A Paradox of Women’s Employment and Empowerment inFlexible Capitalism

Abstract

This paper discusses a paradoxical implication of employment for women’s empowerment in flexiblecapitalism. Export-oriented factories employ women from the poorer sections of a society and theirearnings make substantial contribution to poverty reduction at a household level. However, animplication of wage work for women’s empowerment is contentious. Many socialist feminist criticshighlight exploitative aspects of export-oriented industries. The micro-level studies point out women’sempowering experiences through employment in daily life. Employing a materialist feministperspective and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this paper examines the discussion on women’semployment and empowerment in the past fifty years and attempts to understand women’smultifaceted exercise of agency within patriarchal power relations and explain a paradox ofexploitative employment and women’s empowering experiences. It argues that flexible employmenthas empowered many women in the world, yet, in a way to serve flexible capitalism and patriarchy.

Keywords

• women’s employment,empowerment,flexible capitalism,agency

References

1. Abu-Lughod, Lila. “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformation of Power through Bedouin Women,” American Ethnologist 17 (1990): 41-55.
2. Agawal, Bina. ““Bargaining” and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household,” Feminist Economics 3, no.1 (1997): 1-51.
3. Ali, Rabia. “Empowerment beyond Resistance: Cultural Ways of Negotiating Power Relations,” Women’s International Forum 45 (2014): 119-126.
4. Althusser, Louis. On the Reproduction of Capitalism: Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (London and New York: Verso, 2014).
5. Bock, B. Bettina. “Introduction: Rural Gender Studies in North and South,” Rural Gender Relations: Issues and Case Studies eds. B.B. Bock. and S. Shortall (Oxfordshire and Cambridge: CABI Publishing, 2006), 1- 18.
6. Bolak, Hale Cihan. “Conceptualization of Marital Power Dynamics: Women Breadwinners and Working-Class Households in Turkey,” Women in Modern Turkish Society: A Reader ed. Sirin Tekeli (London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1995), 173-198.
7. Boserup, Ester. Woman’s Role in Economic Development (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1970).
8. Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).

