SOSC 102 U

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SOSC 102 U

• Final Review

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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

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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

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Example global assembly line for athletic shoes
Distribution North America, Europe, etc.
Tissue Paper (Indonesia)
Shoe Box (U. S.)
Boxed Shoes (Indonesia)
Rainforest Trees (Indonesia)
Shoes (Indonesia)
Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Foam (S. Korea)
Synthetic Rubber (Taiwan)
Tanned Leather (S. Korea)
Polyurethane Air Sac (U. S.)
Cowhide (U. S.)
Benzene (Taiwan)
Petroleum (Saudi Arabia)
Coal (Taiwan)
Philip McMichael (2000 XXXV)
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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

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High labor participation of women in the
Asian-pacific after the 1960s
1960s-1980s Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore 1980s
and after Southeast Asia and mainland China
Female-led Economic transitions
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The debate

• Liberalization thesis

• Exploitation thesis

Women are subject to patriarchal control in
agrarian societies
The TNCs set up factory in these places and
recruit many women workers to save labor expenses
Agrarian society
Export-oriented industrialization
EPZs attract investment of transnational
corporations (TNCs)
TNCs often provide higher wages and better
employment opportunities than jobs in locally
owned firms or unpaid domestic work
Economic transformation of a developing country
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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 GNP and GDP

• Indicators HDI, GEM, GDI

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HDI and Real GDP Per Capita in Six Asian States
(1997)
Based on Chow Ngai-ling and Deanna M. Lyter,
2002 27.
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Feminist discourses on development

• Women in Development
• Women and Development
• Gender and Development? Global South Feminist
  Perspectives

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Women in Development
Why does gender inequality exist today?
Modernization has not trickled down to benefit
women
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Women and Development
Feudalist society
Production for use
Production for exchange
Circa the 16th century
Capitalist society
Production for use
Production for exchange
Wage labormore and more people had to find
paid jobs to support the household economy
production
Unpaid domestic work reproduction
Those who control the public domain are powerful
and resourcefulcapitalists (mostly men)
Private domain
Public domain
Mens place
Womens place
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Gender and Development
Capitalist society
Production for use
Production for exchange
Wage labormore and more people had to find
paid jobs to support the household economy
production
Unpaid domestic work reproduction
Private domain
Public domain
Mens place
Womens place
Emphasize women as agents of social change
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
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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

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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 womens
  views on political, economic and military
  policies
• (lecture note 9)

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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

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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 mens stronger vs. womens weaker
bodythis 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 schoolwomen 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
workersmarriage ban
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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

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Unemployed women in Hong Kongs economic
restructuring

• Unemployment of women of middle-aged, married and
  unskilledhidden injuries in Hong Kongs
  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 Spore where governments tried to
  maintain the viability of the manufacturing
  industry

• Why dont they work in service sector?

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Family strategy to economic restructuring
From 1985-1996, Hong Kongs labor force in the
manufacturing sector decreased by two-thirds

• A flexible household negotiations between the
  couple

• A traditional household husband-centric decision
  making process

• The wife receive few support from the family to
  work in service sector

• The wife would have more chances to continued
  working in service sector

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Gender and Development in China

• Prereform China (1949-1978)

• Reform China (from 1978)

Teresa Teng ??? (1953-1995)
Obscure the gender differences between men and
womenmasculinization of women
Feminine demeanors are emphasized again
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Gender and development in China state-owned firms

• Pre-reform era

• Reform era

• Private enterprises appeal to workers who want to
  get higher pay

• 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

Was gender equality achieved then?
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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

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State-owned firms in reform China

• State-owned firms still favored male workers
  (recruitment, job assignments, promotion, and
  housing provision)

• In factory-wide level, mens wages were higher
  than womens wages

• In external labor market, male workers also had
  better opportunities to compete for jobs in
  better-paid private enterprises

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State-owned firms in reform China

• Were women workers in state-owned firms less
  productive?

More male workers
Skilled jobs payment for per item produced is
higher
Most female workers
Entry-level jobs (low skills) payment for per
item produced is lower
Sample of job hierarchy and disparity of wage
settings in piece-rate system
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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

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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?
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Inter-provincial labor migration in China

• Factories in Chinas 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

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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 long-term
  committed relationship between Hong Kong men and
  the second wives from hinterland China

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Destination of inter-provincial marriage migration
Original provinces
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Transnational immigrant labor
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Two major kinds of foreign migrant workers

• Foreign factory workers

• Foreign domestic helpers

• Market substitutes of home demands

• Hire to conduct the 3 D jobs dirty, demeaning
  and dangerous

• Household choresregarded as womens work

• Be treated differently from local workers

• Master-servant relationship between women of
  different ethnic backgrounds

• Contradictory class mobility

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Migration Cycle of a migrant women worker
Enquiry friends, family, acquaintances,
job-placement agencies
Fees levied by agents (may result in debts)
Repatriation end of contract, get an extension,
look for another contract, or go home
Employment work, get paid, pay the debts, remit
money back home
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Foreign domestic helpers

• Physical Labor
• Emotional Labor

• Private home becomes a contested domain.
  boundary work

Employers
Workers