week 3:

In the introduction of Naples and Desai’s book they discussed the impact of global economic restructuring in terms of the expansion of capitalism and focus on how this has affected working class women in developing countries. Their critique is mostly that capitalism has mostly created hardships and exploitation for these women. In the introduction the authors also attempt to make visible the feminist transnational organizing that is occurring in resistance to the exploitation of women resulting from global capitalism. One section that was particularly informative was the break down and simplification of the features of global economic restructuring which include, but are not limited to, a decrease in organized labor, an increase in internationalization of capital, loss of economic and natural resources, cutbacks in the “welfare state”, and a growing disparity between socio-economic class. So far from the text I have gathered that the authors are advocating transnational organizing amongst women and forming cross border solidarities in order to prevent the expansion of capitalism and oppressive labor demands. I hope that this is the stance that is taken throughout the book because thus far it has helped to fuel my hatred for the capitalist system by viewing the expansion of capitalism through the lens of how it exploits women, particularly women of color. My question to the class for these readings is how do you believe the intersections of socio-economic class and gender work in order to produce the particular exploitation seen within capitalism?

The book by Ferree and Tripp took quite another stance on the role that global economic restructuring and globalization. In “Global Feminism” most of the topics deal a lot with policy and the way in which government organizations are organizing around women’s rights in the age of capitalist expansion. There is much written about the way in which international policy has affected women and various international women’s leagues and conferences which have influenced policy- making decisions. I felt that this book so far hasn’t really stressed the importance of having strong grass roots organizations within exploited communities like the other book did. Personally I’m far more interested in the ways in which women come together within their own communities to invoke change rather than how international women’s conferences are put together to represented women globally- because being able to participate in these conferences and be a part of international committees assumes an element of socio- economic privilege. Hopefully as this book goes on there will be more mention of the way in which women organize themselves in diverse communities instead of how women are appointed to be on committees. My question for the class on these readings is more for clarification purposes- when this book refers to globalization I assume this to mean the economic globalization in reference to capitalism, but globalization could also simply mean the increasing interconnectedness of the global population through new means of technology, which globalization is this book referring to or is the term meant to encompass both meanings? How do these two meanings go hand in hand?