Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy

Barbara Ehrenreich, Arlie Russell Hochschild

Macmillan, Jan 6, 2003 - Business & Economics - 328 pages

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 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 bestselling authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, this important anthology reveals a new era in which the main resource extracted from the third world is no longer gold or silver, but love.

Contents

• Introduction by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild: 1
• Love and Gold by Arlie Russell Hochschild: 15
• The Nanny Dilemma by Susan Cheever: 31
• The Care Crisis in the Philippines Children and Transnational Families in the New Global Economy by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas: 39
• Blowups and Other Unhappy Endings by Pierrette HondagneuSotelo: 55
• Invisible Labors Caring for the Independent Person by Lynn May Rivas: 70
• Maid to Order by Barbara Ehrenreich: 85
• Just Another Job? The Commodification of Domestic Labor by Bridget Anderson: 104
• Filipina Workers in Hong Kong Homes Household Rules and Relations by Nicole Constable: 115
• Americas Dirty Work Migrant Maids and ModernDay Slavery by Joy M Zarembka: 142
• Selling Sex for Visas Sex Tourism as a Steppingstone to International Migration by Denise Brennan: 154
• Among Women Migrant Domestics and Their Taiwanese Employers Across Generations by PeiChia Lan: 169
• Breadwinner No More by Michele Gamburd: 190
• Because She Looks like a Child by Kevin Bales: 207
• Clashing Dreams Highly Educated Overseas Brides and LowWage US Husbands by Hung Cam Thai: 230
• Global Cities and Survival Circuits by Saskia Sassen: 254
• Migration Trends Maps and Chart by Roberta Espinoza: 275
• Appendix Activist Organizations: 281
• Notes: 285
• Bibliography: 317
• Acknowledgments: 325
• The Contributors: 326

About the author

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. 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 appeared in Harper's, Mother Jones, and Psychology Today, among others. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, the writer Adam Hochschild.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy; Holt paperbacks
• Editors: Barbara Ehrenreich, Arlie Russell Hochschild
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2003
• ISBN: 080506995X, 9780805069952
• Length: 328 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Labor / General; Business & Economics / Women in Business; Social Science / Emigration & Immigration; Social Science / Minority Studies; Social Science / Prostitution & Sex Trade; Social Science / Women's Studies