Sociology

Gender and the South China Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women

Ching Kwan Lee, David Good, David Wake

Yuk-ling, a busy Hong Kong mother of two, and Chi-ying, a young single woman from a remote village in northern China, work in electronics factories owned by the same foreign corporation, ... More

Yuk-ling, a busy Hong Kong mother of two, and Chi-ying, a young single woman from a remote village in northern China, work in electronics factories owned by the same foreign corporation, manufacturing identical electronic components. After a decade of job growth and increasing foreign investment in Hong Kong and south China, both women are also participating in the spectacular economic transformation that has come to be called the South China miracle. Yet, as this book demonstrates in its unique and fascinating study of women workers on either side of the Chinese–Hong Kong border, the working lives and factory cultures of these women are vastly different. This comparative ethnography describes how two radically different factory cultures have emerged from a period of profound economic change. In Hong Kong, “matron workers” remain in factories for decades. In Guangdong, a seemingly endless number of young “maiden workers” travel to the south from northern provinces, following the promise of higher wages. Whereas the women in Hong Kong participate in a management system characterized by “familial hegemony,” the young women in Guangdong find an internal system of power based on regional politics and kin connections, or “localistic despotism.” The book concludes that it is primarily the differences in the gender politics of the two labor markets that determine the culture of each factory. It argues that gender plays a crucial role in the cultures and management strategies of factories that rely heavily on women workers. Less

Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States

Rickie Solinger

Rebecca Sharitz (ed.)

This book is a collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. ... More

This book is a collection of writings by and about imprisoned women in the United States, a country that jails a larger percentage of its population than any other nation in the world. This work brings together many voices from both inside and outside the prison system including incarcerated and previously incarcerated women, their advocates and allies, abolitionists, academics, and other analysts. In vivid, often highly personal essays, poems, stories, reports, and manifestos, they offer an unprecedented view of the realities of women prisoners' experiences as they try to sustain relations with children and family on the outside, struggle for healthcare, fight to define and achieve basic rights, deal with irrational sentencing systems, remake life after prison; and more. Together, these writings are an intense examination of life behind bars for women, and, taken together, they underscore the failures of imagination and policy that have too often underwritten the current prison system in the United States. Less

Recreating Japanese Men

Sabine Fruhstuck (ed.)

The chapters in this book explore the meanings of manhood in Japan from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. The book examines a broad range of attitudes regarding properly ... More

The chapters in this book explore the meanings of manhood in Japan from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. The book examines a broad range of attitudes regarding properly masculine pursuits and modes of behavior. It charts breakdowns in traditional and conventional societal roles and the resulting crises of masculinity. Contributors address key questions about Japanese manhood ranging from icons such as the samurai to marginal men including hermaphrodites, robots, techno-geeks, rock climbers, shop clerks, soldiers, shoguns, and more. In addition to bringing historical evidence to bear on definitions of masculinity, contributors provide fresh analyses on the ways contemporary modes and styles of masculinity have affected Japanese men’s sense of gender as authentic and stable. Less

Shadow Mothers: Nannies, Au Pairs, and the Micropolitics of Mothering

Cameron Lynne Macdonald

This book shines new light on an aspect of contemporary motherhood often hidden from view: the need for paid childcare by women returning to the workforce, and the complex bonds mothers ... More

This book shines new light on an aspect of contemporary motherhood often hidden from view: the need for paid childcare by women returning to the workforce, and the complex bonds mothers forge with the “shadow mothers” they hire. This book illuminates both sides of an unequal and complicated relationship. Based on in-depth interviews with professional women and childcare providers—immigrant and American-born nannies as well as European au pairs—this book locates the roots of individual skirmishes between mothers and their childcare providers in broader cultural and social tensions. The book argues that these conflicts arise from unrealistic ideals about mothering and inflexible career paths and work schedules, as well as from the devaluation of paid care work. Less

Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones

Wenona Giles (ed.)

In conflict zones from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guatemala and Somalia, the rules of war are changing dramatically. Distinctions between battlefield and home, soldier and civilian, state ... More

In conflict zones from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guatemala and Somalia, the rules of war are changing dramatically. Distinctions between battlefield and home, soldier and civilian, state security and domestic security are breaking down. In this especially timely book, a powerful group of international authors doing feminist research brings the highly gendered and racialized dimensions of these changes into sharp relief. In essays on nationalism, the political economy of conflict, and the politics of asylum, they investigate what happens when the body, household, nation, state, and economy become sites at which violence is invoked against people. In particular, these hard-hitting essays move us forward in our understanding of violence against women — how it is perpetrated, survived, and resisted. They explore the gendered politics of ethno-nationalism in Sri Lanka, the post-Yugoslav states, and Israel and Palestine. They consider “honor killings” in Iraqi Kurdistan, armed conflict in the Sudan, and geographies of violence in Ghana. This volume augments feminist analysis on conflict zones and contributes to transnational coalition-building and feminist organizing. Less

Surrogate Motherhood and the Politics of Reproduction

Susan Markens

This book takes on one of the hottest issues on the fertility front—surrogate motherhood—and illuminates the culture wars that have erupted over new reproductive technologies in the ... More

This book takes on one of the hottest issues on the fertility front—surrogate motherhood—and illuminates the culture wars that have erupted over new reproductive technologies in the United States. In an innovative analysis of legislative responses to surrogacy in the bellwether states of New York and California, it explores how discourses about gender, family, race, genetics, rights, and choice have shaped policies aimed at this issue. The author examines the views of key players, including legislators, women's organizations, religious groups, the media, and others. In a study that finds surprising ideological agreement among those with opposing views of surrogate motherhood, the author challenges common assumptions about our responses to reproductive technologies and at the same time offers a picture of how reproductive politics shape social policy. Less

Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army

Sabine Fruhstuck

Katharine Rodger (ed.)

Following World War II, Japan's postwar constitution forbade the country to wage war or create an army. However, with the emergence of the Cold War in the 1950s, Japan was urged to ... More

Following World War II, Japan's postwar constitution forbade the country to wage war or create an army. However, with the emergence of the Cold War in the 1950s, Japan was urged to establish the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) as a way to bolster Western defenses against the tide of Asian communism. Although the SDF's role is supposedly limited to self-defense, Japan's armed forces are equipped with advanced weapons technology and the world's third-largest military budget. This book draws on interviews, historical research, and analysis to describe the unusual case of a non-war-making military. Written by the first scholar permitted to participate in basic SDF training, the book offers a firsthand look at an army trained for combat that nevertheless serves nontraditional military needs. Less