Product Description

Women are moving around the globe as never before. But for every female executive racking up frequent flier miles, there are multitudes of women whose journeys go unnoticed. Each year, millions leave third world countries to work in the homes, nurseries, and brothels of the first world. This broad-scale transfer of labor results in an odd displacement, in which the female energy that flows to wealthy countries is subtracted from poor ones-easing a 'care deficit' in rich countries, while creating one back home. Confronting a range of topics from the fate of Vietnamese mail-order brides to the importation of Mexican nannies in Los Angeles, Global Woman offers an original look at a world increasingly shaped by mass migration and economic exchange. Collected and with an Introduction by bestselling social critics Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this groundbreaking anthology reveals a new era in which the main resource extracted from developing nations is no longer gold or silver, but love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69012 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780805075090
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
The current discourse on globalization, according to the authors, has little to say about the "migration of maids, nannies, nurses, sex workers, and contract brides," since, to most economists, these women "are just individuals making a go of it." The positive effects of their labor are sometimes noted: the money they remit to home countries is a major source of foreign exchange, and the work they do in the host country enables a large pool of upwardly mobile First World women to pursue productive careers. The negative consequences, which can include emotional hardships caused by leaving children behind as well as physical strains, are rarely acknowledged. Social critics Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) and Hochschild (The Time Bind) point out that in previous centuries the developed world imported natural resources, and now the import du jour is women, ideally, "happy peasant" women who can care for the elderly and disabled, lovingly raise children and provide sexual services for men. The editors have gathered some 15 essays on aspects of "the female underside of globalization"-e.g., Filipina housekeepers in Hong Kong, Latina domestic workers in Los Angeles, sexual slaves in Thailand, Vietnamese contract brides-mostly written by academics working in the field, but largely jargon-free. While one small book can't say everything about a major global phenomenon, Ehrenreich and Hochschild have at least brought attention to these women's plight. Maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The editors present a series of articles on the consequences of globalization on the lives of millions of women (now greatly outnumbering men) as they leave the poverty of Third World countries to seek employment in domestic services for affluent women in First World countries. Ehrenreich and Hochschild report that in the post-Communist world, career-oriented, upper-middle-class women of wealthy nations and striving, adventurous women from crumbling poverty come together as mistress and maid. Focusing on more than the traditional movement of labor on the basis of supply and demand, the articles in this anthology explore the ramifications of this transfer of caring skills as it affects the culture in both poor and wealthy countries. Also considered is the enormous rise in the sex trade, both voluntary and coerced. While immigrant domestic labor is nothing new, the various authors from academia and some with personal experience shed new light on this reality. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“The feminization of the migrant workforce is an enormously important, underreported subject . . . Fascinating, illuminating, harrowing.” —Salon
“These essays offer a broad view with the aim of achieving better treatment of the women who make monumental sacrifices in search of a better life.” —San Francisco Chronicle
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Good Overview of Female Migrant Workers
...Nevertheless, this book gives the reader valuable insight into the impact and opinions of women migrant workers in the service trades. All of the anthologized authors write in an accessible style free of academic jargon. I was particularly interested in the articles which did not have an American viewpoint and which presented the views of the women (and occasionally men) involved. For example, in various essays we get to meet Dominican women in the sex trade hoping to form relationships with European men; a college-educated Vietnamese women entering into an arranged marriage with an immigrant man holding an unskilled job in the U.S.; Filipina household workers laughing about the rules proposed by prospective Hong Kong employers; and a Sri Lankan man taking over the traditional woman's role to assist migrant relatives working in Saudi Arabia.

There are some gaps here, such as the lack of first-person narratives and the views of Eastern European women working in Western Europe, but no anthology can be all-inclusive. This book is a good start and will be an intersting learning experience for most readers.

Thought provoking but a passive observer with no recommendations
Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, Metropolitan Books, Holt & Co, 2002.

Most of us are well aware of the patterns of illegal immigration which bring numerous undocumented workers to the US and other developed countries from less developed countries. Those who work in agriculture, lawn care, and low paying jobs like janitors are well known. This book takes a detailed look at female migrant workers. These include maids, nannies, nurses, those who care for the young and elderly and extends to those kidnaped or sold into the sex slave trade and those who seek marriageable partners in developed countries to obtain visas. A single mother can earn enough in a developed country as a nurse, a nanny or as a prostitute to leave her children behind in the care of a relative and pay for their education and daycare. This process gives her children access to a better education that can lift them out of poverty.

This book is a collection of essays authored with assistance of researchers from numerous third world countries. The sociological aspect is consistent with Ehrenreich's usual works--always rich with social commentary. This time she functions as editor and provides one chapter from her earlier experience at Merry Maids as told in Nickeled and Dimed. Hochschild is professor of sociology at Berkeley.

The major migratory pathways for women are described generally as from south to north. In the US, African American women accounted for 60% of domestics in the 1940s. They have now been replaced by Latinas mostly from Mexico and Central America. In Europe migrants come from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In the oil rich Mideast, many come from Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Phillippines, and Sri Lanka. In France, they now come from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria; in Italy, from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Cape Verde. Generally, migrants have replaced those who once came from poor rural areas of their own countries.

Several chapters on nannies and their problems are especially informative. The hours are long, overtime is seldom paid, time off it minimal, workers are sometimes farmed out to other families, or required to travel with the family on "holiday." The children often become attached to the nanny as part of the family, but this can result in jealousy on the part of birth mothers. Many nannies leave abruptly after an argument.

Various aspects of the sex trade are explored. In the Dominican Republic, married women may voluntarily go to the larger town of Sosua to work as prostitutes in the sex tourist industry. This good money is used to pay the family bills, but husbands sometimes spend the funds on alcoholism and gambling when the wife is away. Some prostitutes hope for a marriage proposal from German tourists. In Thailand, in the less prosperous mountain districts, daughters once were sold into sex slavery when the economic survival of the family required it. Now, rapid industrialization and rising standard of living have created major growth in sex tourism. Industrial workers have more money to spend on prostitutes. Mountain Thais now are more willing to sell their daughters to fund the purchase of electronics and other consumer goods.

In Viet Nam, the war killed many males and a disproportionate number of males were able to migrate to the US after the war. This has resulted in an over abundance of females. Educated females become un-marriageable. Arranged marriages with US citizens is one solution to this problem.

This book provides perspective on another aspect of the woman's rights movement in developing countries. Apparently several previous books have issued, but this subject has received little attention in the overall scheme of immigration policy. I saw no discussion of how these problems should be addressed. Presumably better laws are needed as well as a willingness to enforce existing laws in the case of the sex slavery and sex tourism. Different solutions seem appropriate in the case of licensed nurses who are aided in getting visas to fill a real shortage. The presence of undocumented migrants working as nannies and domestics is yet another problem. Perhaps different solutions are needed for each group. Mixing all of them in a single volume confuses the issues. The book lacks the impact it could have had.

This book is nicely done and thought provoking, but the absence of proposed solutions is a major omission. A collection of charts provide details of the female migrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Fact-filled, careful study
In brief essays, the authors present generally unbiased academic discussions of the globalization of female workers. Though hardly a new phenomenon, it has dramatically increased in the last 50 years and is a topic that is deserving of this type of examination. The topics are clearly delineated between domestic workers, cheap labor and the sex trade - however, there are unfortunates whose experiences range from one to the other out of necessity, desperation or coercion. This harsh reality of the vulnerability of these women is discussed with jargon-free, scholarly precision. Excellent for libraries, research and the well-read individual.