Authors Barbara Ehrenreich, and Annette Fuentes reveal the exploitation of women working and struggling to survive in third world countries in their essay entitled “Life on the Global Assembly Line.” Which was written and targeted in Ms. Magazine. Jobs in the factory and street working are the main ways of income for these women; young and old and unfortunately, it is their only choice because of government laws and because of how they are brought up and raised. In some cases, women are gaining the strength to rebel, to riot for change. These cases spread the word on their cry for help in hopes that this change they want, will one day become reality. So, where does this all happen? In what we call Third World countries such as
As mentioned before, the women, for the most part do not enjoy themselves. These young women have no identity, no time for living a life that is fulfilled, not even time to raise a family. However to them, it might be fulfilling having the job they have and making the wage they receive. To some it’s just another day. I believe that the women should have more options for work. America’s huge brands should reconsider the placement and regulations for their factories. Instead of treating them like robots and pumping them with amphetamines, create their work experience more bearable with the common sense of having fresh air, decent breaks, masks to protect their lungs from toxic fumes and substances, which then just lead to chronic illnesses. Min Chong Suk, a sewing machine operator wrote in her diary writes “…there have been increasing numbers of people getting tuberculosis, bronchitis, and eye diseases. Since we are women, it makes us so sad when we have pale, unhealthy, wrinkled faces…It seems to me that no one knows our blood dissolves into the threads and seams, with sighs and
One summer a couple years back, I watched a documentary on how clothing was manufactured. The video was filled of disturbing images and videos of child workers. They rarely looked up to see the camera that filmed them, instead they continued to work at fast paces. I remember my inquisition as I thought of why they would allow children to be exploited and overworked at such young ages. I can recall a moment in the video where they showed a four year old boy. In the text titled “Live Free and Starve,” Divakaruni explores the consequences of a new bill on child labor and ultimately leads us to her core thought, that freedom comes at a cost.
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
In the reading I chose, "Some Lessons from The Assembly Line", by Andrew Braaksma, is about a college student who in the summer time works for a factory all day long. To me, this reading is about a man maybe in his 20 's gaining great work experience during his summer breaks while also saving money. He also uses his work experiences in his college assignments, his knowledge from learning real life experiences at work. My opinion about this reading is that it is very informative. He is learning lessons and learning how to apply them to his school work. For Andrew, working in a factory seems like the best option, he saves money while at the same time, gaining very valuable experiences. He loves his school, and when he returns, he is so relieved to be back. He has been in a factory all summer while other classmates take it easy with small part time jobs. The articles theme of "Some Lessons from The Assembly Line" is to help inform people about how important education can be because he compares college life and work life, how he learns new experiences at work, and how much he appreciates being able to attend school.
The mere idea of sweatshops, let alone their existence, seems cruel and unusual to people like us, especially in today's day and age. After all, in sweatshops "workers are subject to extreme exploitation. This includes... (not) enabling workers to cover ...
Imagine being employee number 101 out of 1001. Now imagine working on an assembly line in a hot room filled with 1000 other women frantically assembling products for first world countries to use for ten seconds before discarding for a newer version. This job pays enough for you to get by but living in a third world country with low pay isn’t easy. What many people don’t understand is that the cost of production in a third world country is more inexpensive than it is in America. Hiring women to work in horrid conditions decreases employee loss because they are not rambunctious like men. “Life on the Global Assembly Line” by Barbara Ehrenreich and Annette Fuentes clearly illustrates the hardships women go through for U.S. corporation production. Corporate powers have resorted to building production plants in third world countries to save money. U.S. corporate powers take advantage of third world
Women now hold their place in the workforce and we have our eight hour day. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the people who strongly believed that women needed opportunities for labor, and women have gotten those rights. On the contrary, women still get paid less than men. According to CNN Money, “men still make more than women in most professions -- considerably more in some occupations than others, according to a new study by the job search site Glassdoor”. Although we like to comfort ourselves with the idea that we have gotten our rightfully earned rights, we had not been given bathroom breaks until 1998. Furthermore, employees are still afraid to have a voice in the workforce. Employers establish rules that basically let laborers know that they are inferior. In Ehrenreich 's case, she witnessed being told that her bag was subject to being looked through at any time, and she saw how degrading drug tests were. Ehrenreich argues that“the drug tests, the constant surveillance, being ‘reamed out’ by managers- are part of what keeps wages low”(Ehrenreich 211) which is agreeable seeing as the low wage workers decline to fight for better conditions due to fear. Additionally, Barbara figures out that minimum jobs do not equal minimum labor, which has always been the case. I agree with that fact due to
labor class due to the lack of financial stability. For these women only the most dangerous
Female children born into low income families in Jamaica and other islands of the Caribbean are burdened with a stereotype that their male counterparts will never know. When faced with the gender oppression their society has constantly been feeding, and the fact that so many women must act as the single financial heads of their families, many women of the Caribbean must settle for low paying occupations associated with 'female' or domestic labor. For women born into families at the bottom of the economic ladder, there is little hope of social mobility or escape from the fist of poverty. In most cases, the cycle continues to feed itself from mother to daughter. In my paper I will demonstrate this cycÀle by examining the Caribbean women's role in the family as head of the household and the education, employment and survival strategies characteristic to many of these women. I will conclude my paper by discussing some of the new organizations and movements that have surfaced in the Caribbean within the past thirty years that are fighting for women's empowerment.
