Global Woman

Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy is a series of compilations edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild who set out to address the globalization of women’s traditional roles and how it poses many challenges to anyone who is “concerned about gender and economic inequity” (Ehrenreich and Hochschild Russell 13). The contributors to this book help us take the first step to see these women as full human beings and answer the tough questions such as, “How can we prevent trafficking and enslavement? … Can we find a way to counterbalance the systematic transfer of caring work from poor countries to rich, and the inevitable trauma of the children left behind?” (13).

            The contributors to Global Woman have done extensive ethnographic research and hands on research all over the world. From Filipino nannies to Thai sex slaves the spectrum of women’s work across the world is vast in what women will do for their families and themselves. The sources that these authors use are from researchers all over as well as their first hand interviews and encounters.

Global Woman uses examples of nannies and maids to discuss the “invisible labors” that are brought up throughout the book. If a nanny wants time off or the employer thinks that she is stealing from the family, she can get fired on the spot and lose her source of income not just for herself, but for her family (Cheever 31-38). The women and families who hire these nannies try to teach their children that “money can’t buy love, and then [they] go right ahead and buy it for them – hiring strangers to love them, because [they] have more important things to do” (31). Why are the mothers getting blamed for not caring enough about their children when they hire nannies, but the fathers aren’t held accountable for their side of the child rearing at all? Women are expected in our society to take care of their children and if they can’t do it themselves, then instead of having the husband take more time to care for their children, they hire another woman to do it for them. “When female migrants are mothers, they leave behind their own children, usually in the care of other women” (39 Salazar Parreñas). It’s this constant cycle of pressure being put on women to care for children and relaying all of the responsibility onto themselves.

Denise Brennan goes into the extent of caring for children and the woman herself when she writes in her essay called Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping-stone to International Migration. “Why waste a marriage certificate on romantic love when it can be transformed into a visa to a new land and economic security?” (Brennan 154). Brennan describes a Dominican sex worker who left her boyfriend to marry a German man so that she could support herself and her daughters. The women who support their lifestyles and families with selling sex to maintain economic stability are exposed to rape, beatings, and an array of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV and AIDS being highly prominent.

In Thailand, there are thousands of women who work as prostitutes and for young girls, “when asked what it means to be a prostitute their most common answer was, ‘wearing Western clothes in a restaurant’” (Bales 213). The girls see the outcomes of prostitution as having nice clothes and money, but have no idea what goes on to get the clothes and money. Another thing that is incredibly disturbing is the younger you are or the younger you look, the more money you make as a prostitute in Thailand.

Each article chosen in Global Woman gives the audience an insight to the globalization of female workers in our global economy. Through the individual stories of migrant workers and women in their own countries, I think it makes the articles much more persuasive to the original questions as well as the original statements made by the editors. When research is done I think what makes a strong argument is the stories of the struggles of individual people.