Global Woman

In a remarkable pairing, two renowned social critics offer a groundbreaking anthology that examines the unexplored consequences of globalization on the lives of women worldwideWomen 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.

Introduction by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell HochschildLove and Gold by Arlie Russell HochschildThe Nanny Dilemma by Susan CheeverThe Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families in the New Global Economy by Rhacel Salazar ParreñasBlowups and Other Unhappy Endings by Pierrette Hondagneu-SoteloInvisible Labors: Caring for the Independent Person by Lynn May RivasMaid to Order by Barbara EhrenreichJust Another Job? The Commodification of Domestic Labor by Bridget AndersonFilipina Workers in Hong Kong Homes: Household Rules and Relations by Nicole ConstableAmerica's Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modern-Day Slavery by Joy M. ZarembkaSelling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping Stone to International Migration by Denise BrennanAmong Women: Migrant Domestics and Their Taiwanese Employers Across Generations by Pei-Chia LanBreadwinner No More by Michele GamburdBecause She Looks like a Child by Kevin BalesClashing Dreams: Highly Educated Overseas Brides and Low-Wage U.S. Husbands by Hung Cam ThaiGlobal Cities and Survival Circuits by Saskia SassenMigration Trends: Maps and Chart by Robert EspinozaAppendix: Activist OrganizationsNotes Bibliography Acknowledgments The Contributors