Athletic Shoe Factories

1. Would it be possible for Nike and other athletic shoe companies to pay overseas workers a living wage, and provide a safe work environment, while also making a profit?

2. Cynthia Enloes' article seems a little dated. Have women made any strides in factory jobs in Asia? Have child laborers replaced them, working for lower pay, at worse conditions?

MARIA RUSSO Globalization Questions

At what point will the American public boycott products produced in a poor factory setting? In other words, how bad must conditions in the Reebok or Nike factories get before Americans realize that a pair of shoes is not worth the bleeding fingers or labored breathing of the workers behind the sewing machines and yards of fabric? Realistically, do you think that conditions will ever substantially improve in such foreign factories or will the American media and consumer industry continue to turn a blind eye towards helpless factory employees?

great article on progressive men

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=whats_the_alternative_to_tucker_max

free buses to washington dc for pro-choice rally

http://www.ppaction.org/ppnyc/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=18942100

Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers and the International Division of Reproductive Labor-Tess Gannaway

Discussion Questions

1. By purchasing reproductive labor do wealthy women actually escape all gender subordination? If not then what kinds do they escape and what kinds do they experience?

2. Does a higher income correspond to a more egalitarian distribution of housework? (658)

3. What is the education level of Filipina women when they arrive in the United States? What is the popular assumption about an immigrant’s education level?

Maid to Order

The end of Ehrenreich's essay taught me how central labor is to building valuable, equal and respectable relationships among family members. Given the transition of this country into a servant-oriented economy, how can these valuable relationships be preserved? Also, if the economy continues in the same direction, what will happen to American values and relationships in the family? While ostensibly liberating for white middle class women, it is clear that outsourcing household labor does not challenge patriarchy and its resulting gender roles, but rather perpetuates them even further through the employment of poor working class women of color. So what are alternatives to defeat patriarchy? Even with the liberation of white middle class women, white, middle class males are still dominant.

Ehrenreich, Maid to Order

I think Ehrenreich makes some important points about the reordering of the family. With the rise of the maid, the stereotypical, patriarchal definition of the roles of wife and mother are redefined. Ehrenreich states that working parents hire maids to ostensibly have more time to raise the children. But according to Ehrenreich, "parenting" used to mean teaching the children how to perform the household chores. Performing household chores together provided children with a sense of purpose and reinforced a feeling of teamwork. I find this to be true because when I was growing up, I helped my mother with the chores, and as a result of spending so much time together, we became close.

I think we need to think about how patriarchal and capitalistic structures continue to oppress the working classes:but with the rise of the domestic worker, concurrently with the rise of the professional woman, these structures operate within a more subtle framework.