The Double Register of History
Wilma Dunaway
FOCUS:
To Engender World-System Analysis
And
“Overlay the ‘double register’ of history”
Presentation by Adam Sgrenci
Summary
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W-S Theory essential to analyze capitalism’s exploitation of women:
Failed to do so (mech/material input)
Engender Wallerstein’s concepts of the semiproletarianized household and
commodity chain networks
Identify Hidden Inputs:
(a) the bearing and raising of children
(b) ‘shadow work’ that generates the family’s survival requirements
(c) inter-node subsidies
Identify Externalized Costs:
(a) ecological/health risks
(b) cultural disruption
(c) unpaid labor (of which the woman is doubly exploited)
(d) feminization of poverty
*Questions will focus on these externalized costs of capitalism, those concepts remaining
unexposed through W-S models
Questions
Supporting Argument
Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale
Maria Mies
Explains the externalized costs of capitalism to women
V.
Alternate Argument
Women in the Family and the Economy
Ratna Ghosh and George Kurian
Notion of capitalism as sole system of the exploitation of women will be
opposed
1. Is the first subsidy to capitalism made by women?
WD: Y. The biological reality of
women’s lives is sexual and
reproductive; thus, mothers
make their first subsidy to
capitalism through the bearing
and raising of successive
generations of laborers.
(14)
SA: Y. If we keep in mind that ‘productivity’
means the specific capacity of human
beings to produce and reproduce life in
an historic process, then we can
formulate for our further analysis the
thesis that female productivity is the
precondition of male productivity and of
all further world-historic development.
(58)
2. Does capitalism use the housewife in order to externalize costs?
WD: Y. The household is the site in
which women undertake unpaid
labor for those members who are
waged laborers…Women’s hidden
inputs subsidize the production
process throughout the commodity
chain, thereby keeping consumer
prices lower and profits higher. To
generate family survival
requirements, women engage in
“shadow work” outside those formal
capitalist structures in which labor is
remunerated.
(14)
SA: Y. “Housewifization” Not only was
the housewife called on to reduce the
labour power costs, she was also
mobilized to use her energies to
create new needs. A virtual war for
cleanliness and hygiene – a war
against dirt, germs, bacteria, and so
on – was started in order to create a
market for the new products of the
chemical industry. Scientific home
making was also advocated as a
means of lowering the men’s wage,
because the wage would last longer if
the housewife used it economically.
(106)
3. Does capital accumulation cause mistreatment to women?
WD: Y. Capitalism externalizes to
women, the negative side-effects
of cultural change and disruption.
Domestic violence increases
dramatically as manufacturing
and extractive industries enter
new zones, and females are
almost always the victim. [In
addition], Malnutrition [in the 3rd
World] is the most fundamental
act of environmental sexism that
is inflicted by the capitalist worldsystem upon women and girls
[as] poor families allocate more
of their scarce food resources
and safe water to boys. (20)
SA: Y. Violence against women and
extracting women’s labour through
coercive labour relations are part and
parcel of capitalism. They are
necessary for the capitalist
accumulation process and not
peripheral to it. In other words,
capitalism has to use, to strengthen, or
even to invent, patriarchal men-women
relations if it wants to maintain its
accumulation model. (170)
Data
4. Does integration into capitalist commodity chains bring destructive
economic results for women?
WD:Y. Historically and currently,
women have been targeted for
the dirtiest, most back breaking
aspects of the capitalist
production process while higherskilled, higher-paying artisan jobs
have been reserved for males.
(21)
Y. On the Silk Industry in Paterson, NJ:
By 1892, more men were employed in the
city than women... During the last ten
years of the century, male employment in
Paterson rose overall by about seventy
percent, while female employment rose
only forty percent. The core sector of
skilled-male workers thus became
concentrated in Paterson while in
surrounding towns of Northern
Pennsylvania, semi-skilled female workers
labored in the numerous scattered annex
operations.
Source: Boles, Elson E. 2002. “Critiques of World-Systems Analysis and Alternatives: Unequal Exchange and Three Forms of
Class Struggle in the Japan–US Silk Network, 1880–1890.” Journal of World-System Research http://jwsr.ucr.edu 8 (2): 180.
Data
5. Does the capitalist process fail to remunerate women’s labor more so than
men’s labor?
WD: Y. As it incorporates new zones of the
globe, capitalism embraces two dialectical
labor recruitment mechanisms. Some
household members are proletarianized
into wage laborers who produce capitalist
commodities, but women’s labor is
concentrated into semiproletarianized
activities that are only partially
remunerated…It is beyond this portal that
we find the forgotten woman, and we will
find her working longer hours than men to
contribute surpluses that do not appear in
the account books of the capitalist
enterprise or in the government’s tally of
the GNP. (11,13)
Data 1 (Q5)
Women work longer hours
than men in nearly every
country (figure 4.1). Of the
total burden of work, women
carry on average 53% in
developing countries and 51%
in industrial countries.
