Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Editor), Arlie Russell Hochschild (Editor)
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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 show more 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 best selling authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this anthology reveals a new era in which the main resource extracted from the third world is no longer gold or silver, but love. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This book takes on a subject most of us choose to ignore. The invisible work of nannies, domestics and sex workers... most of whom travel around the world for low paying, no benefit jobs. Most are separated from the families and children in order to provide a better living encouraged by Globalization. In a serious of well written essays collected by these two wonderful women, you will read some heartbreaking stories of pain, sorrow, abuse and tragedy. In a world where women are being exploited everyday but noone sees them, this book shines a light and forces the reader to examine themselves and society.
An interesting book based on a series of scholarly essays about women's conditions in the global economy - largely as international domestic help, but also as nannies and sex workers. The length of the individual articles is bite-sized, and they are generally well written, well researched and interesting. Most of the chapters are heavily dependent on interviews with the subjects, which is typical for sociological or cultural studies. An insightful book that makes me, as a first world woman, profoundly grateful for the opportunities I've experienced.
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Author Information
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of "Blood Rites"; "The Worst Years of Our Lives"; "Fear of Falling", which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, & eight other books. A frequent contributor to Time, Harper's, Esquire, The New Republic, Mirabella, The Nation, The New York Magazine, she lives near Key West, Florida. (Publisher Fact show more Sheets) Political activist and writer Barbara Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana on August 26, 1941. She studied physics at Reed College and graduated in 1963. She received a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Rockefeller University in 1968. Rather than pursuing a career in science, however, she decided to focus on social change. Ehrenreich has written columns and contributed articles to publications including Time Magazine, The Progressive, The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms, The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and The Nation. She taught essay writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 and 2000. Ehrenreich has written many books, with 2001's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and 2005's Bait and Switch, The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream both becoming New York Times bestsellers. Nickel and Dimed examines working-class poverty, while Bait and Switch discusses white-collar unemployment. Her next bestseller was in 2014 with Living With a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything. In 1998 Ehrenreich was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association, and she received the Nation Institute/Puffin Foundation Prize for Creative Citizenship in 2004. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Arlie Russell Hochschild, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of two New York Times Notable Books of the Year, THE SECOND SHIFT and THE MANAGED HEART. She has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her articles have show more appeared in Harper's, Mother Jones, and Psychology Today, among others. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild. (Publisher Provided) Arlie Russell Hochschild, Hochschild was a Professor of Sociology and directed the Center for Working Families at the University of California, Berkeley. She married writer Adam Hochschild, and they had two sons. She has been a Lang Visiting Professor of Social Change at Swarthmore College and a Fulbright Scholar at the Center for Development Studies in Trivandrum, Kerala, India. She has written articles that have appeared in scholarly journals as well as Harper's, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine. She has received awards from the Fulbright, Guggenheim and Alfred P. Sloan foundations and from the National Institute of Public Health. Hochschild is the author of "The Second Shift," The Managed Heart," and "The Time Bind." She believed that women moving into the workforce have not been accompanied by changes in the workplace, and the issues of daycare and the role of men at home have caused tension within the family. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Economics, Sexuality and Gender Studies, Nonfiction, Sociology, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 331.4816404608691 — Society, government, & culture Economics Labor economics Women workers
- LCC
- HD6072 .G55 — Social sciences Industries. Land use. Labor Industries. Land use. Labor Labor. Work. Working class Classes of labor
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 521
- Popularity
- 57,398
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.78)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 3
