In the reading, one of the points
that the author emphasized on was labor migration. The author states that in
the past women were brought and enslaved from poor countries to countries in
power so that they can serve their owners. The author also explains that not
much has been changed because many of the immigrants that travel from less
privileged countries to more privileged countries are women, and the jobs that
these women often get are the ones where they have to work as domestics for the
upper middle class people and their children often as nannies and house keepers.
In this age and time, to make
immigrated women provide domestic service to the rich is quite saddening even
though many of the upper class and upper middle class women from wealthy countries
promote feminism and ask to have equal rights as men have; however, their kind
of feminism is fairly selfish because these women achieve their victory in not
doing the house chores, but there is an underprivileged woman working in her
place at her home as if the idea of feminism and equal rights does not apply to
her. There was a time in history when men used to oppress women in forcing her
to do the domestic labor but that time has passed now because now, apparently, women
oppress women. The indigent women are crushed because they have to stay away
from their own family; instead, they have to take care of other woman’s family
where they not only have to do the physical labor but also the emotional work
as they often become nannies of other children.
Nevertheless, the poor women travel
in search for work in need to be the breadwinners for their family, and hence they
end up working for the more privileged ones because that is the work commonly
available for immigrated women as the author mentions this kind of labor is
perceived to be innately feminine. Although it is quite ironic that it is the
rich women who are not completely independent, the more fortunate ladies might
earn and feed themselves, but now they are dependent on those deprived women as
they are in charge of their housework and are the caretakers of their children.
The feminism fails here because the liberation of one woman roots to another
woman’s oppression because of her race and class. The idea of feminism should
benefit every woman no matter what color she has or what country she is from
and not just women but all human beings should be benefitted from this idea.
In this example,
a female employer abused a female worker because of her poverty which exemplify
that how a woman oppresses another woman/girl in this age and time only because
the girl being oppressed over here, Asma, does not belong to the same class as
her employer. The employer felt like she had some kind of authority over Asma when she was only working to fulfill her needs as a human being. While the employer seeks libration for herself, she maltreats Asma as she is an inferior domestic worker.
Is it really freedom when it can
cause another person to be enslaved and why is domestic labor widely thought to
be “Innately feminine”?
I agree with your argument that the system of domestic service has led to women being oppressed by other women. This is shown in the way Josephine has to do everything that Isadora’s mother asks her to do, and providing Isadora with physical as well as emotional support. In fact, when asked who her mother is, Isadora responds that she has two, which proves that Josephine takes on all the responsibilities of a mother for a child that isn’t even her own. This system would be almost acceptable if Josephine was able to also mother her own kids as well, but since caring for Isadora leads to Josephine being forced to neglect her own three young children, it is downright oppressive.
ReplyDeleteI love the concept here.
ReplyDelete