Thursday, March 3, 2011
Defining globalization and reflecting on its relationship to gender
To start class today, I'd like you to reflect on our readings on gender and globalization. In your own words, how would you define globalization? Which writer do you think provides us with the best or most useful explanation of this term? Next, I'd like you to identify one key example from one of the readings that you think illustrates most powerfully the relationship between globalization and gender. Last, post any questions you have here about today's reading.
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For me, globalization stands as a very complex all-encompassing term that generalizes the way our world is coming together as one-level playing field; connections and relationships between countries are becoming increasingly intertwined and interdependent on each other; every person in the world is competing for whatever means possible in their individual life and self-determinism is argued by many as the key component that drives globalization. Joan Acker seems to provide the most useful explanation of this term in relation to gender and women’s studies, but I do not think her definition of the term is broad enough to cover all the complexities of globalization. The passage that best identifies this relationship between gender and globalization is as follows, “I argue that gender is intrinsic to globalizing capitalist processes and relations by discussing first the gendered construction of a separation between capitalist production and human production and continuing corporate claims of non-responsibility for reproduction that are linked to that separation. Second, I discuss the role of masculinities in globalizing capitalism. Third, I look at gender as a resource for globalizing capital”(Acker 23).
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the process in which internationally ideologies are developed through economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological elements. These ideologies influence the construction and reproduction of gender roles. Primarily, placing women subordinate to men at home and at work. Globalization also effects class, race, and sexuality creating inequality in societal beliefs through institutions, governments, and corporations. I think that Joan Acker explained globalization and its effects the best. In “Gender Capitalism Globalization,” on page 24, Acker explained the consequences and power that globalization has on society by stating, “one of the cultural/structural forms embedded in that dominance has been the identification of the male/masculine with production in the money economy and the identification of the female/feminine with reproduction and the domestic.” This statement explains that it is embedded into the majority of society that a man’s role is to produce and be the breadwinner while the woman reproduces children and stays at home fulfilling roles of cooking, cleaning, ect. On page 23, Acker went into more detail stating, “Production is organized around goals of capital accumulation, not around meeting the reproductive and survival needs of people. Women have been subordinate in both domains, held responsible for unpaid reproductive labor and consigned to positions with less power and lower pay than men within the sphere of production. Men, unburdened by reproduction responsibilities and already the major wielders of power, built the factories and railroads, and managed the developing capitalist enterprises. Thus, the structural and ideological division between production and reproduction was shaped along lines of gender and contributed to continuing gendered inequalities.” It is explained that globalization is a direct cause of inequality between genders, sexuality, class, and race.
ReplyDeleteI consider globalization to be a loaded term that is both vast and complex with multiple facets. Essentially, it is the messing of cultures in terms of economics, social networks, politics which have caused institutions across national barriers to become interdependent on one another. I think examining feminism as a whole really helps to encompass what globalization as a whole is about in regards to what people should care about.
ReplyDeleteFrom the readings, I thought it was very significant to point out the repercussions of wealthy women choosing to have careers of their own by bringing these new "homemakers" into their houses. This was something that I had not considered in the scheme of feminism across international borders.
Globalization is the shifting and interweaving of systems and institutions including economies, politics, and social/cultural practices. A major aspect of globalization is the spread and normalization of capitalism. I most appreciated Acker's definition, concept, and use of the term globalization in her piece. I think that the examples of exploitation of women's labor and social position in developing countries. Zarembka's account of "global mothers" is a harrowing view of the extent to which patriarchy and capitalism combine in our global society to take advantage of the domestic identity of women.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the neoliberal melding of economies all over the world. It connects culture, and people through transportation, technology, and communication. Joan Aker’s piece best defines globalization, through her ideology of a melding economy, political forum, and social realities. I believe that the migrant work visa is one the most encompassing examples of globalization because it is a system of both politics with in our country and outside of our country. Most people who are seeking work in the cities or in other countries are refugees from a failing economy. Through the globalized lens this economy probably has collapsed because the government decided to sell off all of its public space, and resources to investors. In turn locals are losing jobs to low wage temp workers and big cooperation’s with more resources. Today, most of the women are fleeing because the government tells them that there are more jobs for “women’s” labor. Before, there was an unspoken rule that labor was divided; yet what women did as their labor was for free. As the western ideology seeps further into other cultures this norm has started to shift towards household labor being paid labor. I agree that women should be rewarded for what they have been cornered into doing for thousands of years, but it doesn’t mean the system is perfect. Women coming in especially on a B1 visa are being trapped into forms of slavery. What seems to be an even more prevalent factor than gender is the racial divide between the visa programs that leads people to slavery. Who usually receives the B1? Women from Africa do. This leads to the exploitation of workers and women. Globalization can create jobs, but the non-responsibility of the cooperation’s leads to these exploitations. These jobs can only be positive, if there are regulations that make cooperation’s reliable for the rights of the people who work with in it.