Many societies face the much overlooked problem of child labor and sweatshops in the fashion industry. Recently, Americans were stunned to learn that their apple pie sweetheart, Kathie Lee Gifford was associated with the exploitation of underage workers in Honduras. Gifford's story began the resurgence of knowledge of the growing problem of sweatshops in today's society. Contrary to popular belief, sweatshops still exist across the world in both third world countries and super powers such as America. Sweatshops incorporate the inhumane exploitation of workers, many of whom are underage, by providing extremely low wages as well as expecting unrealistic time commitments. In addition, the workers lack benefits and very few sweatshops abide by the required health codes. Sweatshops are obviously a growing problem that will not disappear with out change. Although the United States government has begun to take steps to alleviate the problem, there must be an increase in both awareness and legislation.
Many children in these Third World countries have no other option but to go to work and help support their families. Otherwise they are left to survive for themselves on the streets ruled by crime and danger. Cathy Young strengthens this point by saying, “Some children, left with no other means of earning a living, may even be forced into prostitution.” Yes, to most people, working in a sweat shop does not seem like a good option but for some it is the only one so why get rid of it.
In terms of the media, men are both seen and heard much more than women are. Women’s biological events are typically not studied into vast detail. Furthermore, women of color are severely unnoticed in psychology research (30). An area in which women go especially unnoticed is domestic work. There are numerous women who immigrate from the Caribbean, Latin America, and other developing countries, to North America. Upon entering North America, these women work in areas where they provide domestic work, such as child care, until they can earn a green card. Matlin (2012) reports further, “They may be expected to work every day—with no time off and no health insurance—for a fraction of the minimum-wage salary. Many of the women report that their employers insult them, do not let them leave the house, and treat them much like modern-day slaves” (226). While this situation sounds like something that would occur in a third world country, it is occurring right in our own backyards. In addition to domestic work, numerous women and their families become involved with garment work. Many women go unnoticed working in sweatshops, where there are numerous labor laws regarding wages and working conditions violated daily. These sweatshops occur all over the world, from North America to Latin America. Matlin recalls a story from one of her students, saying, “Several months later, Ling’s mother began to work on a garment, without asking for the supervisor’s permission. The supervisor then punched Ling’s mother in the chest, and the family called the police to report the assault. The manager then fired the entire family” (226). It is shocking that women go unnoticed and unreported in these unethical and disturbing conditions. In addition to this, women often go unnoticed in health care. Throughout history, women have often been
“There are at least 12.3 million persons in forced labour today” (www.ilo.org). A great number of the victims are poverty-stricken people in Asia, “whose vulnerability is exploited by others for a profit” (www.ilo.org).
According to new data released by the UIS, Unesco Institute for Statistics, literacy rates for adults and youths continue to rise. Despite the progress, 781 million adults still could not read or write; among youths, 126 million are illiterate (UIS). In this regard, the documentary The Harvest/La Choseca —realized in 2011— exposes the blatant exploitation of migrant’s children who working up forth teen hours a day, seven days a week, they no have alternatives other than drop out school. Zulema, Perla and Victor are sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families by earning a miserable salary, which, unfortunately, makes a difference in the daily economy of people living below the poverty line. The Harvest offers a moving insight of a next-door reality where children are desperately trying to have access to education for ‘grasping’ a normal life. Hearing Victor says that money do not bring happiness, it hurts like a punch in an eye. Victor, a child forced to work by an unequal society, knows the meaning of life better than us. Those poor children are legally working, so we are complicit in an evident violation of human rights. How can a child studying after have spent an entire day under a scorching sun? What skills they are developing picking crops in the fields? It is come the time to stop ignoble injustice covered by a hypocrite law system that treats us like a bolt in a gear. Raising
Female inequality in workplace is one of the harmful aspect that is afflicting the entire
It can be concluded that women are treated in terms of stereotyped impressions of being the lowest class and greater evidence can be found that there are large disparities between the women and the men 's class. It can be seen that women are more likely to play casual roles as they are most likely to take seasonal and part time work so that they can work according to their needs. They are hampered from progressing upward into the organizations as they face problems like lack of health insurance, sexual harassments, lower wage rates, gender biases and attitudes of negative behavior. However, this wouldn’t have hampered the participation of the women in the work force and they continue to increase their efforts which is highly evident in the occupational and job ratios of females in the industry.