Discussed in Chapter 24 of the assigned reading Global Women By Barbara Ehrenreich & Arlie Russell Hochschild for today was the process of globalization and how it applies to women in areas such as the global south. In the reading, it discusses some of the struggles faced by women who have to go out into the workforce due to the process of globalization and upon first thought, it would seem like a good idea for women to be able to find work and support their families. However, this idea should be challenged because often times, as outlined in the chapter these women from the global south are made to take jobs such as maids or nannies and even in some cases, are forced into sex work. Jobs women from first world countries will not take due to either the nature of the work and or pay. This not only forcing these women into low to no paying jobs but also causing family ties to be cut back home as was the case for Josephine who took a job as a nanny in a foreign country leaving her children with her sister causing one to fall into a suicidal depression and leaving another to be taken into an orphanage.
Research would argue that the current wave of globalization has greatly improved the lives of women worldwide, However, this is particularly the lives of those women in the developing world. Nevertheless, many women in the global south remain disadvantaged in many areas of life, including education, employment, health, and civil rights. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank, 57 percent of the 72 million primary school-aged children who do not attend school are females. Additionally, girls are four percent less likely than boys to complete primary school (Gender statistics, 2010). what this means is that giving jobs in foreign countries is not a viable solution for these women to live fulfilling lives because they often must give up large amounts of their past, family, and identity in order to take these position. it also puts a large burden on the children as well as their primary caregivers in these situations where it is an elderly relative or sibling.
In order to move forward, these women from the global south should be offered job opportunities in their home countries that allow them the same freedom that women from more developed countries have when it comes to raising and being there for their children. This will not only help both their mental health as well as the child's but it will also take a lot of stress of the community in terms of caring for the child and making sure the child's needs are met.
(2010). Gender statistics. United States Agency for International Development.
(2014) Globalization 101. Women and Globalization
Initially I thought the same as you. How can we criticize women going into the work force to support themselves and their family? But after further reading into Global Woman, I am now aware of the criticism. These facts are something that I never bothered to think of. The reality is there are more job opportunities for women in the workplace in the Global North, which is great. However, this now creates the idea that women cannot have a job and take care of the household without help. It is all about how it looks from the outside. They want to make it seem as if their life is perfect and put together (don’t we all). The problem with this is that the women that the women that are hired often have to leave their own families to take care of someone else’s. In Josephine’s case, it is heart breaking to read about because she has to support her family some way but has to move elsewhere in order to do this for them. Her options were to live in poverty with her kids or move away to make a living for them all. I think that it is awful that this is often the only options for a single, working mother. I agree that there should be more job opportunities for women in their own country, but feel as though this might be a long process ahead of us.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the Global North definitely gives us a biased lens to how we perceive women in other parts of the country. I think anyone would agree that job opportunities in the Global South are by no means ideal. No one wants to leave their family or work in such unequal and sometimes degrading conditions
ReplyDeleteIt is important for us to consider the challenges though. Shouldn’t women do what they can to support themselves and their family, even though they aren’t granted a fair opportunity to do so?
Women don’t have many job options to choose from, which definitely extends from their educational opportunities as children as well as how they are perceived by men. If the Global South starts bettering educational opportunities for women, they can grow skills over their lifetime and can create more career opportunities for them. Men’s perceptions, on the other hand, must change with men wanting to change, which can only progress as much as we push for it.
In the end, we must check our Global North bias. Job opportunities are not ideal, and I’m sure even women in the Global South hope for greater ones, but the only way to get there is with time and spread of feminist education.
-Jess Huber
As someone from the Global North who does not have to worry about these issues, it is often times hard to put it into perspective. Although the job opportunities for women in the global south may not be the ideal ones, I believe that it is important that they start somewhere. As Jess mentioned above, I think education has a lot to do with this. Women working these jobs that may not be ideal means they can provide money for their daughters to go to school and receive a better job, which may not have happened if they did not work. I do agree with you that Globalization has made it harder for women to stay with their families in the process. About 10 years ago I went on a cruise with my family and we talked with one of the workers on the cruise ship asking her questions about her family and such. She told us that she only gets to see her children two months out of the year because she is working for Carnival the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteSo, I do agree it is best that the opportunities available for women to work are local, however I think it is important that women work for the time being. This is something that happens with gradual change. If you think about the U.S., when more women started to work, they often had jobs as secretaries, but now women can be found in any line of work.
It is hard to imagine leaving your family behind, especially in bad conditions, in order to pursue a job that you don't necessarily want but have to take for financial security. I empathize with mothers who do not get the chance see their children due to their job. In an ideal world, the work that women are offered in the Global South would be as accommodating as the work offered to women in the Global North. However, this is simply not the case and these women will do whatever it takes to support their family. Even if it means sacrificing their own time and happiness. However, I do not think it is justified that women are being forced into working as sex work in order to support their family. Women should have the agency to do what they want with their own bodies. Additionally, it is disturbing to me that women have to put their children in orphanages just in order to work. At least women are able to find jobs in the Global South, even if they are not the best. As the Global South develops, I hope that there will be safer, accommodating and local jobs for women.
ReplyDelete-Tiana