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization essentially takes many institutions such as economics, politics, technology, culture, communications, and social practices, and blends them all together. By mixing all these elements of societies around the world, gender roles are molded. Aker definitely defines the term the best, especially upon stating, "one of the cultural/structural forms embedded in that dominance has been the identification of the male/masculine with production in the money economy and the identification of the female/feminine with reproduction and the domestic.” In saying this, she is demonstrating how the gender role of masculinity is often associated with the workplace, while femininity is only in the household. Essentially, the way we are globalized shapes the way we think of our roles in society as they relate to gender because so many of these institutions endorse such thoughts.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the process and development of taking smaller institutions and combining them together for a greater outcome. I thought that Joan Acker described this best when mentioning that “one of the cultural/structural forms embedded in that dominance has been the identification of the male/masculine with production in the money economy and the identification of the female/feminine with reproduction and the domestic". This describes how certain positions have been oriented towards a certain gender and that males have the upper hand in society.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the process of the interconnection and sharing of institutions, goods, and culture internationally. Although the article was dense, I think Joan Acker provided the best explanatino of gender in her article "Gender, Capitalism, and Globalization." I think her's was best because she didn't take a situational approach. She defined globalization and then focused on the three aspects of her definition: movements of capital, production, and people. She gives full explanations of gendering globalization and feminist views, and then explores capitalism and the corporate world from this standpoint. She also explains the effects of gendering globalization. While her article was heavy, I think she did the best job of explaining globalization through the use of multiple examples and contexts. I think Joy Zarembka's article "America's Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modern-Day Slavery" powerfully illustrated the relationship between globalization and gender. It shows the movement of people and production but in this case these are represented by migrant domestic workers. Very often these workers are women and they're taken advantage of, trafficked, and enslaved. The global demand for cheap labor for the jobs the general public doesn't want to do has led these women into a life of oppression, abuse, and immobility.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is part of the neoliberal project led by the U.S as the hegemonic power imposing its ideologies on developing countries. It is the movement of production, people and ideas across international borders through political, cultural, economic and social institutions. The issue is that this project leaves gender and race as invisible. Globalization is denominated as gender neutral when in reality it upholds masculine activity. It is aggressive, ruthless, competitive and adversarial (Acker 29). As Joan Acker’s article explains, “[M]asculinity is supported and reinforced by the ethos of the free market, competition, and a ‘win-die’ environment” (29). Consequently, the development of the global market economy has gendered institutions associating production with male/masculine and reproduction with female/feminine and the domestic. Masculinity runs the business while the women work it. Women’s labor becomes a resource for capital. They are seen as profitable by multinationals for appearing docile, cheap to employ and able to perform repetitive work. Globalization effectively destabilizes gender identities. Just as economic methods are interpreted as they apply to the respective nations, gender is also interpreted by the same means. When foreign ideals are imposed, redefinition occurs. The neoliberal project is after privatization, maximization of profit, self-interest, and image acquiring these at any expense. This allows for globalization to take advantage of the lack of choice developing countries are captive of and ultimately alter gender divisions.
ReplyDeleteI would define globalization both as we did in class, as a transaction of economic goods and services and as a way of transmitting cultural practices around the world. I thought Ehrenreich and Hochschild’s “Global Women” provided the most useful explanation of the term of globalization. On page 442, women are discussed as “on the move as never before in history.” It mentions not only about women as executives and other positions traveling the world, but also the migration of women from poor countries to rich one to try to provide for their family. My questions include what is being done about the phenomenon that women are being cheated when they journey to different regions. I would be interested in learning what laws are being put into place to stop the indecency.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is a process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, culture, political systems, economic development and prosperity in societies around the world. It is a neoliberal globalization – uneven and unequal, illustrates hierarchy in the system, partly created by nation states and capitalist interests and not all states have equal say. Ultimately, it exists as an intensification of unevenness and inequality. This neoliberal globalization is controlled by new imperialistic economic control/domination.
