Transcript SOSC 102 U

SOSC 102 U
Final Review
1
Outline
• How gender issues in Asian societies are
embedded in the macro economic development
(globalization)
• Theoretical approaches: the Global South
Perspective
• Empirical cases: what are the major gender
issues in the Asian-Pacific region
• --women workers in the four tigers
• --women workers in mainland China
• --women workers from Southeast Asia
2
Globalization
Under Globalization, global economy is an
increasingly interdependent system of
production, distribution, exchange and
consumption
The Asian four tigers were incorporated into the
global assembly line from the 1960s
• The global assembly line: extremely fluid
commodity chains, as production organization
among the links of the chains is centrally
coordinated
3
Example: global assembly line for
athletic shoes
Distribution
North America, Europe, etc.
Shoe Box
(U. S.)
Tanned Leather (S.
Korea)
Boxed Shoes
(Indonesia)
Tissue Paper
(Indonesia)
Shoes
(Indonesia)
Rainforest Trees
(Indonesia)
Polyurethane Air
Sac (U. S.)
Cowhide (U. S.)
Philip McMichael (2000: XXXV)
Ethylene Vinyl
Acetate Foam
(S. Korea)
Synthetic Rubber
(Taiwan)
Petroleum
(Saudi Arabia)
Benzene
(Taiwan)
Coal (Taiwan) 4
Globalization
• EPZs (Export Processing Zones):
– Specialized industrial export estates with
minimal customs controls;
– Usually exempt from labor regulations and
domestic taxes
– Serve firms seeking lower wages and
governments seeking capital investment
– The cheap labor was mostly contributed by
women from developing countries
5
High labor participation of women
in the Asian-pacific after the 1960s
Export-oriented
industrialization
Agrarian
society
1960s-1980s: Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Singapore
1980s and after: Southeast Asia and
mainland China
Female-led Economic transitions
6
The debate
• Liberalization thesis
Women are
subject to
patriarchal
control in
agrarian
societies
Agrarian
society
• Exploitation thesis
Export-oriented
industrialization
EPZs: attract
investment of
transnational
corporations
(TNCs)
TNCs often
provide higher
wages and
better
employment
opportunities
than jobs in
locally owned Economic transformation of a developing country
firms or unpaid
domestic work
The TNCs set
up factory in
these places
and recruit
many women
workers to
save labor
expenses
7
Development theories: conventional
vs. gender perspectives
• Conventional
perspective:
• Gender perspectives
• Economic expansion
• Industrial productivity
• National income
• Human development
(basic human needs)
• Sustainable
development
• Equal opportunities
for men and women
• Indicators: HDI,
8
GEM, GDI
• Indicators: GNP and
GDP
HDI and Real GDP Per Capita in Six Asian
States (1997)
State
Japan
HDI
rank
HDI
value
GDP
index
GDP
rank
Real GDP
per capital
rank
minus HDI
rank
4 0.924
0.92
9
5
Singapore
22 0.888
0.94
4
-18
Hong Kong
24 0.880
0.92
8
-16
South Korea
30 0.852
0.82
33
3
Taiwan
China
23 0.874
98 0.701
0.57
21
104
-2
6
9
Based on Chow Ngai-ling and Deanna M. Lyter, 2002: 27.
Feminist discourses on
development
• Women in Development
• Women and Development
• Gender and Development Global South
Feminist Perspectives
10
Women in Development
Modernization
(gender equality)
Urbanization
Industrialization
Traditional
society
(maledominated)
Why does gender inequality exist
today? Modernization has not
trickled down to benefit women
11
Women and Development
Feudalist society
Production for use
Production for
exchange
Circa the 16th
century
Production
for use
Unpaid domestic work:
reproduction
Private domain
Women’s place
Production for exchange
Capitalist
society
“Wage labor”—more and more people had
to find paid jobs to support the household
economy: production
Those who control the public
Public domain
domain are powerful and
resourceful—capitalists
12
Men’s place
(mostly men)
Gender and Development
Production
for use
Unpaid domestic work:
reproduction
Private domain
Women’s place
Production for exchange
Capitalist
society
“Wage labor”—more and more people had
to find paid jobs to support the household
economy: production
Public domain
Men’s place
Both men and women contributed in the
production in the labor market and the
reproduction of the household
e. g. in the 1960s and 70s, many Hong Kong women
contributed to economic growth by making plastic
flowers at home
Emphasize
women as
agents of
social change
13
Global South Feminist Perspective
• “Global South perspectives: propose to
revisit the Western and white liberal
feminist discourses on non-western
women issues
• East Asia is a constituent part of the
Global South
14
Agendas of global south feminist
perspectives
• 1. environmental concern: sustainable
development
• 2. social transformation: eliminate gender
subordination and all forms of oppression
• 3. equal opportunities for women on career
achievement
• 4. empowerment of women: incorporate
women’s views on political, economic and
military policies
• (lecture note 9)
15
Gender and development of the
four tigers
• Labor process of Taiwanese women
workers in TNCs
• Relatively low female labor participation in
South Korea
• Economic restructuring and women labor
participation in Hong Kong
16
Labor process of women workers in
a TNC in Taiwan
Higher-level positions: few women are in the rank. 1) a
result of “homosocial reproduction”; 2) the
“superwomen” label
Labor process: the absolute classification between men’s
“stronger” vs. women’s “weaker” body—this concept determines
different job assignments for male and female workers
Lower-level positions: filled by internal succession and promotion.
