Women as commodities of colonialism & capitalism - Essay Example

?Women as Commodities of Colonialism & Capitalism One of the economic and political movements that clearly has marked our history to which our current society’s perceptions can be traced would be that of Neocolonialism. This is the onset of the use of Capitalism, Globalization, and Imperialism to determine a country’s destiny. During this time, cultural assimilation, social reform, education and gender movements were imminent, according to which women were considered the key commodity with regard to the latter. Critical relations between races and genders were first formed to somehow satisfy the demands of Imperialism, which is characterized by unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships which are believed to be the ways of reaching the goal of globalization at high speed. This pushed for a re-examination of race and gender dynamics to fit imperialism’s aim for profits. Intellectual representatives of Capitalism, an economic system that supports private ownership of the means of production of goods or services, which is again brought about by Colonialism movement believed that White people are the only race that are capable of entrepreneurial skills and to produce profits that resulted to the exploitation of the white working class while Africans or the blacks were deprived of land, properties, and work. They were only considered slaves which started the inception of a society of parasites and crimes. Indeed, it was not only racism that Colonialism created, instead, an empire that consisted of many captive nations (Lee and Rover, n.p.). Neocolonialism made the case of poverty, inequality, and abuses grow worse. Aside from racism that was imposed on the Blacks, women were also considered as commodities that were mere instruments for the production of wealth, tainting on their natural and moral rights. The target would always be unmarried women who did not have children and at the same time widowed women. Some concrete examples of which would be the deployment of mostly young women by bulk to some of the most developed capitalist countries such as Bangladesh, a large supplier of apparel to America to provide cheap labor, specifically, a $13 monthly wage; Minor women ages 15 to 35 were forced to work in sugar or mining in South Korea and Thailand with an unfavorable working environment, and or involve them in sex trade that pushes for tourism which is one of the strongest source of foreign trade that time; and a lot of women were involved in the electronic industry where after just three or four years of work would already cause them eyesight damage because of the endless hours of peering through a microscope just to maximize profit in exchange of only $15 - $25 a month wage (Lee and Rover, n.p.). Aside from the deployment of women in foreign countries to provide cheap or no labor at all, women were also exploited in their own motherland. The United Nations data report shows that two thirds of the food production profit of the world came from women labor during neocolonialism and colonialism (Lee and Rover, n.p.). Women were greatly associated as the faming class until farming opened into an export business that translated into easy cash, which caused farming and agriculture reassigned to men as part of their gender identity, while women were immediately driven off their lands. During the rise of Capitalism, gender roles and relationships began to be more unsettling especially to the commoditization of women. Instead of Capitalism becoming a good opportunity for women who mostly have experiences in textile, technology, and agriculture business to own and grow their own businesses that would increase local and foreign trade, it increased oppression of women. As opposed to neocolonialism and colonialism where women only have to endure super-exploitation in labor, Capitalism added a burden to them by challenging women to work around strong religious traditions in their workplace. An example of which are women workforce in Malaysia would have to face moral and ethical issues in relation to religious beliefs as it is a strongly Islamic country. Some women would even have to sacrifice their religious beliefs just so they can be granted work permit in factories (Moore and Freeman n.p.). Aside from extreme labor demands with only little compensation and religious opposition, Capitalism also increased competition in the workplace, even creating a grey area on “female oppression or self-expression” as fashion is entering the picture. The culture of being more presentable at work through improving on one’s appearance created a more rigid competition where women who have better clothes and hairdo has more chances of feeling more important and good about their working condition. This has brought about the need to establish a certain image in the workplace. Thus, more women prefer to work in a corporate environment as compared to factories as the dress code in offices required of them bags them a higher social hierarchy (Moore and Freeman, n.p.). However, what they do not know is that this is Capitalism’s way of obscuring their exploitation of women workforce by inculcating a desire to be part of a more glamorous company and establishing company loyalty which makes the little wage they provide unnoticeable and to prevent work unions to reveal the many complaints they should be accountable for. However, not all women’s workforce population was subjected to this opposition during the Capitalism era. There are some employers who merely focused on the profit they made and did not put much attention on the religious differences of their employees as long as they delivered on their demands. There were luckier women who had been granted a balance of gender roles where men reared their children at home that freed women of the anxiety to think of work and at the same time maintaining a household. Indeed, everything that was brought about by Colonialism and Capitalism has impacted the perception of women and gender relations until today. Although we are more liberal and deem gender equality as important today, there are still remnants of these regimes that drive some private enterprise to run a business based on surplus value, lack corporate social responsibility whether internally or externally, limiting the benefits of an employee and etc. However, we cannot deny the positive impact brought about by these regimes such as increased labor participation by women.   Works Cited Lee, Butch, and Red Rover. "Night-Vision: illuminating War & Class on the Neo-Colonial Terrain." KERSPLEBEDEB. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Norman, Alison Elizabeth. "Race, Gender and Colonialism: Public Life among the Six Nations of Grand River, 1899-1939." Tspace. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Jacobs, Margaret. "Gender and Colonialism in the American West." Historians. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Estevez-Abe, Margarita. "Labor Markets, Public Policies, Gender Equality : The Varieties of Capitalism Perspective and Beyond." HKS. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Moore, Helen, and Carla Freeman. "Gender and Capitalism." Angelfire: Welcome to Angelfire. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Read More