Sample: 31 countries on hours and min/day
of possibly remunerated productive work
United Nations Development Program. 1995. Gender and Human Development. Human Development Report (New York, United Nations) p. 88.
Data 2 (Q5)
Of men’s total work time in industrial
countries, roughly two-thirds is
spent in paid SNA* activities and
one-third in unpaid non-SNA
activities. For women, these shares
are reversed. In developing
countries, more than three-fourths of
men’s work is in SNA activities. So,
men receive the lion’s share of
income and recognition for their
economic contribution – while most
of women’s work remains unpaid,
unrecognized and undervalued”
(figure 4.2)
*SNA - purposes of economic analysis, decision-taking and policy-making
United Nations Development Program. 1995. Gender and Human Development. Human Development Report (New York, United Nations) p. 89.
Data 1
6. Does capital accumulation lead to the physical exploitation and punishment of women?
WD. Y. Domestic violence increases dramatically as manufacturing and extractive
industries enter new zones, and females are almost always the victim. (20)
NUMBER OF REPORTS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
PRESENTED TO THE CARABINEROS IN 1998
(Chilean Police)
1995
1996
1997
1998
25,335
34,094
38,671
39,394
Men
997
1,228
1,553
1,574
Children (less
than 18 years
old)
683
671
851
688
Seniors (over
65 years old)
181
220
181
190
27,196
36,213
41,256
41,846
Assaulted
Women
TOTAL NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS APPREHENDED FOR
INTRAFAMILIAR VIOLENCE BY THE CARABINEROS,
BROKEN DOWN BY THE YEAR, SEX, AGGRESOR AND
THE VICTIM.
(Numbers).
Total
1995
INTRAFAMIL
IAR
VIOLENCE
Against
Women
Total
1996
Men
Women
Total
1997
Men
Women
Total
Men
Women
4,762
4,440
322
4,813
4,484
329
4,965
4,636
329
Against Men
398
243
155
530
346
184
480
295
185
Against
Children
266
178
88
208
133
75
183
110
73
Against
Seniors
22
17
5
21
20
1
11
11
-
Others
126
94
32
94
71
23
60
47
13
5,574
4,972
602
5,777
5,054
612
5,699
5,099
600
Total
United Nations Development Program. Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean Inter Agency Campaign on Women’s Human Rights in Latin America and the
Caribbean. http://undp.org/rblac/gender/chile.htm 1998.
Data 2 (Q6)
WD. Y. The world-system is currently structuring a vast international sex
industry, and girls are targeted as the human resources to be exploited.
(20)
Y. As the Thai economy developed
and new communities of foreigners
were established, prostitution also
expanded. (130) More recently,
there has been an expansion of
“indirect” prostitution. Prostitutes
now work as waitresses, as
salesgirls in department stores, as
golf caddies and in a variety of other
sectors where they can meet
potential customers. (138)
Number of Commerical Sex
Workers by Sector of Employment,
Thailand 1979-1990
30000
25000
20000
Teahouses
Others
Brothels
15000
10000
5000
0
1979
1984
1990
Lim, Lin Lean. The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia. Geneva, The International Labour Office, 1998. pp. 130,39.
Alternate Theory
Based on socialist model experience in
China and Cuba
7. Is the capitalist process responsible for a gender-segregated
division of labor?
WD: Y. Historically and currently, women
have been targeted for the dirtiest, most
back breaking aspects of the capitalist
production process while higher-skilled,
higher-paying artisan jobs have been
reserved for males…Third World women
lose artisan jobs and local markets to
imports and to commercialized agriculture.
MNCs control the commodity chains that
are initiating these economic changes. (21)
AA: No. There is a non-random assignment of work
between heavy and light industries according to gender
differences. Women by and large are concentrated in
light industrial roles. Heavy industries allegedly require
energies and skills which are regarded as not suitable
for women. Furthermore, wage scales for light
industries are considerably below that of the heavy
industries. (365)
-andCuba’s political myth that women’s freedom has been
achieved inhibits the development of an independent
women’s movement. Castro states that women’s most
important function is the procreation of new generations
and they are not allowed to perform certain jobs which
are seen as unsuited to their weaker nature. Moreover,
perhaps in response to the ideological orthodoxy, it is
only rarely in Cuba and then briefly, that an awareness
is evinced of how cultural stereotypes of the relation
between the sexes affect the life experience of Cuban
women. (376,388)
8. Is the capitalist world-system to blame for the “historically”
overworked, unremunerated woman worker?