The average educational level of male workers was slightly above
high school graduate and that of female workers was around high
school—women sacrificed their education to work to support
family and/or allow their brothers to have more education
Recruitment of entry-level jobs for high school graduates: tacit
agreement for female workers—”marriage ban”
17
Relatively low female labor
participation in South Korean
manufactures
• Concentration of industrial centers in South
Korea in a few cities
• South Korean women were not encouraged
to move from countryside to industrial cities
18
Unemployed women in Hong
Kong’s economic restructuring
• Unemployment of women of middle-aged,
married and unskilled—”hidden injuries” in
Hong Kong’s economic restructuring
• High unemployment rate of women
between 50-64 years of age in Hong Kong
– esp. compare with women of the same cohort
in Taiwan and S’pore where governments tried
to maintain the viability of the manufacturing
industry
• Why don’t they work in service sector?
19
Family strategy to economic
restructuring
From 1985-1996, Hong Kong’s labor force in the
manufacturing sector decreased by two-thirds
• A traditional household:
husband-centric decision
making process
• The wife receive few
support from the
family to work in
service sector
• A flexible household:
negotiations between the
couple
• The wife would have
more chances to
continued working in
service sector
20
Gender and Development in China
• Prereform China
(1949-1978)
• Reform China (from
1978)
Teresa Teng [鄧麗君]
(1953-1995)
Obscure the gender
differences between men
and women—
masculinization of women
Feminine demeanors are
emphasized again
21
Gender and development in China:
state-owned firms
• Pre-reform era
• State-owned firms
were regarded as
favorite jobs, in terms
of salaries, housing
provision and job
security
– From 1958-60, the
number of women in
state-owned firms
tripled
• Reform era
• Private enterprises
appeal to workers who
want to get higher pay
Was gender equality
achieved then?
22
Gender equality in prereform China
?
• The proportion of women in state-owned
firms was lower than in collective firms
• In state-owned firms, women were in the
disadvantageous position in job
assignments, promotions, and housing
provisions
23
State-owned firms in reform China
• State-owned firms still favored male
workers (recruitment, job assignments,
promotion, and housing provision)
• In factory-wide level, men’s wages were
higher than women’s wages
• In external labor market, male workers
also had better opportunities to compete
for jobs in better-paid private enterprises
24
State-owned firms in reform
China
• Were women workers in state-owned firms
less productive?
Skilled jobs: payment for
per item produced is
higher
Entry-level jobs (low skills): payment for
per item produced is lower
More male workers
Most female workers
Sample of job hierarchy and disparity of wage settings in piece-rate system 25
Women workers and xiagang
• More than 60% xiagang workers were
women
• Women workers were encouraged to retire at
earlier age (45 years of age)—”internal
retirement”
• Alternative employment opportunities for
xiagang/earlier retired women workers…
26
After xiagang….
a. Re-employment training
Laid-off or earlier
retired workers
b. To run a self-employed business
State-owned
Enterprises
Private
Sectors
c. Work in the EPZs?
27
Inter-provincial labor migration in
China
• Factories in China’s coastal EPZs recruit
workers from hinterland provinces
• Young, single women are preferred
• Most of these women hold rural status in
the household registration system. They
have to return home once their working
contracts expire
• E. g. Chen Li and Wu Shengmei in “Giant
Awake”
28
Inter-provincial marriage migration
in China
• Women from countryside in hinterland China 
Men in coastal rural districts
• Many Taiwanese men also try to find their wives
from hinterland China
– Commercial match maker agent for cross-Straits
marriages (Taiwan example)
• Cross-border “polygyny” in South China: longterm committed relationship between Hong Kong
men and the “second wives” from hinterland
China
29
Destination of inter-provincial marriage migration
Original provinces
30
Transnational
immigrant
labor
31
Two major kinds of foreign migrant
workers
• Foreign factory
workers
• Hire to conduct the “3
D jobs”: dirty,
demeaning and
dangerous
• Be treated differently
from local workers
• “Contradictory class
mobility”
• Foreign domestic
helpers
• “Market substitutes”
of home demands
• Household chores—
regarded as women’s
work
• Master-servant
relationship between
women of different
ethnic backgrounds 32
Migration Cycle of a migrant women
worker
Impoverishment
Decision to work
overseas
Fees levied by agents
(may result in debts)
Departure: leave
sending country
Arrive in host
country
Pre-departure:
search for an
employer
Employment:
work, get paid, pay
the debts, remit
money back home
Enquiry: friends,
family,
acquaintances,
job-placement
agencies
Medical checkup, training and
orientation
Repatriation: end
of contract, get an
extension, look for
another contract,
33
or go home
Foreign domestic helpers
• Physical Labor
• Emotional Labor
• Private home becomes a contested
domain…. “boundary work”
Employers
Workers
34