The Paradox for women working
Globalization is a double-edged process as far as women are concerned.
On the one hand, employment opportunities derived from transformations
in the global economy produce new kinds of patriarchal and capitalist
controls over women. But on the other hand, the low-wage jobs, which are
often below subsistence standards, nonetheless give women tools with
which they resist patriarchy .
There is no doubt that (cheap)
female labour in EPZ (Export Processing Zones) factories, which provide
young women with an independent income, can have a liberating effect.
These women are following the path prescribed by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels: instead of doing unpaid and exhausting work on a farm, subject
to feudal and patriarchal controls, seek employment in factories, which
can bring economic autonomy and a consciousness of one’s capacities. But
what may be true in theory is often less so in practice, especially
given the harsh conditions under which most women in EPZs work.
The legitimizing of women’s work in the rich Western countries has
enabled factory owners in countries like China, Vietnam, and Malaysia to
paint their use of primarily women’s labour as congruent with the
dominant feminist belief that paid work liberates. Indeed, how often
have we heard Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times defend these
factories as sites of opportunity for women? Aren’t they better off, he
asks his readers, than women scrabbling through piles of garbage to find
something to eat or sell?
Globalization is a double-edged process as far as women are concerned.
On the one hand, employment opportunities derived from transformations
in the global economy produce new kinds of patriarchal and capitalist
controls over women. But on the other hand, the low-wage jobs, which are
often below subsistence standards, nonetheless give women tools with
which they resist patriarchy .
There is no doubt that (cheap)
female labour in EPZ (Export Processing Zones) factories, which provide
young women with an independent income, can have a liberating effect.
These women are following the path prescribed by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels: instead of doing unpaid and exhausting work on a farm, subject
to feudal and patriarchal controls, seek employment in factories, which
can bring economic autonomy and a consciousness of one’s capacities. But
what may be true in theory is often less so in practice, especially
given the harsh conditions under which most women in EPZs work.
The legitimizing of women’s work in the rich Western countries has
enabled factory owners in countries like China, Vietnam, and Malaysia to
paint their use of primarily women’s labour as congruent with the
dominant feminist belief that paid work liberates. Indeed, how often
have we heard Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times defend these
factories as sites of opportunity for women? Aren’t they better off, he
asks his readers, than women scrabbling through piles of garbage to find
something to eat or sell?
A young woman at a garment factory in Chittagong Export Processing Zone, Bangladesh. Mohammad Moniruzzaman / Flickr
