Abstract
In this response article, the author contextualizes transitions in gender and class relations in Mexico’s berry fields as outlined in Donna L. Chollet article, “Renegotiating gender and class in the berry fields of Michaocan, Mexico,” by examining global trends. While women have both lost and gained from their insertion in global commodity chains, global commodity chains have also opened space for the creation of new identities and broadened the scope of confrontation. Questions are raised about the continuities of class struggle, organization and militancy in the berry fields today, as well as how contemporary capitalism has influenced the relationship between race, gender and class.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Best, S., and Mamic, I. 2008. Global agri-food chains: Employment and social issues in fresh fruit and vegetables. Employment sector. Employment working paper No. 20. Geneva: International Labor Office.
Bronfenbrenner, K. ed. 2007. Global unions: Challenging transnational capital through cross-border campaigns. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Busch, I., and C. Bain. 2004. New! improved? The transformation of the global agrifood system. Rural Sociology 6(3): 321–346.
Caraway, T.L. 2007. Assembling women: The formation of global manufacturing. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Compa, L. 2002. NAFTA’s labor side agreement and international labor solidarity. Antipode 451–467.
Dicken, P. 1992. Global shift: The internationalzation of economic activity. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
Dolan, C. 2002. Gender and witchcraft in agraian transition: The case of kenyan horticulture. Development and Change 33 (4).
Elias, J. 2005. Stitching-up the labour market: Recruitment, gender and ethnicity in the multinational firm. International Feminist Journal of Politics 7(1): 90–111.
Freeman, C. 2000. High tech and high heels in the global economy: Women, work and pink-collar identities in the caribeean. Durham: Duke University Press.
Gereffi, G. 1994. The organization of buyer-driven global commodity chains: How US retailers shape overseas production networks. In Commodity chains and global capitalism, ed. G. Gereffi, and M. Korzeniewicz. London: Praeger.
Gunawardana, S. 2007. Struggle, perseverance, and organization in Sri Lanka’s export processing zones. In Global unions: Challenging transnational capital through cross-border campaigns, ed. K. Bronfenbrenner. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Hartstock, N. 2006. Globalization and primitive accumulation: The contributions of David Harvey’s dialectical materialism. In David Harvey: A critical reader, ed. N. Castree, and D. Gregory. New York: Palgrave.
Hewamanne, S. 2008. Stitching identities in a free trade ZOne. Gender and politics in Sri Lanka. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hopkins, T., and Wallerstien, I. 1986. Commodity chains in the world-economy prior to 1800. Review, X (1): 157–170.
Hossfeld, Karen J. 1990. “Their logic against them.” Contradictions in sex, race and class in Silicon Valley. In: Ward, Kathryn B., ed. Women workers and global restructuring. Ithaca/NY, 149–178.
International labor organization. (2010, July). Food, agriculture & decent work. rural workers. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from international labor organization: http://www.fao-ilo.org/fao-ilo-ruralworkers/en/.
Jayaweera, S. 2003. Continutity and change: Women workers in garment and textile industries in Sri Lanka. In Tracking gender equity under economic reforms: Continuity and change in South Asia, ed. S. Mukhopadhyay, and R.M. Sudarshan. New Delhi, Ottawa: IDRC & Kali For Women.
Kim, S.K. 1997. Class struggle or family struggle? Lives of women factory workers in South Korea. New York: Cambridge.
Konefal, J., C. Bain, M. Mascarenhas, and L. Busch. 2007. Supermarkets and supply chains in North America. In Supermarkets adn agri-food supply chains: Transformations in the production and consumption of foods, ed. G. Lawrence, and D. Burch, 270–290. London: Edward Elgar.
Lynch, C. 2007. Juki girls, good girls: Gender and cultural politics in Sri Lanka’s global garment industry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Mckay, S. C. 2006. The squeaky wheel’s dilemma: New forms of labor organizing in the Philippines. Labor Studies Journal 30: 41–63.
Menendez, J. B. B. 2005. From the revolution to the maquiladoras: Gender, labor, and globalization in Nicaragua. Duke University Press.
Ong, A. 1987. Spirits of resistance and capitalist discipline: Factory women in Malaysia. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Pangsapa, P. 2007. Textures of struggle: The emergence of resistance among garment workers in Thailand. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Prieto, N. I. 1997. Beautiful flowers of the maquiladora. University of Texas Press.
Rifkin, J. 1995. The end of work: The decline of the global labor force and the dawn of the post-market era. New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons.
Rosa, K. 1994. The conditions and organizational activities of women in free trade zones: Malaysia, Philippines and Sri Lanka, 1970–1990. In Dignity and daily bread: new forms of economic organization among poor women in the third world and the first, ed. S. Rowbotham, and S. Mitter, 73–99. London: Rutledge.
Standing, G. 1989. Global feminism through flexible labor. World development 17(7).
Tirado, S. 1994. Weaving dreams, constructing realities: The nineteenth of september national union of garment workers in Mexico. In Dignity and daily bread: New forms of economic organization among poor women in the third world and the first, ed. S. Rowbotham, and S. Mitter, 73–99. London: Routledge.
Thompson, E. 1967. Time, work-discipline, and industrial capitalism. Past & Present 38: 56–97.
Wichterich, C., and Camiller, P. 2000. Globalized woman: Reports from the future of inequality. Spinifex Press.
Wolf, D. 1992. Factory daughters: Gender, household dynamics, and rural industrialization in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gunawardana, S.J. Gender and global labour. Reflections on reading Donna L Chollett’s “renegotiating gender and class in the berry fields of Michaocan, Mexico”. Dialect Anthropol 35, 171–177 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-010-9209-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-010-9209-3