Globalization and Women Workers

1. Enloe debunks the oppression of Asian women workers in sweatshops and explores their labor movements. Can anti-sweatshop action really liberate women from economic injustice and help achieve women’s rights? Enloe exemplifies women workers in South Korea and further points out more women’s engagement in prostitution and sexual services due to exodus of sneaker-manufacturing jobs. Without specific suggestion, (uneducated and poor) women seem to have no choice except prostitution.

2. In the article “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor,” Parrenas states, “Italy has witnessed an increasing number of married women in the labor force, but a surprising decline among younger single women.” Why do married women in Italy increasingly engage in the labor force? Does economic pressure force them to work? What about single women? I think they also need employment to secure their economic independence.

Grewal reading

"The discourse of human rights and pain and torture is so dramatically powerful that it can silence many discourses of exploitation and oppression."

1. Can any long-term good come of misguided aid? Although these may not be the only options, is it more harmful to impose Westernized cultural norms or to leave developing countries to their own devices?

2. Why is it that the US the US government continues to give monetary aid to human rights violations abroad when statistics on poverty, rape, lack of access to decent health care and education for impoverished children, etc. etc. indicate that programs to combat these issues in the US are in sore need of more funding?

On the New Global Feminism...

Grewal problematizes human rights advocacy in that she questions the universalization that human rights entail. 1. Do you feel people are born with universal, inalienable rights, or that as Grewal posits, the assumptions that such rights bring forth are too important to continue to ignore? 2. How does such a conclusion affect our discussions of feminism and human rights in general? 3. What can one do, as a "privileged Westerner"?

Women and Globalization

1. What would result from consumers choosing to stop buying sweat-shop products? Would the companies clean up their act and begin to pay higher wages and provide benefits for their employees? Would the economy be significantly affected? Would the factory workers simply be forced into further poverty, leading them to prositution or other "'entertainment'" industries, as Enloe put it?

2. In "third-world countries," where water is scarce and diseases like HIV/AIDS are extremely prominent, what actions can be done to give women more of a voice? If given the right tools, are women the ones who hold the power and knowledge to distribute water more evenly, while still considering economic needs, and allowing families easy access to clean, affordable water? What can we do to help out with this problem? Are their governments intentionally taking all power out of these women's hands in order to distribute the water to higher-income areas and make a bigger profit?

Servants of peace not domestic servants

After a long day of classes I came back to my room and decided to check my gmail before I wrote my post. I was astonished to find a forward that my mother had sent me – it was titled “She Cries out From the Philippines”. The first line when you open the email is a quote:

"I want to show the world that Filipina women are not servants

of the world but are servants of peace and freedom."

-Malayapinas, World Pulse "Voices of Our Future" Correspondent

It goes on to talk about Malayapinas and how she is working hard to become a leader to help her country (especially in the aftermath of the 57 women and journalists massacare that took place just days ago). It was interesting though to read the description they give of her:

Since childhood Malayapinas has seen the dark side of globalization and violence in the Philippines. She walked to school barefoot after selling eggs and cigarettes in her nation's ports, and toiled in banana plantations to earn her way through college. Her dream is to see her people free to chart their own destiny. For her, the risks she faces by speaking out are outweighed by the risks of continued silence

The description even blames globalization for the plight of women in the Philippines!

One commentor, after having read this same article, admitted that her privileged life had lead to a somewhat distorted view of the Phillipines: What the Philippines are, for us? A place, far away. The kind and sweet woman living upstairs of my house, who works as servant somewhere (so quietly lovely, despite the way she's treated, despite sons and daughters far away. Despite maybe a degree, and surely a voice.

So I guess my question is not only how can globalization and capitalism be changed to stop this funneling of women into the labor market, or how can the West or work conditions be changed to spare the human rights abuses, but also, how can we assist in the empowerment of these women? How can we get the world to recognize their agency? How can we make the Filippino woman a legitimate player in the thought process of building up herself and her country?

Sneakers, silences, surprises... but i think Enloe left out one last word- SHOCK

Enloe talks mainly about sweatshops and the role of women working in factories outside of our boarders in Asia, but what about today in the US? There absolutely are factories that violate minimum wage laws with such an influx of immigrants from other areas today.

Also If consumers stop purchasing these goods, then women working in factories could be forced to generate money in other ways, such as prostitution, but then what act should consumers take? Should women all over the globe be fighting for attire made in “sweat free communities?”

After reading this article I was inspired to find a potential solution to this issue of women sweating for my comfy shoes. Here are some actions that we the consumers can take to help promote women’s rights in these factories:

Create a sweat-free policy on your campus or in your community (Something so feasible and effective that we college students at Barnard and Columbia can easily do)

-Petition your student government or administration to only sell sweat-free clothing in campus stores.

-Urge the leaders of clubs to only order sweat-free t-shirts and other clothing for events.

Talk to your school's athletic department and urge them to use only sweat-free sports jerseys.

-Talk to local business owners about the importance of sweat-free products.

Hold a Day of Conscience to End Sweatshops

On October 4, 1997, the National Labor Committee, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the People of Faith Network, the United Methodist Church Women's Division and UNITE, the Union of Needle trades, Industrial, and Textile Employees, held the first Day of Conscience to end sweatshop abuses.

And finally to shop with a conscience J

Source:

Questions

Are there sweatshops in the United States?
Will asking for improved conditions mean the cost of clothing will go up?
What are garment workers doing to improve their situation?
What can you do as a consumer?