9. Bourdieu, Pierre. The Logic of Practice (Oxford: Polity Press, 1992).
10. Cornwall, Andrea and Nana A. Anyidoho. “Introduction: Women’s Empowerment: Contentions and Contestations,” Development 53, no.2 (2010): 144-149.
11. Dedeoğlu, Saniye. “Visible Hands – Invisible Women: Garment Production in Turkey,” Feminist Economics 16, no.4 (2010): 1-32.
12. Das, Veena. “Subaltern as Perspective.” Subaltern Studies VI: Writings on South Asian History and Society ed. Ranajit Guha (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), 310-324.
13. Delphy, Christine. “No Right to Choose: A Materialist Feminism is Possible,” Feminist Review 4 (1980): 79-105. Delphy, Christine and Diana Leonard. Familiar Exploitation: A New Analysis of Marriage in Contemporary Western Societies. (Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press, 1992).
14. Elson, Diane. “Labour Markets as Gendered Institutions: Equality, Efficiency and Empowerment Issues,” World Development 27, no.3 (1999): 611-627.
15. Elson, Diane and Ruth Pearson. “‘Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers’: An Analysis of Women’s Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing,” Feminist Review 7 (1981): 87-107.
16. Erman, Tahire, Sibel Kalaycioğlu and Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç. “Money-Earning Activities and Empowerment Experience of Rural Migrant Women in the City: The Case of Turkey,” Women’s Studies International Forum 25, no.4 (2002): 395-410.
17. Fraser, Nancy. “How Feminism Became Capitalism’s Handmaiden – and How to Reclaim It,” The Guardian, 14 October 2013, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/feminism- capitalist-handmaiden-neoliberal on 12.7.2015.
18. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality Vol.1: An Introduction (New York: Random House, 1978).
19. Gammage, Sarah, Naila Kabeer, Yana van der Meulen Rodgers. “Voice and Agency: Where Are We Now?” Feminist Economics 22, no.1 (2016): 1-29.
20. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. eds. and trans. Quinten Hoare and Geffrey Nowell Smith (London: Wishart, 1971).
21. Gündüz Hoşgör, Ayşe. “Convergence between Theoretical Perspectives in Women-Gender and Development Literature Regarding Women’s Economic Status in The Middle East,” METU Studies in Development 28, no.1-2 (2001): 111-132.
22. Gündüz Hoşgör, Ayşe and Miki Suzuki Him. “Küreselleşme ve Türkiye’de Kırsal Kadınların Ücretli Emeği: Rapana Venosa Üretim Zinciri Üzerinden Batı Karadeniz Bölgesinde Bir Vaka Analizi,” Sosyoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi 19, no.2 (2016): 108-130.
23. Harcourt, Wendy. “Development As If Gender Matters,” Development 53, no.2 (2010): 210-214.
24. İsvan, Nilüfer A. “Productive and Reproductive Decisions in Turkey: The Role of Domestic Bargaining,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 53 (1991): 1057-1070.
25. Jackson, Stevi. “Why a Materialist Feminism is (Still) Possible – and Necessary,” Women’s Studies International Forum 24 no.3-4 (2001): 283-293.
26. Kandiyoti, Deniz, “Bargaining with Patriarchy,” Gender and Society 2 no.3 (1988): 274-90.
27. Kabeer, Naila. “Women, Wages and Intra-household Power Relations in Urban Bangladesh,” Development and Change 28 (1997): 261-302.
28. Kabeer, Naila. “Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment,” Development and Change 30 (1999): 435-464.
29. Kabeer, Naila. “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal,” Gender and Development 13, no.1 (2005): 13-24.
30. Kabeer, Naila. “Gender Equality, Economic Growth, and Women’s Agency: The “Endless Variety” and “Monotonous Similarity” of Patriarchal Constraints,” Feminist Economics 22, no.1 (2016): 295-321.
31. Kabeer, Naila and Mahmud Simeen. “Globalization, Gender and Poverty: Bangladeshi Women Workers in Export and Local Markets,” Journal of International Development 16 (2004): 93-109.
32. Kaplan, Martha and John D. Kelly. “Rethinking Resistance: Dialogics of “Disaffection” in Colonial Fiji,” American Ethnologist 21, no.1 (1994): 123-151.
33. O’Halon, Rosalind. “Recovering the Subject: Subaltern Studies and Histories of Resistance in Colonial South Asia,” Modern Asian Studies 22 (1988): 189-224.
34. Parpart, Jane L. “Choosing Silence: Rethinking Voice, Agency, and Women’s Empowerment,” Working Paper 297, Gender, Development, and Globalization Program, Center for Gender in Global Context (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 2010), 1-15.
35. Parpart, Jane L., Shirin M. Rai and Kathleen Staudt. “Rethinking Em(power)ment, Gender and Development: Introduction,” Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World eds. Jane L. Parpart, Shirin M. Rai and Kathleen Staudt. (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 3-21.
36. Pearson, Ruth. “Women, Work and Empowerment in a Global Era,” IDS Bulletin 35 (2004): 4117-4120.
37. Petchesky, Rosalind. “Critical Perspectives on Empowerment.” Development 53, no.2 (2010): 181-183.
38. Raheja, Gloria G. and Ann G. Gold. Listen to Heron’s Words: Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India (Berkely, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press(1994).
39. Razavi, Shahra. “Does Paid Work Enhance Women’s Access to Welfare?: Evidence from Selected Industrializing Countries,” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 14, no.1 (2007): 58-92.
40. Sarıoğlu, Esra. “Gendering the Organization of Home-based Work in Turkey: Classical versus Familial Patriarchy” Gender, Work and Organization 20, no.5 (2013): 479-497.
41. Scott, James C. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 1985).
42. Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Heaven and London: University of California Press, 1990).
43. Sholkamy, Hania. “Power, Politics and Development in the Arab Context: Or How Can Rearing Chicks Change Patriarchy?” Development 53, no.2 (2010): 254-258.
44. Sodano, Valeria. “The New Division of Labor in the Globalized Economy: Women’s Challenges and Opportunities” Forum for Social Economics 40 (2011): 281-298.
45. Standing, Guy. “Global Feminization through Flexible Labor: A Theme Revisited” World Development 27, no.3 (1999): 583-602.
46. Suzuki Him, Miki and Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör. “The Implication of Rural Poverty for Young Women: A Case of Mountain Villages in Sinop, Turkey,” International Congress of Youth and Our Heritage, 16-18 May, Samsun, Turkey, no.2 (2014): 765-771.
47. Suzuki Him, Miki and Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör. “Feminisation of Rural Work and Young Women’s Dis/empowerment: A Case Study of Mountain Villages in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey,” KADIN/WOMAN 2000 Journal for Women’s Studies 18, no.1 (2017):1-22.
48. Suzuki Him, Miki and Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör. “Japonya Pazarı İle Türkiye Karadeniz Arasındaki Küresel-Kırsal Bağlantı: Rapana Venosa’nın Metalaşma Süreci Vaka Analizi,” Sosyoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi 21, no.2 (2018): 285-316.
49. Suzuki Him, Miki and Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör. “Challenging Geographical Disadvantages and Social Exclusion: A Case Study of Gendered Rural Transformation in Mountain Villages in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey” Sociologia Ruralis 5, no.3 (2019): 540-559.
50. Syed, Jawad. “Reconstructing Gender Empowerment,” Women’s Studies International Forum 33 (2010): 283- 294.
51. White, Jenny. “Women and Work in Istanbul: Linking the Urban Poor to the World Market,” Middle East Report 173 (1991): 18-22.