Women Workers in Market Liberalism 2001 Somyot Pruksakasemsuk The Industrial Revolution in England during 1780-1830 began with peasants being swept out of farmlands to become factory workers that could be exploited for maximum profit. Child workers and women workers were cruelty employed in the production process. This phenomenon repeated itself in Thailand when industrialisation process moved from Europe and Northern America to developing countries. In the 1960s, dictatorial military governments supported by the U.S.A. adopted an economic policy that promoted foreign investment for industrial development aiming fist at import substitution and then at export direction Thailand to become another newly industrialised country. Women Workers and Expansion of Capitalism In dustrial development for export in Thailand began by turning the agricultural sector into bankruptcy. Peasants sold their farmlands and became workers in factories, especially in export oriented industries that earn large incomes for the country, including textile, garment, electronic parts, jewelry and food processing industries. Women workers comprise up to 90 per cent of workforce in these industries. They are considered reserve labour drawn from the family institution to earn living for themselves and their family. Women workers are not only cheap labour but also highly enduring labour, capable of doing work that is hard, repeated and dangerous; they are also passive against cruel exploitation. Expansion of capitalism fuelled by use of women workers could also be considered an expansion of patriarchy. Creation of maximum profit and capital accumulation could be achieved by turning women into cheap labour to produce goods for market demand and at the same time maintaining their reproductive work, giving birth to and raising children and doing house chore without being paid. Employing women workers therefore is an investment that makes extra profit from their reproductive work. Women workers, in addition, are good for gaining maximum profit because they are unorganised and thus easily controlled as they are clearly bound by social and cultural norm. Firstly, women workers are controlled, having to bear the burden of house chore and child raising work. They thus have no time to take part in labour union activities. They moreover fear dismissal from work more than men workers as they are afraid that their family would be affected. Secondly, women workers are socially and culturally controlled by the lack of safety in society (such as they cannot go back home late as they risk being raped or sexually harassed. Thirdly, women workers are controlled by strict regulations imposed by industrial factories, making them slave labour that cannot join forces to fight against cruel exploitation. Women Workers during the Economic Boom During the economic boom in the 1980s, women workers were asked to work outside of their home to help create economic prosperity. They then worked to earn incomes for their family. Incomes earned by women workers are not only used for their living but also to provide for their family. Women workers therefore have playes both the role to earn national incomes and at the same time also make economic contribution to their Thai rural families. In any industrial society, large extended families have been down into small nucleus families. Both husband and wife work to earn incomes to maintain their family living. Gender roles therefore have changed. In the past, only men work to earn living of their family. Now women also have to work outside home and thus earn incomes themselves like their husband; in some cases they even replace men as the breadwinner of the family. Although women workers work the same as their male counterparts, they are considered to be only reserve labour that earn supplementary incomes for their families. This attitude has resulted in women workers being paid much lower than male workers and having no chance for social promotion. Women workers, however, still have to bear the house work and child raising as before as society expects women workers to continue their reproductive role. Having to bear double burden thus affects life quality of women workers and their children and in turn quality of the society as a whole. In capitalist society, not only economic and social classes are maintained but also gender differentiation is strengthened. Womenare forced to become a commodity that can be bought and sold in the market as an object that is used to respond to the needs in form of social services and sexual desire. This is the demand that gives women no choice but to sell their bodies for economic survival of themselves and their family or improvement of their economic status in the age of consumerism. Women Workers at the times of Economic Downturn At the times of economic downturn in the 20th century, women workers, especially the married ones, were asked to sacrifice their job, being the fist group of workers to face retrenchment, in order to maintain the rate of profit from investment in industries. Impacts, however, are faced not only the women workers but also their families. Earlier this year it was predicted that in late 2001, world economy would slow down even more resulting in more job losses. U.S. economy that has already slowed down would encounter more problems partially because of the terrorist attacks on Septembers 11, 2001. Thailand, especially its export sector, is hit hard directly by the situation. Electronic industry in particular has dismissed 9,000 workers in the fist seven months of this year. Results of the economic downturn could be seen in the data from the Academic and Planning Division, Department of Labour Welfare and Protection, ministry of Labour and Social Welfare concerning work dismissal and company closure collected by the department which receives information about job losses in workplaces that employ 1-9 persons, and data from the Social Security Office which is notified cancellation of the insured status due to job loss in workplaces that employ more than 10 persons during 1998 to 2001. This is just formal figure reported to the ministry. It is found that in 1998, 356,000 jobs were lost from 5,864 workplaces. In 1999, 119,000 workers were dismissed from 6,306 workplace and in 2000, 164,000 jobs were lost from 5,875 workplaces. Finally, in the fist seven months of 2001, 56,324 workers has been dismissed from 2,173 workplaces. It is also found addition that women workers lost their jobs more than their male counterpart. The ministry’s job loss statistic which is compiled from complaints submitted by workers from January 1 to November 30, 1998 shows that 1,000 workplaces in 22 kinds of business dismissed 47,634 employees, of which 57.29 per cent were women, from a total of 212,536 persons employees. Bysex, among a total of 123,241 female employees, 27,294 were dismissed, and among 89,134 male employees, 20,328 were dismissed. This statistic shows that female employees were dismissed more than male workers. It is also more likely that female employees affected are those in the age of 35 and over who cannot easily find their new jobs because most factories recruit only workers in the age range of 18-25 years old. These dismissed workers tend to enter the informal sector, working as subcontractors or working at home, and receive payment lower than that guaranteed by the labour law while having to work up to 16 hours per day. Some of them have already turned to prostitution. Unemployment destroys family life of