In general, sweatshop labor is highly taken advantage of by the contractors and the companies hiring the contractors. They are paid in extremely low wages and work in poor conditions. It's also important that 90% of labor are female workers. Female workers are highly more susceptible to discrimination in sweatshops. Feminizing the work force let's companies take advantage of young, uneducated, and low income girls to work like slaves in promise to provide enough money to give back to their families. However, most women use their money to pay for work dorms, transportation, and food. This leaves nothing for these women to save up to find better work or to go back home. These women become dependent on sweatshops, especially when living in FTZ towns where governments can't help them with unlawful labor rights violations. This puts women in great risk because they can be easily exploited.
Feminizing the work force depletes women's autonomy over their life choices. Many women aren't able to sustain themselves or their families, if they have a family. Many women work more than 12 hours a day and have long commutes home, preventing women from being at home. Also since most of the women are young they often force pregnant women to work extensively or force women into abortions. Some companies have monthly contracts and pregnancy tests to prevent hiring pregnant women into the work force. This action denies women their right to work and provide for their family because they are pregnant and female. These companies can fire women for anything and everything, which denies women their ability to have a job security. Feminizing the work force puts women in more risk because the current structure in place doesn't support female inclusion.
Sadly, the feminization of sweatshops is not nearly over in the world. Also many different areas in labor are also being feminized without thinking about how women will be affected in the specific work force. This can be seen in tech jobs where many companies what to hire more women into their force to promote equality and diversity. However, many of these companies aren't thinking about how this affects women's lives when they have to choose between a career or children. The system itself must change and mold into something different to accommodate modern women. The inclusion of women into the work force is not enough to help women to succeed in their careers and in their personal lives.
How can we be more inclusive to women workers without exploiting them in a neoliberal captitpilistic economy?
Hi Maya,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your argument that the feminization of the sweatshop workforce, while presented under a neoliberal rhetoric, is, indeed, a form of exploitation of women and their labor. Not only do these sweatshop conditions force women to work long, low paying hours with hazardous conditions, but they also subject women to a work environment in which they have very little to no rights. Now, while I agreed with a great majority of your argument and perspective, I found myself confused by your ending thoughts. While I agree that subjecting women to an exploitative work environment is wrong, I don't precisely believe that women entering the workforce, in general, is an issue. I think the issue is more so with how this country devalues women and their labor contributions. We must never forget that this capitalistic society cannot sustain itself without the free reproductive labor that women, unfortunately, perform on the daily basis.