I thought our first reading in The Curious Feminist was very interesting. I know that women and child labor laws have been of great importance and debate in places like China, South Korea, Taiwan, etc. but did not know the intricacies of it all. I am not surprised at all that companies like Nike and Reebok moved their factories to produce in a country where it would be cheaper and I am also not surprised at all that they claimed they had no knowledge of the inner workings of the factories and the government labor laws. One idea that really caught my eye was on page 62. It says that the South Korean women that were the backbone to the production of garments, shoes, and electronics considered themselves to be daughters, and only daughters. The money that they worked hard to earn went home to help their farmer parents and to help pay for their brother’s continued schooling. The money also went to their dowries. I guess that this surprised me because it is not something I am accustomed to growing up in the states. I have lived a very different life but I am sure it does exist even today. I have to question what the women working and living this life feel about it, though. It seems, to me, that it is a very oppressive lifestyle but wonder what they feel today, in 2011.
I agree with this post because I too felt this was an interesting topic. Asian women are trying to be the "good daughters" and are the bread winners of the families sometimes. They are also setting up for their own lives by setting money aside for their marriage. It is a dating service of sorts because the men want women to be able to work hard for the respect of their families and to earn money to bring in with them when they marry into a family. Reading articles like this make me think how it is really great to be able to have the opportunities that some of us do. We go to a great school and are getting a great education so we don't have to work in sweat shops like these and earn minimum wage.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the issue Britt and Meaghan talk about directly relates back to the idea that in Asia, boys are more valued than girls. Families are portrayed as always hoping to have a boy baby instead of a girl because boys are seen as more important than girls because they can provide for the family, get a job, and are not wed to a different family. It is the mens responsibility to care for the family, even when his parents need to be cared for. My mom and I were recently talking about this issue because there is a growing rate of males in Asia, and not a equal number of females. This article from the Population Reference Bureau shows the increasing population growth in Asia. http://www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/PopulationGrowth.aspx My question is, with this increasing population growth in Asia, will Asia become over run with males? What will happen then?
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