Mobile Women: Transnational Work Patterns

The course examines women's work in the formal labor sectors to offer a critical perspective on contemporary local and global patterns. The materials will cover concerns that are central to women in the United States such as the glass ceiling, the wage gap, and the pink-collar ghetto. The course will also offer a transnational perspective through an analysis of the central role migrant female laborers have come to play in the global economy. This section will cover issues such as the traffic in domestic workers, nannies and sex workers. We will interrogate how feminist theories are able to accommodate the uneven development of women's rights at the global and local levels. Through a few case studies students will also be introduced to alternative work patterns established by groups such as the greenbelt movement in Kenya and SEWA in India. 3 hrs. lect.