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

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ethnic groups, the economic obligations in the Chinese family appear
to be more important than those of traditional social roles. More
specifically, the Indian and Malay families first constrain their
daughters' educational and working opportunities and then expect
them to carry full family responsibil ities while working. In the
Chi nese fami ly, the daughter works to contri bute to the fami ly and
in doing so becomes respected in her own right. Hence, the Chinese
workers express a more economi c rati onal i st ori entati on about thei r
jobs. They are also more outwardly confident. Therefore, the
subjective orientation may be an important mediating factor.
These findings suggest a complex set of interrelationships between
workers' health, their living and working environment, and their outlook on
life. It is also becoming evident that work and health are not separate
from social institutions (family and culture) and the economic imperatives
of industry.
Summary and Conclusion
Women el ectroni cs workers have attracted i nternati onal attenti on si nce
the 1970s for a variety of reasons. These workers represent the historical
precedence of Asian women entering manufacturing industries in large numbers
and proportions. The electronics industry has been a leading sector not
only in the economic development of the women's countries but also in
economic restructuring throughout the world; however, the industry has
achieved its success through the exploitation, in the economic sense, of the
women workers. Much of the 1 iterature, both academic and journal istic,
points to a workforce that is too inexperienced and too uneducated to
realize that its low wages and long hours are the basis of industry profits.
Workers' health is of interest, for its maintenance is a necessary
contributing factor to the stability and productivity of the industry's
labor force. In addition, the state of health and well-being also reflects
the social and industrial condition of life. On the basis of the
occupational health and social epidemiology literatures, a variety of health
prob 1 ems among women el ectronic workers mi ght be expected. At the same
time, however, these suspected health problems might counterbalance the
improved standard of living and other social and economic opportunities that
are integral to entering the workforce.
Taking a pol itical economy of health perspective, this study seeks to
understand the relationship between the micro-level functions of workers'
bodies and the macro-level dynamics of capital accumulation. Insofar as the
present attempt is concerned with the search for medi ati ng structures that
1 i e in di verse spheres of 1 ife -- 1 abor process, fami ly, community, and
culture -- the framework proposed is one where health is shaped by the labor
process, which reflects both the technical and social organization of work,
and which embodies the social, political, economic, and cultural
institutions of society. The survey reveals a host of health problems which
can be related both to specific aspects of the work and to general patterns
of consumption.