1. LABOR AND GLOBAL
ECONOMY
By: Nathan S. Shelby D. and Caitlin H.

2. THE EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION
ON WOMEN
• Globalization has done great things for women, but none of
them come without consequences.
• Women around the world have come a long ways in terms of labor. Women can
now work along side men in certain places. However, the conditions and pay for
women are much different from men. (Women’s Rights and Globalization)
• Improved communication has helped feminists reach out to other countries
for support in struggles against government. (Feree, 4)
• Women are benefiting in area’s such as education, economy, and free
trade as well. These are discussed throughout this presentation.

3. THE TRANSNATIONAL
FACTORY AND WOMEN
Until recently factory jobs in Latin America have not been opened to women. The
demand for at least nine years of education has kept many women out.
Only 20% of the women have the nine years.
However even though men have more opportunity for education most male
factory workers have less of an education than their female co-workers
Men can climb the ladder and earn between $120-$140.
Women can only make it to a position that pays %50.

4. THE TRANSNATIONAL
FACTORY AND WOMEN
Although there are few jobs in these transnational industries they are still very
important to women
1) “Women’s work in the firms constitutes a growing number of women’s work in
the developing countries due to the primacy placed on the export-oriented
industrial growth strategies involving transnationals by international
development and financial institutions. As a result, transnationals now arise from
a wider range of countries, including Japan and newly industrializing countries
(NICs) in Asia” (Bose, Belén. 151).

5. THE TRANSNATIONAL
FACTORY AND WOMEN
2) “Export oriented transnational firms constitute a dynamic sector in which
continual change (automation, increase use of subcontracting and homework, and
movement into new tiers of countries) affects rapidly expanding numbers of
women.” (Bose, Belén. 151).
3) “Researchers increasingly recognize the direct links of formal sector transnational
employment to many women working in the informal sector and the
household.”(Bose, Belén. 151).

6. THE TRANSNATIONAL
FACTORY AND WOMEN
“Parallels that exist globally in the importance of women’s labor to transnational
corporations’ production networks in industries such as electronics, garments/
textiles, shoes/footwear, toys, plastics, and consumer products and the way gender,
class, and ethnicity interact in shaping the composition of the workforce” (Bose,
Belén. 151).
“Research has shown how the effects of transnationals on women is meditated by
preexisting culture patterns of male dominance of state policies and workers’
resistance that can vary across countries” (Bose, Belén. 151).

7. THE TRANSNATIONAL
FACTORY AND WOMEN
Consequences:
profiles of women’s labor force participation differ amongst some countries.
(Bose, Belén. 151).

8. MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
Definition:
“A mail-order bride is defined as a label
placed upon a woman who publishes her
intent to marry someone. The woman
typically advertises towards a more developed
country, but that is not always the case. Mail-
order brides can advertise to less developed
countries or even the same country they are
from” (Top 10 Lists - Listverse).

9. MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
Origins:
First sign of mail-order brides in history was in the middle
1800’s when men were from the east were migrating west to
America for land and gold. There was a severe shortage of
women in America at this time which caused men to write to
various organizations (mainly churches) back east advertising
themselves and interested women would then write back (Top 10
Lists - Listverse)

10. MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
What is being Done?
The law (Philippines) makes it unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, association,
club or any other entity to commit, directly or indirectly, any of the following acts:
(1) To establish or carry on a business which has for its purpose the matching of Filipino women for marriage to
foreign nationals either on a mail-order basis or through personal introduction;
(2) To advertise, publish, print or distribute or cause the advertisement, publication, printing or distribution of any
brochure, flier, or any propaganda material calculated to promote the prohibited acts in subparagraph 1;
(3) To solicit, enlist or in any manner attract or induce any Filipino woman to become a member in any club or
association whose objective is to match women for marriage to foreign nationals either on a mail-order basis or
through personal introduction for a fee;
(4) To use the postal service to promote the prohibited acts in subparagraph 1.
(Prohibition against Mail-Order Brides at Philippine E-Legal Forum)

11. MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
Intro to journalist Laura Barry investigateing
the global bride trafficking business, in which
women become a commodity for profit and
sex.
http://current.com/groups/videos/92269850_bride-
trafficking-unveiled-mon-29th-march-10pm.htm
Russian mail-order bride documentary:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=-7293098886160262479

12. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Facts:
One of every six people in the world have crossed national
borders looking for work. This means one billion people in
the world are crossing borders looking for work.
Of the one billion people seventy two percent of those are
women. Typically the work people do as migrants are paid
poorly.
Two main jobs migrants work are: Domestic and Farm labor.
(Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration)

13. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Domestic labor at a glance:
Many women born in rural areas of Africa and Asia are to move to more
urbanized areas to look for work to support their families.
In North America and Europe women from South America and Asia work
in rich people’s homes to send money back to their family.
Domestic workers are subject to a low pay wage, long working hours, no
time off, racism, and vulnerability to sexual abuse.
Filipina women make up the majority of domestic workers around the
world.
(Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration)

14. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Farm Labor at a Glance:
Subject to both men and women.
They work anywhere to fifteen hours a day.
They also are paid minimally.
Poor living conditions.
Sometimes migrant workers take their families with them which causes educational and
social “upheavals.” “As women and children are moved from place to place and schooling
and other health and social opportunities are disrupted as they follow the work.”
(Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration)

15. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Problems with Globalization
Globalization encourages free trade throughout the world and opening borders,
but the opening of borders does not apply to people as it does trade.
The focus on borders in the aspect of people allow the rich to flourish as the
poor wither.
Globalization is a fear for migrant workers because people maintain their borders
more thoroughly to keep the poor out from refuge.
Also, allowing the rich nations to become richer encourages the poor to seek
refuge and also become rich, which causes the population to sway.
(Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration)

16. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Globalization in regards to women
Women are tricked into accepting promises of a good job or a healthy marriage to
find themselves forced into prostitution.
Some families even sell their own with the thought that it is the only way to evade
poverty.
According to GABRIELA Philippines reports that a Filipina women sells between
$3,000 and $5,000 in the international sex trade.
Most trafficked women come from Asia
(Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration)

17. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND
WOMEN’S MIGRATION
What Is being Done?
When China embarked on its rural economic reforms in the early 1980s, changes
for women were not a planned part of its program for economic development, in
the countryside or in the nation at large.
In the late 1980s the official arm of the Chinese women’s movement, the
Women’s Federations, began experimenting with a series of strategies designed
to position women in the mainstream of the reform-era economy.

18. DOMESTIC SERVICE
Defined as:
“The employment of hired workers by
private households for the performance
of tasks such as housecleaning, cooking,
child care, gardening, and personal
service. It also includes the
performance of similar tasks for hire in
public institutions and businesses,
including hotels and boarding
houses” (Encyclopedia Britannica).

19. DOMESTIC SERVICE
Social Stigma
Around the world domestic service is seen as one of the lowest positions that can
be held in society. (Swider, 112)
Long hours, low pay, no common employer/workplace, little chance of
progressive collective action. (Swider, 112)
Immobility within the career
The factors that create the social stigma also inhibit the immobility.
Unable to organize and save and unable to raise their wages effectively.

20. DOMESTIC SERVICE
Class, race, ethnicity, nationality and gender create a
division among domestic workers, between domestic workers
and the women’s movement and domestic workers and the
labor movement.
racial/ethnic minority women often get the work
because of disadvantages in finding work and their low-
status.

21. DOMESTIC SERVICE
In Lebanon sources of domestic labor became globalized after the Lebanese civil war
Not because of the increasing education and workforce participation of women.
“An increasing reluctance of Lebanese women to undertake such menial work in households other than their
own, as well as a greater ideological (or perhaps emotional) comfort for employers to draw on non-Arab
foreigners who were unrelated to the tense and complex sectarian enmities that had developed (see Khalaf
2002; Traboulsi 2007)” (Jureidini, Para 2).
“The racialization of domestic work is merely a perpetuation of the ‘sexist
division of labor by [women employers] passing on the most devalued work in
their lives to another woman -- generally a woman of color’ (Romero 1992,
131)” (Jureidini, Para 2).

22. DOMESTIC SERVICE
The government in Hong Kong regulates wages on
domestic workers based on nationality in the 1980’s:
Filipinas minimum wage HK$3,860 per month
Indonesians minimum wage HK$2,000 per month
Thais minimum wage in between the HK$2,000 and HK$3,860
Indian/Sri Lankan minimum wage HK%500 per month (about US$65).
(F&T. Swider. 121)

23. DOMESTIC SERVICE
What is being done?
The Asian Domestic Workers Union(ADWU) began in 1989.
The Filipino Migrant Workers Union in 1996.
CDWU formed in 1998. It included Indonesians, Thais, Indians, and Chinese.
MDU’s successful in representing women.
Maternity benefits and underpayment were the focus of some of these groups.
(Swider, 122)

24. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• The Effects of Globalization on Women
• “Women’s Rights and Globalization”. Jan. 2008. Women’s Rights World.19 June
2010<http://www.womensrightsworld.com/html/womens-rights-
globalization.html
• Bose, Christine E., and Edna Acosta-Belén. Women in the Latin American Development Process. Philadelphia: Temple UP,
1995. Print.

25. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Domestic Services:
Jureidini, Ray. "In the Shadows of Family Life: Toward a History of Domestic Service in Lebanon." Journal
of Middle East Women's Studies 5.3 (2009): 74-101. Humanities Fu# Text. Web. 19 June 2010.
Swider, Sarah. "Working Women of the World Unite?" Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism,
Organizing, and Human Rights. Ed. Myra Marx. Ferree and Aili Mari. Tripp. New York: New York UP, 2006.
121-28. Print.
"domestic service." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010. Web. 19 June 2010 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9030861>.

26. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mail Order Brides
Atty, Fred. "Prohibition against Mail-Order Brides at Philippine E-Legal Forum." Jaromay Laurente Pamaos Law Offices.
Nov.-Dec. 207. Web. 21 June 2010. <http://jlp-law.com/blog/prohibition-against-mail-order-brides/>.
"Top 10 Facts About Mail-Order Brides - Top 10 Lists | Listverse." Top 10 Lists - Listverse. Web. 19 June 2010.
<http://listverse.com/2010/02/17/top-10-facts-about-mail-order-brides/>.

27. BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND WOMEN’S MIGRATION
Judd, Ellen R. "The Chinese Women’s Movement Between State and Market - Ellen R. Judd." Stanford
University Press. Web. 21 June 2010. <http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=3475>
UN Platform for Action Committee Manitoba. "Women & The Economy - Globalization & Migration."
Welcome to UNPAC - UN Platform for Action Committee Manitoba (UNPAC). Mar. 2006. Web. 19 June 2010.
<http://www.unpac.ca/economy/g_migration.html>.