GENDER, WORK and the WORKPLACE

The Home as a Workplace -in US, family required services of all family -Women’s work roles traditionally have been closely tied to the home -Older children took care of younger siblings -Paid domestic helpers / female slave labor -Married women engage in home-related work

The Industrial Revolution -Women flocked from farm to factories as wage laborers -Women and female children continued to be producers of cloth (in the factory rather than home) -”Lowell gils” - Lowell Mills, MA- female employment in textile mills Video: Lowell Mills, Mass.

The Victorian Myths ”Feminine Frailty” – the Victorian norms ascended to define middle class women as physically and mentally incapable of working in the factories Frailty– moral weakness; liability to yield to temptation ”White women” – more competitive advantage “Women of color” – were employed in factories in times of work surplus at lower wages and less desirable jobs

War and Jobs Women controlled in occupations like nursing and teaching Viewed as extension of motherhood

POST COLONIAL LEGACIES

Some Contemporary Configurations: Women’s Work: Some Contemporary Configurations: I. Formal 1. Agricultural 1.1. Rice Farming 1.2. Sugar Production 1.3. Banana Export 1.4. Fishing 1.5. Raising Livestock

2. Industrial 1.1. Manufacturing 1.2. Garments 1.3. Textile 1.4. Handicrafts 1.4. Microelectronics 1.5. Export-directed industrialization and women as preferred labor

3. Administrative and Clerical Work 1.1. Professional 1.2. Entrepreneurial 1.3. Managerial and executive work

II. Informal 1.1. Subsistence Commerce 1.2. Sex Trade 1.3. Servicing the servicemen: Prostitution an the American Bases 1.4. Sex Tourism 1.5. Bride Trade

Work and Migration Work migration is female dominated Migrant workers (from province to Manila) tend to be young (between 15-25) and with secondary education, the most Mid 1960s until mid 1970s – many women left the country to become health workers , then live and work permanently in the US By 1988 - 127,000 out of 160,000 licensed Filipino nurses went abroad http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/276661/news/specialreports/the-status-of-women-in-the-philippines-a-50-year-retrospective