ReplyDeleteJoan Acker provides with the most useful explanation of this term and the relationship between globalization and gender. She states, “Globalization is presented as gender neutral, even though some theorists do pay some attention to women, the family and women’s employment. This ostensible gender neutrality masks the ‘implicit masculinization of these macro-structural models’. The implicit masculine standpoint in the ruling relations from which theories of society have been constructed impedes adequate analysis.” Acker points out her that the relationship between globalization and gender is that of masculinity and not femininity.
Globalization is the development and melding of various elements and institutions of various cultures. Acker's article best articulated the connection between globalization and gender roles. I personally find globalization to be most coherent when describing economics and the workforce. The development of these institution often reinforces the gendered roles of the working man and the nurturing housewife.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization involves transporting goods/services/people/ideologies/and cultures across national boundaries and into regions where this things may not have previously been found. Acker provides the most useful explanation of this term because he contests that globalization is also very much related to and involved with race/gender/class and it is political and cultural as well as economic. An example I believe most powerfully illustrates the relationship between gender and globalization is Acker's warnings of globalization exporting ideologies found in capitalist industrial societies with heavy assumptions that there will be limitless unpaid female labor in the area of care work. It is a foolish notion which does not conform with other societies modes of living, and it is a faulty idea which will soon be getting our own country into trouble and not one that we should be exporting!
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ReplyDeleteGlobalization is an expansive network of social, political, cultural, and economic interdependence across boundaries. Networks include everything from communication, to transportation, to technology. And, the boundaries are transnational, including institutions, governments, and corporations.Globalization also has strong connections with neolibralism, imperialism, democracy, and capitalism.
ReplyDeleteI personally preferred Joan Ackers argument about how globalization is gendered, specifically through capitalism. Globalization reproduces gendered careers that more times than not gives men high paying jobs and women are left without a salary. Men are paid for their labor, because generally men work in fields that best accompany capitalism, such as technical jobs. This gives men more power and continues to de-priotitize female careers. Also, the positive impacts of globalization more stongly affect men than women and it negatively affects women more than men.
Globalization to me is development that soon leads to take over. it is an idea that starts out small but later is expanded and made into Global points like economic ideas or social and even political views. All things that come together and soon take over little by little. Globalization is an ideology that takes over institutions. Like Ankers article where Acker’s explains, how the development of the global market economy has gendered institutions associating production with male and reproduction with female and domestic. Men are the ones who run the business while women are the ones who preform the labor however, it is still seen that no matter what a women can do men will always be able to do better and faster.
ReplyDeleteTo me the term globalization would include so many different aspects of the development. It encompasses many different terms. Globalization is gendered and in the articles we read includes deprioritizing gendered jobs. Making sure that men still have better paying jobs and more security to make sure they are being paid. Women across the world are working unpaid jobs, being abused and neglected. Globalization includes capitalism and gendered jobs like Ackers argument. Globalization makes sure that men still recieve high paying masculine jobs and the women stay beneath, almost forgotten.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the process in which countries form connections with each other to achieve economic, social, and political integration. During the globalization process some individuals accuse the dominant world powers, such as the United States, of consuming other cultures through the process of hegemony. Joan Acker was interesting to read because she elaborated on how globalization affected males and females differently.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization is the exchange of ideas, goods, and services on a global scale. It is a way in which countries have been connecting and building their economy. Globalization is extremely complex. Although it has been excellent in theory, in practice it has left countries and people vulnerable for exploitation from higher-ranking powers. This is not to say that globalization has been a completely negative practice, but negative unintended consequences have happened as a result. It has increased unemployment in some countries, undermining local entities and has further engendered roles. Women are pushed towards “traditional” female roles of domestic service with very little financial or physical security. The article “America’s Dirty Work” recounts the problems that women from abroad have encountered when they immigrated to the United States in order to work as nannies or maids. Lack of knowledge of American customs, as well as language barriers, have left some women in a state of slavery. Left with no one to turn to and in danger of double binds of returning to a land which they will have no income or stay in a land that will exploit them. While globalization has allowed people to have new opportunities, cultural imperialism has also created ways to exploit people, especially women since family members can sell them off in order to derive an income.
ReplyDeleteGlobalization consists of many different things, mainly discussing how something – an item, idea, belief – is taken from a small place and spread around the world. It was a little confusing to do these readings about globalization because I had never thought about many of the inequalities that happen by use of these things. It is amazing to me that in one country becoming more civilized another can be taken further apart because the people especially the women there are taken advantage of. Why is it that in some places it is the ultimate goal of a woman to serve an American white woman? In what ways does our view of other countries as a world power inhibit realizing the good things about other ‘less civilized’ countries?
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