Abstract
The household employment sector in France comprised 3.3 million employers and 1.3 million employees in 2020, according to the employers' organization, Fédération des particuliers employeurs de France (FEPEM). It is further estimated that 11.4% of all French households employed a worker under the direct hire model. Whilst historically this model originated in bourgeois households, the current version is the product of a long process of modernization and negotiations. Led by employers and trade unions, and protected by a nationwide collective agreement, all work regarding family is recognized by the State as a full-fledged industrial sector.
This paper sheds light on what historical conditions enabled private individuals (les particuliers) – largely middle-class women – to organize themselves as employers. I examine this process through FEPEM movement, focusing on the five collective agreements from 1951 to 2021 and their agency in defining the sector as both “non-profit” and “noncommercial.” I conclude by discussing some of the current challenges FEPEM faces, especially under the government's neoliberal policy to carve out a market for commercial personal service industry.
https://ror.org/027mg2511 
