Jennifer Gaytan on "Introduction" to Global Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy

The argument that Ehrenreich and Hochschild is putting forward is that the government and the global economy are oppressing women. This is mainly going on in less developed countries. Women aren't able to better their qualities of life because of social constructions of women in their cultures.

I think this is a very interesting topic and it's something that happens in many countries without much light being shed onto it. Many of a country's social constructions on women place a burden on a woman's life to bring their families forward, even if it means migrating to another country. It is not right for a culture to believe a woman isn't capable of performing all kinds of jobs. Women mostly perform care-taking jobs to be able to financially support their families. Their jobs can include: cooking, cleaning, being nannies, and even being some form of sex worker. Performing this kind of job shifts attention away from the individual's families and onto another individual or family.

When a woman is working in this kind of job, sometimes it can be more oppressing than working in sweatshops or factories. This is because in factories there can be regulations and rules on how a worker should be treated, but when you're working privately, there can be no regulations at all. Of course, there being no regulations in a work space is always a problem. Women can be discriminated against or sometimes even be abused. It would be interesting to figure out what kind of steps are being taken to help people who work privately. They can set a minimum wage on this as well, like all other jobs. Maybe they can even limit the hours they can and should be working.

This issue reminds me of workers in Mexico back then. When my parents lived in Mexico, they were both working independently. Therefore, they were working long hours for very little money. My mother was a maid and nanny for upper class families' homes. They'd pay her whatever they wanted pay her, which usually wasn't enough. She would clean, cook, and take care of their children. Fortunately, at the time, my mother didn't have any children of her own yet, so she didn't have to shift her attention away from anyone specifically, besides her family.

I think this image does a nice job on representing the kind of oppression going on for women working in these kinds of jobs.

What are some other work spaces in which this can happen as well, aside for the ones mentioned? How can we prevent this kind of oppression from happening in these kinds of work spaces?