Sociology final Question 2

Question 2: Explain how the mechanisms put into place by the global managers and the social and economic trends that emerge manifest in the everyday lives of women? How is female labor socially constructed to be 'cheap labor'? How does an examination of the gendered division of labor show us that a 'truly global labor force' has emerged?

As seen in the 'Global Care Chain' the most significant impact of the mechanisms put into place by the global managers is the immense debt that has resulted from 1st World lending to 3rd World governments at such outrageous rates that it is literally impossibly to ever pay the debts- both pre-existing and new debts (increased by interest rates of repayment plans) off. As a result, many 3rd World economies are in ruins, with families suffering as a result. Women in these families go out into the workplace in search of a paycheck to bring home to their families, their husbands being either unable to find work or they receive such meager pay that they cannot manage to support their families alone, their children who no longer receive subsidized healthcare or public education, and their extended family who live with them because they have no where else to go. So the women go, they search, and they find that the best-paying jobs are in foreign countries, countries like Italy and the United States, and they gather all they can in order to get there, to find a job, and send as much as they can back to their families. The majority of the jobs available to a woman of their inexperience and status are in domestic work, ironically the same thing they had been doing at home without pay. The trend that has emerged as a result of this dependence on Third World care is termed a 'global heart transplant' as the love of the women from the Third World is transferred to the children of their First World employers. Their own children are thereby deprived of this love, psychological damage that both the mothers and their children experience evident in studies on the issue.
Female labor is constructed to be 'cheap labor' in several ways, as displayed in the 'Global Care Chain.' The majority of the jobs that women- specifically in the Third World- have available to them are low-wage, unskilled, and with high turnover rates. The countless women pushed into the labor force will put up with the conditions and wages, no matter that they are barely scraping by on such scanty pay, because they are still earning money to bring home to their families. The fact that so many women are in the same condition is another factor to take into account, the 'unskilled' nature of their labor, as it is so regarded, making it easy to replace a worker who refuses to or is no longer able to perform her job duties, her replacement often in worse financial condition and accepting of even lower pay. Another explanation for this trend is the fact that in many cases women are better cut out for such jobs, requiring small and nimble hands, keen eyesight, and the ability to perform a single repetitive task for hours on end. In almost all cases the men of the respective societies refuse to fill such jobs, their nature deemed 'unfit' for a man to perform. This coupled with women's urgent need to provide for their family, and these being almost the only job available to them has presented us with the situation we see today. The long-standing tradition of women's contributions being unaccounted for when measuring economic statistics, coupled with the idea of patriarchal superiority that has filled the past of most countries worldwide has also contributed to present conditions, specifically in the Third World.
An examination of the gendered division of labor has shown that women now make up half or very close to half of the global labor force. This is due to the rise of global subcontracting that transformed the division of labor between the skilled labor of the 1st World and the unskilled labor of the 3rd World into a bifurcation of labor worldwide. The division is no longer simply geographical, mainly because of the repetitive effect of global subcontracting bringing pressure to lean on organized workforces in the First World. The separation is of a core of relatively stable, well-paid from a periphery of casual, low-cost labor, wherever. Outsourcing meant cheaper labor and higher profits, becoming a global trend. Factors that pushed many women into entering the workforce include a steadily increasing cost of living, war-torn governments and economies, the debt of their country, reduced government subsidies, and encouragement from these very same governments in the hopes their wages will stimulate the economy.