workers. Divorce rate has climbed up. Domestic violence, especially sexual violence, is increasing due to continuing expectation on women’s role and gender division of limited resources in the family. Men tend to separate and look for new wife while leaving the burden of child rearing with women. For some women, prostitution has become a last resort they choose to help maintain their responsibility of child rearing. Number of sex workers and various forms of sex business therefore increase in the time of economic downturn. It is estimated by some observers that number of sex workers in any form may already reach two million. When these women workers give birth to their babies, they cannot raise the babies themselves and have to send them to be with grandparents resulting in many children born from workers having low life quality and low education. Sexual Violence in the Society Gender role in patriarchal society in the age of capitalism has been changing under influence of capitalism and Western culture, causing conflicts in the role, responsibility and expectation of men and women, such as those concerning freedom to be out of home, sexual freedom, marriage, family life and divorce. These conflicts lend to sexual and other forms of violence of which mostly men inflict upon women. In traditional society before the arrival of Capitalism, extended family system partially controlled sexual violence. Communal way of life also had social mechanism to restrain sexual violence in the community. In the age of Capitalism where nucleus family system and dog-eat-dog social relation prevail, however, sexual violence is reduced to be only a domestic affair between husband and wife. Public attitude remains that a wife is beaten because she dose not perform her duty as wife well; no one thus intervenes to end the cause of violence. An example is the case of a university lecturer who despite having Ph.D. beat his wife to death with a golf club in October 2001. He claimed that his wife had committed adultery and acted inappropriately as violence while police saw it as another ordinary case of manslaughter. There are also cases of women cruelly harmed to death in knowledge of neighbours by robbers who are able to commit the crime easily by shouting that it is just a quarrel between husband and wife. Even if there are many people around, no one intervenes or notices the police, resulting in the loss of life and property while the criminals can escape. In addition, rate of rape is high. In Thai society, an adult woman and two girls under the age of 15 are raped every hour in average. Women in Thai society are therefore in grave danger. Survey by the National Statistics Office shows that more women enter formal education system. In 2000, 61 per cent of university graduates and 49.3 per cent of postgraduates were women. Education Opportunity for women At the bottom end of education hierarchy, 2.8 per cent of women and 1.9 per cent of men are uneducated. At primary education level or lower, there are less women than men (50.0 per cent compared to 51.5 per cent) while 36.8 and 34.9 per cent of men and women complete secondary education respectively. Education level is an indicator of different economic status among groups of women. Middle-class women tend to continue their education to the higher level more than men. On the contrary, poor low-class women who already have little education opportunity tend to end their fomal education to work and support other members of their family to have education. Work Opportunity: Men Have More Than Women Information from the government Job Placement Office shows that in 1999 from 407,135 jobs available, there were 295,023 new applicants of which 137,065 were eventually recruited. Of this number, 69,971 were men and 67,094 were women, implying that women had slightly less employment opportunity than men. However, these figures only show job application through a government agency and do not reflect nature of employment in the labour market because most of the import oriented industries employ much more women workers employed are unskilled workers while men employed were more of skilled workers. Sexual Relations: Women Are Acted Upon In the Capitalist age, the concept of sexual freedom increasing influences people in Thai society. However, while there is more sexual freedom more than before, traditional social and cultural norms and practices still prevail and have much influence over the people. This has created a big gap when transformation is taking place resulting imbalance development. Sexual relation in patriarchal society makes women sex object for responding to men’s needs. Sexual relations between men and women therefore are in the way that women are acted upon and have to bear a burden of sexual problems more than men. The AIDS Division of the Public Health Ministry reports that in 1999, although there are more men among people with HIV/AIDS as a whole, in the age group of 15-19 years there are more girls infected with HIV virus more than boys. In total there are now about 300,000 women with HIV/AIDS or about 40 per cent of all people with HIV/AIDS. There is an interesting report that at present there are more than 800,000 cases of abortion, 40 per cent of which was induced upon women who became pregnant without planning. Reasons for having abortion include poverty, need to continue with formal education, having problems living with the man, too young or too old age, bad health, being raped, having too many children and other conditions, such as regulation of the workplace forbids pregnancy. Social norm also dictates that only bad women are pregnant out of wedlock; women then decide to have abortion to avoid being looked down upon. Other factors include self-assessment that they as mother would not be able to raise the child, thus putting the child in difficulty equivalent to hurting the child themselves. Their men is also a factor that influences them to have abortion. At the same time, rate of divorce is increasing. It is estimated that now 1 in 5 married couple divorce. Women bear the burden of child rearing alone for about 85 per cent of divorce cases. This causes much difficulty in case of poor women resulting in poor living conditions and life quality for both the mother and the child. Conclusion In the age of market liberalism, it could be said that women are still being exploited at all levels of society and continue to face very bad socio-economic situation that put women as the side that is acted upon while bearing the burden of reproductive work. Men are still in control. However, in the age of globalisation, women in the middle and upper classes which control means of production, resources and political power tend to have freedom and living status equivalent to their men. On the other hands, in the poor lower class, oppression and exploitation of women is getting worse because women have to bear not only heavy economic burden as cheap labour for industrial production, service and trading but also the burden of reproductive work both house work and child rearing. Solution for the Women This situation indicates that it is necessary to set up women’s organisations for poor women to increase their bargaining power. This implies education and organising to make women power meaningful in socio-economic development. Values and norms have to be transformed at all levels of society for both men and women at all ages to prepare women to participate in all aspects of development. Center for Labour Information Service and Training
|