Long Post 3/22

Cynthia Enloe’s chapter, “The Globetrotting Sneaker”, discusses how companies such as Reebok and Nike have used global strategies to increase their revenue in addition to making shoes overseas for considerably lower prices. Enloe starts off my reviewing Reebok’s strategy to move to Russia to increase sales in post-Cold War era. The Reebok advertised shoes were way out of most families budgets, however they were advertised to children who had a better chance at persuading their parents than Reebok themselves. Enloe points out, “In 1993, almost 60 percent of Russia’s single parents, most of whom were women, were living in poverty” (43). As “global competitiveness” increased, so did the exploitation of women in these American shoe company factories. Trade agreements such as NAFTA and WTO are the reason behind this allowing of exploitation of women.  Organizations such as NAFTA and WTO allow countries like the U.S. to set up agreements for working conditions and such with governments from these 3^rd World countries. Most of these governments are military regimes, therefore not allowing public opinion. The passing of NAFTA and WTO in the 1990s only made it easier for U.S. companies to produce overseas at an extremely low cost. Before these trade agreements, the U.S. was already setting up cheap factories in Taiwan and South Korea. Companies such as Nike, would further shy themselves from the exploitation they knew of by not owning these factories, but instead sub-contracting the production process to foreign companies in order to not be responsible for the exploitation of women. South Korean women began to organize to fight for their rights and against the long hours, horrible pay and assaults they were subjected to. Finally, the South Korean women used the activism to receive higher pay, although still 50% of men’s pay in the 90s, and U.S. shoe companies moved out of South Korea to cheaper countries: China, Indonesia and Thailand. Enloe says, “the regimes in these countries believed that if women can be kept hard at work, low-paid, and unorganized they can serve as a magnet for foreign investors” (49). As U.S. companies moved out of South Korea, many women were left jobless and resorted to the “entertainment” industry. However, women throughout China, Indonesia and Thailand still organized and were fully aware of the risks. Both Reebok and Nike try to prove they are companies that respect the lives of human beings by making a couple visit to their oversea factories each year. Enloe discusses how women are forced to lie to the International Labor Organization because they are hoarded in to a room to keep quiet and have the mouths taped to prevent the women from talking to each other. The issue of women being exploited is extremely important and needs to be dealt with. We cannot hide this exploitation by focusing on the benefits of “free trade”.

“Daughters and Generals in the Politics of the Globalized Sneaker” discusses the politics behind companies and governments creating an idea of feminism. Women became dependent on working in the factories as defining their femininity and Nike and Reebok became dependent on these women to be profitable. In Korea during the 1970s, many young women were being brainwashed by the Korean government to leave their homes in the countryside and be far from their parents. This migration was seen as patriotic. Young women wanted to move to urban areas and work in the city to make money to send back to their poor farmer parents and make money for their dowries. The government redefined daughterly respectability and was able to persuade parents to allow their daughters to work in these urban factories; therefore, allowing industrialization in South Korea. Enloe says, “inside every computer chip, inside every elaborately stitched sneaker produced in the 1970s and 1980s, is a complex web of Cold War militarized, feminized respectability and daughterly patriotism” (61). A women’s studies scholar Seung-kyung Kim investigated these women by working on the assembly line. Kim found that many of the women did not mind the long hours and low pay because they felt their job was patriotic. Many feminist activists found that factory owners would offer dating services to get these women married. These owners liked to get rid of the older women who were more costly and fill their spots with younger women who could be paid the “training fee”. However, in the mid 1980s Korean factory workers became more aware of their role as a Korean citizen and U.S. companies started to shut-down their factories and move to look towards Indonesia. 

Anuradha Shyam discusses the role of South Asian women in the United States Corporate world. “Safe Keepers and Wage Earners” reveals how South Asian women are further discriminated against as just being women. Shyam talks about the traditional values these women grow up with. Many women from South Asia grow up with strong traditional values where women do the housework and there is an apparent relationship between a man’s world, work, and a woman’s world, the home. Shyam works with organizations to help women from this area get out of abusive relationship and become financially independent. Something very interesting Shyam discusses is the fact that many women college graduates aspire to be a CEO, an executive or a boss. However, these women are subjected to family life and often ending up leaving the workforce because they are not able to be promoted anymore.