Why do women an optimal labor force?
Maria Mies in the book Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale states that women may be considered as optimal labor force in a number of reasons. First, they perform the tasks while men just supervise the working process. Second, staying without paid work, women are considered as ‘housewives’, while men are defined as ‘free’ wage-laborers. Third, the world is divided on producers and consumers. The producers are believed to be colonies where women are mostly exploited, and the consumers are mostly men of the Western region. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to disagree with these arguments.
Are the main consequences of the international division of labor positive or negative?
The main idea of the international division of labor is to relocate the manufacturing of the USA, Germany, France, Holland, etc. to the countries of the Third World. On the one hand, this affair will be profitable to both, developed countries get low labor force and materials, which have been produced and exported from the developing countries before; people in the Third World get high wages (for their region) and stable positions. On the other hand, the national manufacture of the Third World countries is destroyed, people in the USA, Germany, etc. lose their working places.
Was the main idea of the law which prohibited marriages between European men and African women aimed at restricting sexual relations between them?
The answer is definitely no! European men were restricted from having legal relations with African women with the purpose to prevent the legal economic and political rights of their children, considered as the generation of “mixed blood”. However, sexual relations were not prohibited.
Amartya Sen in Gender and cooperative conflicts and Ruth Pearson in Reassessing paid work and women’s empowerment: Lessons from the global economy dwell upon gender disbalance in the modern world. Looking at the present situation in the whole world, it can be stated that if people talk much about gender disbalance, so the problem really exists. Gender discrimination and the domination of a man under a woman remains an urgent problem.
Even though national and international legal systems have passed the laws which state on the gender equality, female discrimination still occurs. Women suffer most of all from the emerged situation. One of the most celebrated cases is an appeal to court where Walmart was convicted in gender discrimination. This situation occurred about a year ago, still, the echoes remind about it even these days.
Walmart is a giant chain store. The conflict situation took place in the USA, in 13 of Walmart’s stores. During the trial, six women insisted that they earned only 79 cents while men earned one dollar for the same work. Such difference is unfair and requires regulation.
The increase in global production and trading system, information spread and equality of rights does not go along with the case under discussion. More and more women appear on leading positions and many men can only jealous their wealth and prosperity. Such situations create an impression of the balance in the world of men and women. Still, this is not really so. Such companies as Walmart try to hide their illegal actions under the shade of famous and successful women in business stating that gender discrimination is shibboleth.