Customer Reviews

Global Dimensions of Gender and Carework

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The editors do an extraordinary job covering a wide spectrum of concepts related to carework, as well as, providing research examples that illustrate those concepts. By using gender as a lens they turn common conceptions of globalization on their head. We might have previously held a romanticized notion of globalization as involving "high profile business travel or video conferencing." However, when we look at the large numbers of women, who represent nearly half of the workers moving around the globe, we are forced to recognize that many of these women are participating in the global redistribution of carework. The editors further reorient our perspective by conceptualizing, not only the family, but also the nation, and the market, as "systems of care." The impact of Globalization on these systems is negative, creating "multiple crises of care."

They cover everything, from the impact of structural adjustment policies on Brazilian childcare policy, to the new conceptions of motherhood created by transnational mothers from the Philippines working as caregivers in Taiwan. This book is a must read. In particular, the editors' essays, which begin each section, should not be missed. Well written they coherently integrate a vast range of thinking, they are a gift to anyone interested in gender, carework, or globalization.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in studying the relationship between gender, globalization, and labor as well as public policies around motherhood and children. The book contains different research papers by feminist scholars dealing with how the capitalist system relies on women to spread out globally. Supranational institutions influence governments around the world to reduce social spending. This generates the use of poor and migrant women to deal with domestic labor and carework, provoking inequality between those women who can pay for it, and those who are hired. This inequality is higher as migrants end up leaving their children at home to take care of someone else's children abroad. The different examples presented of interesting, serious and creative research, are very illustrative of the need for new public policies that put the needs of women and children first as a way to enhance human capital around the world.
Clear, easy to read, it is a must for any scholar engaged in understanding changes in the world economy and gender, and for any activist looking for up to date research to understand how globalization has created more inequality, in particular, for women and children.