Global Woman

Two social scientists chart the consequences of the global economy on women across the world, revealing the underground economy that has turned many poor women into virtual slaves.

In a remarkable pairing, two renowned social critics offer a groundbreaking anthology that examines the unexplored consequences of globalization on the lives of women worldwide Women are moving around the globe as never before. But for every female executive racking up frequent flier miles, there are multitudes of women whose journeys go unnoticed. Each year, millions leave Mexico, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and other third world countries to work in the homes, nurseries, and brothels of the first world. This broad-scale transfer of labor associated with women's traditional roles results in an odd displacement. In the new global calculus, the female energy that flows to wealthy countries is subtracted from poor ones, often to the detriment of the families left behind. The migrant nanny--or cleaning woman, nursing care attendant, maid--eases a "care deficit" in rich countries, while her absence creates a "care deficit" back home. Confronting a range of topics, from the fate of Vietnamese mail-order brides to the importation of Mexican nannies in Los Angeles and the selling of Thai girls to Japanese brothels, Global Woman offers an unprecedented look at a world shaped by mass migration and economic exchange on an ever-increasing scale. In fifteen vivid essays-- of which only four have been previously published-- by a diverse and distinguished group of writers, collected and introduced by bestselling authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this important anthology reveals a new era in which the main resource extracted from the third world is no longer gold or silver, but love.

As part of the group that leads the consumer world, the global female consumer’s perspective and complaints to Western corporations through computer-mediated communication tools is inefficient. This elevation of online communication conflict brings with it multiple intimidations and tests the global female’s confidence.

In Downwardly Global Lalaie Ameeriar examines the transnational labor migration of Pakistani women to Toronto. Despite being trained professionals in fields including engineering, law, medicine, and education, they experience high levels of unemployment and poverty. Rather than addressing this downward mobility as the result of bureaucratic failures, in practice their unemployment is treated as a problem of culture and racialized bodily difference. In Toronto, a city that prides itself on multicultural inclusion, women are subjected to two distinct cultural contexts revealing that integration in Canada represents not the erasure of all differences, but the celebration of some differences and the eradication of others. Downwardly Global juxtaposes the experiences of these women in state-funded unemployment workshops, where they are instructed not to smell like Indian food or wear ethnic clothing, with their experiences at cultural festivals in which they are encouraged to promote these same differences. This form of multiculturalism, Ameeriar reveals, privileges whiteness while using race, gender, and cultural difference as a scapegoat for the failures of Canadian neoliberal policies.

Global Women Leaders: Studies in Feminist Political Rhetoric demonstrates the ways in which women have used political rhetoric and political discourse to provide leadership, or assert their right to leadership, on a global level. This collection fits into the robust research area of international political women and their use of language in gaining and maintaining political power. It casts a wider net in terms of discussing women’s efforts to assert and preserve their roles of authority, particularly when their audiences may perceive their authority as illegitimate due to gender. Chapters dedicated to Elizabeth II and Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser discuss the more traditional ways in which women leaders use language to construct political power. Other chapters focus on women who serve as political activists, either individually or as part of a group, including Aasma Mahfouz of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the women who help direct United Nations policy through their speeches in the General Assembly. Global Women Leaders will appeal to scholars of political communication and international rhetoric.

The spread and consolidation of the women's movement in North and South over the past thirty years looks set to shape the course of social progress over the next generation. Peggy Antrobus draws on her long experience of feminist activism to set women's movements in their changing national and global context.

This volume considers how women are shaping the global economic landscape through their labor, activism, and multiple discourses about work. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of international scholars, the book offers a gendered examination of work in the global economy and analyses the effects of the 2008 downturn on women’s labor force participation and workplace activism. The book addresses three key themes: exploitation versus opportunity; women’s agency within the context of changing economic options; and women’s negotiations and renegotiations of unpaid social reproductive labor. This uniquely interdisciplinary and comparative analysis will be crucial reading for anyone with an interest in gender and the post-crisis world.