was eligible for the meager public assistance she received.
Stephanie Land’s writing focuses on social and economic justice, as well as parenting under the poverty line. Her bestselling debut book, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, was adapted into a limited series on Netflix. The book details Land’s personal experience with poverty, relying on government assistance programs to support herself and her daughter. Maid has sold half a million copies worldwide and has been translated into thirty languages. Land’s second book, Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, follows her senior year in college and her daughter’s first year of kindergarten, noting the parallels between the two’s experiences as they faced socioeconomic barriers to get themselves to class.
Land is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations, and her work has been featured in numerous outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Atlantic. She is an arts and entertainment ambassador for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, working to build respect, recognition, and rights for more than 2.2 million nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers who do the essential work of caring for our loved ones and our homes.
