Assembling Women: The Feminization of Global Manufacturing [Paperback]

Teri L. Caraway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2007

Despite the massive influx of women into the labor force as a result of globalization, the gender inqualities at work have remained largely unchanged. This book addresses two related questions: What has prompted the feminization of manufacturing work in developing countries, and why has it failed to significantly erode gender inequalities at work? Teri L. Caraway offers case studies and in-depth analysis of employment changes in Indonesia combined with cross-national data to show that the feminization of the workplace produced by industrialization policies has reconfigured and reproduced, rather than overturned, gender divisions of labor at work. Caraway challenges the conventional wisdom that export-oriented industrialization and women's cheap labor are the driving forces behind feminization. Instead, she argues, the answers can be found in weak unions and current social practice. Caraway employs information about a wide range of industries-capital-intensive, male-dominated, non-export firms as well as female-dominated, labor-intensive, export-oriented industries-in arriving at her conclusions. Her findings will prove discouraging to anyone who hopes that globalization has become a positive force in improving the lives of women workers.Caraway's multilevel methodology for analyzing changes in gendered patterns of employment and her introduction of "gendered discourses of work" as a major explanatory variable will make Assembling Women a valuable resource for women's studies scholars, development economists, political scientists, and sociologists as well as all with an interest in Southeast Asian Studies and labor and industrial relations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In her thought-provoking book, Assembling Women, Teri Caraway bucks much of the literature to argue that the feminization of the work force is a temporary phenomenon among some employers. Thus it is not market orientation that matters but rather capital-versus labor-intensive industry. Caraway's findings are a significant contribution to the literature on women's work under EOI policies, and are based on a finely layered multi-sectoral approach that draws on other feminist and other political-economy theories of feminization and its effects."-Industrial and Labor Relations Review

"Assembling Women is an apt and comprehensive description of ongoing industrial developments in Indonesia, an area of the world that has not received as much attention as it deserves. It is enormously satisfying in its descriptions. Teri L. Caraway writes lucidly and with aplomb. The breadth of the book is equally impressive. It covers four different industries: garments, textiles, plywood, and automobiles. Caraway elegantly and helpfully focuses on gendered discourses of work and her familiarity with the extensive literature on globalization and women's employment."-Patricia Fernández-Kelly, Princeton University, author of For We Are Sold, I and My People

"This very well-written book offers a nuanced understanding of the relationship between changing industrial policies on the one hand and gendered employment patterns on the other. Assembling Women contains an excellent integrative discussion and assessment of long-standing debates relating to the impact of export-oriented industrialization on female workers."-Frederic Deyo, Binghamton University, author of Beneath the Miracle

"Teri Caraway is going to shake things up. Her meticulous and innovative investigation of the genderings of four different industries in contemporary Indonesia uncovers when and how and by whom women's labor is made 'cheap.' Profit seeking is not alone the cause. She reveals the independent influence of factory managers' own ideologies of femininity and of masculinity. I'm going to tell lots of people about Assembling Women."-Cynthia Enloe, author of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire

From the Back Cover

Despite the massive influx of women into the labor force as a result of globalization, the gender inqualities at work have remained largely unchanged. This book addresses two related questions: What has prompted the feminization of manufacturing work in developing countries, and why has it failed to significantly erode gender inequalities at work? Teri L. Caraway offers case studies and in-depth analysis of employment changes in Indonesia combined with cross-national data to show that the feminization of the workplace produced by industrialization policies has reconfigured and reproduced, rather than overturned, gender divisions of labor at work.

Caraway challenges the conventional wisdom that export-oriented industrialization and women's cheap labor are the driving forces behind feminization. Instead, she argues, the answers can be found in weak unions and current social practice. Caraway employs information about a wide range of industries--capital-intensive, male-dominated, non-export firms as well as female-dominated, labor-intensive, export-oriented industries--in arriving at her conclusions. Her findings will prove discouraging to anyone who hopes that globalization has become a positive force in improving the lives of women workers.

Caraway's multilevel methodology for analyzing changes in gendered patterns of employment and her introduction of "gendered discourses of work" as a major explanatory variable will make Assembling Women a valuable resource for women's studies scholars, development economists, political scientists, and sociologists as well as all with an interest in Southeast Asian Studies and labor and industrial relations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: ILR Press (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801473659
• ISBN-13: 978-0801473654
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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