Dear
Spectator
Editorial Board,
Globalization is a contemporary phenomenon that affects the lives of many ‘Third World’ peoples both in the US and abroad. Disproportionately affected by globalization are the women of these countries, who are often pressured to export their labor potential by traveling abroad and performing care work.
In our Global Feminism course (WMGST 402), we have been studying power dynamics between the U.S. and the so-called ‘Third World’ and the implications that they have for women of these countries. In order to elucidate the manner in which the Hamilton community interacts with care work, we sent out a survey asking: did your family ever hire domestic care labor or did your family ever participate in domestic care labor? We more than doubled our goals in terms of survey responses which means we have excellent data to analyze and draw from.
Many have been curious as to why our class sent out this survey and what we plan on using the data for. This survey is part of a Collective Action Project in which we will collect data, analyze this data, and then present the findings to the Hamilton community. This will be done statistically (e.g percentage of Hamilton students who have hired care work) as well as geographically. We will generate an interactive map which traces the geographic origins of care workers hired by Hamilton students, as well as those who have been hired to do care work. These analyses will be supplemented with discussion of the history of globalization and care work as well as pertinent feminist theory.
For instance, women, usually from the Global South, are imported to the United States in huge numbers to perform domestic care work, which we define as domestic care labor as any work done within someone else’s home to maintain that home or family for a wage. Domestic care work can include: nannying, nursing, cleaning, cooking, lawn maintenance, chauffeur, etc.
Our goal is to take this global issue and localize it to this campus as much as possible. We hope that data from our survey will assist us in doing this and in making the issue relevant to the average Hamilton student. It is important for us to show our community that these issues impact each and every one of us and are not abstractions or issues which only exist ‘somewhere else.’
We feel that this project is incredibly important and relevant to Hamilton students which is why we will be setting up tables at two locations to display our data and talk about our project. We will be in the Science Center Atrium on December 3rd from 10 am to 1:30 pm and in the KJ atrium on December 5th from 10 am to 1:30 pm. We would love for you to stop and hear about our project or just glance at our maps and data.
We hope to see you soon,
WMGST 402
