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 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.

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) was a bestselling author and political activist, whose more than a dozen books included Nickel and Dimed, which the New York Times described as "a classic in social justice literature", Bait and Switch, Bright-sided, This Land Is Their Land, Dancing In The Streets, and Blood Rites. An award-winning journalist, she frequently contributed to Harper's, The Nation, The New York Times, and TIME magazine. Ehrenreich was born in Butte, Montana, when it was still a bustling mining town. She studied physics at Reed College, and earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. Rather than going into laboratory work, she got involved in activism, and soon devoted herself to writing her innovative journalism. Arlie Russell Hochschild is the author of national bestsellers The Time Bind and The Second Shift.

Introduction by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild Love and Gold by Arlie Russell Hochschild The Nanny Dilemma by Susan Cheever The Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families in the New Global Economy by Rhacel Salazar Parreñas Blowups and Other Unhappy Endings by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo Invisible Labors: Caring for the Independent Person by Lynn May Rivas Maid to Order by Barbara Ehrenreich Just Another Job? The Commodification of Domestic Labor by Bridget Anderson Filipina Workers in Hong Kong Homes: Household Rules and Relations by Nicole Constable America's Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modern-Day Slavery by Joy M. Zarembka Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping Stone to International Migration by Denise Brennan Among Women: Migrant Domestics and Their Taiwanese Employers Across Generations by Pei-Chia Lan Breadwinner No More by Michele Gamburd Because She Looks like a Child by Kevin Bales Clashing Dreams: Highly Educated Overseas Brides and Low-Wage U.S. Husbands by Hung Cam Thai Global Cities and Survival Circuits by Saskia Sassen Migration Trends: Maps and Chart by Robert Espinoza Appendix: Activist Organizations Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments The Contributors