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

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machines, to automation, and to periodic biological monitoring. An increase
in trained health and safety personnel has become evident, especially in
Singapore. The production demands for air-conditioning and a relatively
dust-free environment do make it a relatively attractive workplace. Workers
prefer electronics to textiles; they also prefer TNCs to indigenous
companies.
These changes in the workforce and in workers' outlooks reflect
developments in the industry as well as in the two countries of concern. In
the years since the industry first located in Asia, there have been
tremendous growth and changes in the industry and in the region. Automation
possibilities, compared with a growing regional market, has led to forward
1 inkages in the production process, thus making factory work a more diverse
experience. With increased capital investments and a more diversified
production of sophisticated products, the companies have become less
"footloose." As their initial tax holiday has come to an end, most
companies are increasing their investments rather than pull ing out. More
locals are being hired to take over positions formerly occupied by
expatriates. With growing industrial development and economic diversification
in these countries, the electronics industry is beginning to shed its
enclave character.
There is no doubt that the electronics industry has contributed to
capitalist development in these countries. That women are entering the
formal sector labor force is a phenomenon without historical precedence in
Singapore and Malaysia. The success of the low-wage labor strategy has been
possible in part because the cost of production has been' born by the
househol d. The reproducti ve net is cast over 1 arge areas, coveri ng urban
and rural households as well as international migrants. In Singapore, in
particular, the state has also played a crucial role in its social policies,
including social control. In both countries, strict regulations governing
trade union activities have also been essential in suppressing 'labor
demands. In addition, traditional ideologies governing women's roles have
contributed to workers' concern with fami ly, rather than wi th work i ng 1 ife.
In both Singapore and Malaysia, it is women's work -- paid and unpaid -­
that has been central to the growth of the industry and economic development
in these countries.
The changing values that women hold, however, are not necessarily
matched by changes in the social order. That new workers in Malaysia have
much greater educati on than 01 der workers suggests that job opportuni ti es
for women have not diversified. The continuing burden of household work,
especi ally for Malay and Indi an workers, suggests that tradi ti onal val ues
are slow to change. For these workers, the confl ict between modernity and
tradition is much greater than for the Chinese.
That the living and working conditions faced by women electronics
workers echo those experi enced by women texti 1 e workers of the 19th century
points to a replay of historical processes (Tilly and Scott 1976; Berch
1976; Dublin 1979). That women today constitute the workforce which bears
the brunt of economic necessity parallels, again, the experience of women