Women’s Labor Force In The Developing World

The recognition that the majority of women’s labor force in the developing world is not only an understated concept, but is also one that is often disregarded, has been well-established across sociological discourse. As such, many feminist theoretical works have interrogated development policies and offered useful insights into the correlation between gender and poverty. For instance, Cecile Jackson’s paper “Rescuing Gender from the Poverty Trap” interrogates the assumption that anti-poverty policies will automatically alleviate the subordination of women, and instead emphasizes the importance of creating a gender analysis divorced from poverty analyses. As she argued, “the concept of poverty cannot serve as a proxy for the subordination of women...and there is no substitute for a gender analysis which transcends class divisions and material definitions of deprivation”.

Contextually, the creation of the Third World female industrial force stemmed from a series of anxieties that were provoked during the 1970s amongst various groups of influential men in the professional sphere. The first of which can be traced back to when certain global manufacturing companies were being faced with the increasing pressures of operating in some of the most intensely competitive industrial sectors. As a consequence, one of the solutions was to substitute cheap labor for expensive equipment, wherein top priority was designated to minimize labor costs. In fact, minimizing labor costs is one of the core reasons why factory workforces today are predominately women. As such, it is worth noting that export manufacturing industries — such as textiles and low-skilled assembly work — often have a preference for female labor. The rationality that supports this preference is largely attributed to the fact that women, especially younger ones, are perceived as having a higher tolerance for monotonous tasks and lower wages, in addition to being more docile and less likely to unionize in rebellion.

Moreover, that a significant proportion of workers in these factories are young women allows such societal expectations to both feed on, and into, widespread preconceived notions about marginalized groups. A classic example of this politics of representation can be found in a contribution by Pun Ngai which details her accounts of the young Chinese dagongmei (or migrant working girls) who have fallen victim to the increasing capitalization and marketization of a socialist society infused with a hegemonic force. Ngai goes to elaborate in her essay “Rescuing gender from the poverty trap” on this notion of labor control by noting that exploitative features are further inscribed with social and cultural configurations for Chinese women workers that further perpetuate their inferior standing in the eyes of the privileged male investors, managers, and supervisors of the factories.

In essence, China’s patriarchal culture determines gender expectations that define female labor force as the cheapest and most acquiescent; therefore, the dagongmei are perceived as the most desirable in the global capitalist marketplace.