Health, Women's Work, and Industrialization - Center for Gender in ...

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women workers developed at the
1979; Ti lly and Scott 1978).
Asi a.
workplace and in the boarding houses (Dubl in
Evi dence of the same trends is emergi ng from
The history of women's work in the early phase of capitalist development
is being repeated in LDCs today, although in the nature of today's
capitalist system, the political and cultural contexts are different.
Certainly, the conditions of electronics workers in Asia, as evidenced in
the literature, echo the experiences of women workers in 19th century Europe
and America. At least at the descriptive level, a similar sociodemographic
profile of the workforce, similar management practices, similar household
expectations, and similar labor responses can be identified.
The similarities between conditions facing today's women workers in LDCs
and those facing women workers in 19th century Europe and America are not
surprising. In both instances, the proletarianization of women is integral
to industrial development and capital accumulation. For many, especially
those in company management, women are seen to have patience for tedious
jobs, with their nimble fingers and visual acuity (Lim 1978; Elson and
Pearson 1980). They also see that work as a temporary phenomenon for women
and that women cannot work in physically demanding jobs. Therefore, women
constitute a natural, low-wage labor force. Women are seen as most suited
to labor-intensive industries. The better explanation for concentrated
female employment, however, lies in the higher profits that can be extracted
from workers who earn lower wages (Lim 1983). The subordination of women as
a gender reflects both the ideology of patriarchy and women's secondary
position in the labor market (Elson and Pearson 1980). The lack of
effective bargaining strength has reinforced discriminatory practices.
Women have been call ed into and out of the 1 abor force as needed ~y
national ideology and economy (Mackintosh 1981). The position of women 1n
the 1 abor force fl uctuates inconsonance wi th the requi rements of capital
accumul ati on and expansi on. Fernandez-Kelly (1983) suggests that women's
labor is preferred in (1) periods of early industrialization, (2) times of
crisis (when male labor supply diminishes), (3) situations of fierce
competition (and hence, need to reduce operating cost to a minimum), and (4)
circumstances where the reduction of costs entail ing the reproduction of
labor power is attached to women's work (Fernandez-Kelly 1983). Women
workers occupy low-paying, low skill, low mobility jobs, but also constitute
a high-turnover labor force.
Women's position as a low-wage force in the secondary labor market means
they are highly desirable employees in labor-intensive industries, which
constantly search for cheap 1 abor (Safa 1981). In 19th century Europe and
America, the initial approach was to recruit women from rural areas; then,
immigrant labor provided a fresh supply of women whose need for income meant
they were willing to work longer hours for lower wages. Female workers
become further divided by citizenship and place of origin (Thomas 1982).
With limited alternatives, both migrants and women readily accept their
state of being (Piore 1979).