WD: Y. The commodity chain
approach can demonstrate that
every node of the production
process – and every household
that contributes labor and
resources to that node - are
microcosms of the structural
inequities of the capitalist worldsystem. ‘Men are simultaneously
agents for capital and for
themselves, keeping women
intimidated and pliable’.
Consequently, women and girls
contribute more labor power to
household survival than males;
but they receive an inequitable
share of the total pool of
resources. (12)
AA: N. Since the man must leave the
house daily either for collective farm work
or for the market, the woman is the one
who frequently tends the private plot.
The household thus remains a production
unit for farm women. The attraction of
household production economy in
addition to the need for some women to
stay home for child care and other
supportive activities, have indeed kept a
fairly sizable proportion of rural women at
home. Regardless of this attraction,
however, they must take part in collective
work during the busy season of the farm
or they are vulnerable to mass criticism
for lack of collective interest. (363)
9. Is the capitalist world-system responsible for limitations on women’s
basic needs?
WD: Y. Worldwide, resource
scarcities impact women much more
severely than men. Water scarcity,
desertification, deforestation, land
degradation, and coastal pollution
are forms of resource depletion that
pose special hardships for women.
Malnutrition is the most fundamental
act of environmental sexism that is
inflicted by the capitalist worldsystem upon women and girls. Half
of all Third World children die before
ten. Females are disproportionately
represented among those deaths
because poor families allocate more
of their scarce food resources and
safe water to boys. (20)
AA: N. When the collectivization of
farm land began, rural families
became dependent on collective
efforts for grain allotment.
However, unlike the kibbutz
organization, payment in China is
not gauged according to needs but
according to the total work points
accumulated by family members.
Since women are perceived as
unable to compete with men in
work output, their average annual
work points (which affects their
grain allotment) often fall to as little
as one-half of the men’s work
points. (362)
Data
10. Is the capitalist process responsible for a gender-segregated
division of labor?
WD: Q7
No. Peking Embroidery and Applique Factory which has 85% women
workers, has a salary range of only 30 to 80 yuan. The Peking
Glassware Factory, which hires 60% women, has a salary range of 30
to 100 yuan. In contrast, the Peking Arts and Crafts Factory, an
industry with only 45% of its workers who are women, offers a salary
of up to 200 yuan per month.
P ercentage o f Wo men Earning Yuan in C hinese F acto ries 1974
200
( 4 5%)
150
Y uan 10 0
( 6 0 %)
( 50 %)
( 8 5%)
50
0
Emb ro id ery
Glassware Ivo ry C arving
A rt s and
C raf t s
* No size of factory given. Symbol of uneven dist.
Hsu-Balzer, Eileen, Richard Balzer and Francis Hsu. China Day by Day. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) 1974. p.211
Data
11. Is the capitalist world-system responsible for limitations on women’s
basic needs?
WD: Q9
N. The employment of women in rural cooperatives
posed a strain on their provision of domestic
services. To a limited degree, older women were
mobilized to handle childcare and other household
responsibilities. But domestic services were not
fully collectivized. Continued responsibility for
housework and official employment meant that
women were not able to earn as many work points
as their male counterparts. The resulting dual
burden was not only recognized, but justified by
the Remin Ribao (Communist Daily Paper):
"Participation in agricultural production is the
inherent right and duty of rural women. Giving birth
to children and raising them, as well as
preoccupation with household chores are also the
obligations of rural women. These things set
women apart from men."
Tsai, Kellee S. The Andrew Wellington Cordier Essay: Women and the State in Post-1949 Rural China. Journal of International Affairs, Columbia University School of
International and Public Affairs. 49 (2): 6. http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/Tsai.html
Data
12. Does commodity chain analysis fail to incorporate flows from the
illegal sector?
WD: Y. […] it documents the construction or creation of a market product,
overlooking far too many human and ecological aspects. In other words, it
becomes an analysis that emphasizes things rather than human beings,
exactly opposite to the historical approach urged by Braudel. […] a narrow
emphasis upon those waged and nonwaged laborers who are involved
directly in manufacture of the commodity can ignore three types of hidden
laborer inputs. There can be direct and indirect flows into the production
process from subsistence sectors, from the informal economy and from
illegal sectors. (10)
Data (Q12)
No. Coca constitutes an ideal cash crop for farmers in sparsely populated areas because: (1)
unremunerated household labor used in coca cultivation fits closely with the preexisting,
labor-intensive practices employed in other crops, and (2) it uses readily available
indigenous technology, developed locally during coca’s longtime cultivation […] Tying the
whole commodity chain in cocaine together at all levels is money laundering, the process by
which drug-related profits are deposited in bank accounts or legitimate businesses and then
withdrawn or transferred into other accounts as clean money.
Source: Gereffi and Korzeniewicz. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. (London, Greenwood Press) 1994.p. 302
Thank You