global cities and survival circuits summary sassen

Where do the women come from who willingly fill in for other women in homes not their own, and why? This question is answered in this book. Money is paid to another female, a “cleaning lady,” to fill in the gap caused by the female earning wages outside her home, somehow perpetuating gender oppression in the identification of females with this employment classification. Ehrenreich shows how rather than a relaxation of standards of cleanliness in the home taking place, the equation is expanded with an increase in number of people required to do the household job, and the creation of outflow of cash. With the decrease in cleaning hours spent by the woman of the house, men were still found to spend only 1.7 hours per week by 1995 in scrubbing, vacuuming, and sweeping, whereas women still spent 6.7 hours per week performing these particular chores (p.89). She says, “It’s a different world down there below knee level, one that few adults voluntarily enter.” With the increase in two-earner households of both genders between 19, and the increase in feminist conscience, women’s and men’s housework is measured in hours per week. In speaking of domestic work, Ehrenreich in her essay discusses her own experience cleaning floors while working with The Maids International in the United States, a company that is part of the trend of corporate-run cleaning services. As a suggested “read,” this book is to be considered along with others in the Hunger Notes subspecialty of women in developing countries as its main focus, as there is only brief mention of food issues in a few essays.

Valuable contact information including website addresses is given for activist organizations involved in assisting women in fighting low wages, poor working conditions, trafficking, domestic violence, problematic immigration status, and other human rights violations. Robert Espinoza outlines current migration trends with the most recent data available through maps and charts, as well as listing other migration route detail as text. The editors are among several others who have authored essays within, including Cheever, Salazar Parrenas, Hondagneu-Sotelo, Rivas, Anderson, Constable, Zarembka, Brennan, Lan, Gamburd, Bales, Hung Cam Thai, and Sassen.

Global Woman describes with firsthand insight the global patterns of relationships among people struggling to survive in the domestic service sector and in the illicit sex trade. This book may be ordered online through Hunger Notes bookstore. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan Books, 2003. Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, Editors

Global cities and survival circuits summary sassen