Health, Women's Work, and Industrialization - Center for Gender in ...
Health, Women's Work, and Industrialization - Center for Gender in ...
Health, Women's Work, and Industrialization - Center for Gender in ...
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shapes the job opportunities available. The extent to which <strong>in</strong>dustries are<br />
regulated <strong>in</strong> terms of work<strong>in</strong>g conditions will clearly impact worker<br />
well-bei ng. The degree to whi ch 1 abor organi zati ons are controll ed will<br />
i ndi cate how vari ed the channel s are to express job di scontent. In these<br />
<strong>and</strong> other ways, the state shapes the labor process as well as ideology <strong>and</strong><br />
reproduction.<br />
The state also plays an important mediat<strong>in</strong>g role <strong>in</strong> provid<strong>in</strong>g the<br />
conditions necessary <strong>for</strong> capital accumulation, <strong>for</strong> production of labor<br />
power, <strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong> reproduction of labor. The policies, <strong>in</strong>centives, <strong>and</strong><br />
regul ati ons are refl ected on the shop floor, <strong>in</strong> the dai ly experi ences of<br />
workers, as well as <strong>in</strong> their lives outside the factory. Yet, capital<br />
accumulation also alters class <strong>for</strong>mation <strong>and</strong> conversion, <strong>in</strong>come<br />
distribution, <strong>and</strong> social relations (<strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g labor market relations). The<br />
state must cont<strong>in</strong>ually mediate between the global rationalities of TNCs, the<br />
necessities of local accumulation, <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>s by labor. The state, then,<br />
is both an agent of accumul ati on as well as an agent of soci al control. Its<br />
role is to foster development, however dependent.<br />
That women work <strong>in</strong> labor-<strong>in</strong>tensive factories <strong>in</strong> LDCs today is evident <strong>in</strong><br />
the result<strong>in</strong>g complex social, economic, <strong>and</strong> political <strong>for</strong>ces. Under the new<br />
<strong>in</strong>ternational division of labor, a new work<strong>in</strong>g class is emerg<strong>in</strong>g, with women<br />
at its center.<br />
In tak<strong>in</strong>g a political economy of health approach, it is understood that<br />
health conditions reflect the <strong>in</strong>teraction between biological <strong>and</strong> social<br />
systems <strong>and</strong> are a microcosm of the social totality. With such an approach<br />
to the study of electronics workers <strong>in</strong> Asia, the aim is to arrive at a<br />
better underst<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g of how the dynamics of the larger system affect<br />
people's well-be<strong>in</strong>g, both <strong>in</strong>dividually <strong>and</strong> collectively. The changes <strong>in</strong> the<br />
labor process <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> those <strong>in</strong>stitutions reflect developments <strong>in</strong> the world<br />
capi tal i st system. Under the new i nternati onal di vi si on of 1 abor, the most<br />
recent tendency <strong>in</strong> the capitalist system, Asian countries are becom<strong>in</strong>g<br />
capitalist countries <strong>in</strong> their own right.<br />
The Empirical Study<br />
Methodology<br />
The study seeks to underst<strong>and</strong> the rel ati onshi p between worker's heal th<br />
<strong>and</strong> (l) the technical means of production, (2) the social organization of<br />
work, <strong>and</strong> (3) the patterns of consumption <strong>and</strong> reproduction. The study is<br />
centered around a survey of 900 semiconductor workers <strong>in</strong> S<strong>in</strong>gapore <strong>and</strong><br />
Malaysia <strong>and</strong> a 10% subsample <strong>in</strong>terview. The survey questionnaire method was<br />
chosen both because collected statistics on the health of electronics<br />
workers as a group di d not exi st, <strong>and</strong> because of the need to go beyond the<br />
anecdotal <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation previously reported <strong>in</strong> the literature.<br />
To obta<strong>in</strong> large r<strong>and</strong>om samples of workers, access to the work<strong>for</strong>ce was<br />
obta<strong>in</strong>ed through management cooperation at five semiconductor companies