Capitalism And Feminism : A Form Of An Economic And Social Organisation

However, the contributions of women to the economy have gone unrecognized and unvalued. Also, there is unequal opportunities between men and women in the workforce, which means that women do not receive an opportunity at demonstrating their ability to lift themselves from poverty and similar issues, and their options to improve their lives are limited or nonexistent. However, I feel that what men do not realize when oppressing women is that women make up half of the world's population. This ultimately means that women also make up half the workforce. A nation that limits women and discriminates against them cannot reach it's full potential or productiveness. On the other hand, if a country's government, businesses, and overall, the communities invest in women, developing countries are less likely to be striken by poverty. Women are educated to wisely manage the money that they earn, which results in less poverty because they will know how to save and spend her money properly. To add on, economic empowered women raise healthier and better educated children, which results in children that will continue to manage money wisely, with their mother's guidance, and ultimately this would lead to a decrease in poverty. Economic empowerment means not only reducing

On the 24th of April 2013, a tragedy occurred in Dhaka, Bangladesh, resulting in the deaths of more than 1000 people and the destruction of a nine-story garment factory “Rana Plaza” (Manik& Yardley, n.d.,). However, the unsatisfactory condition of the building was known to employees. The day before the tragedy, several cracks were noticed, yet the owner of the factory ignored the warning by police to suspend the factory. In addition, workers were physically intimidated which shows, illustrating the power of society and the desperation of financial condition as individuals (Hossain, 2013). 80% of the workers at the Rana Plaza were female; this was because their labor was the cheapest in the world, with the minimum income BDT being 3000 taka per month (the equivalent of 37 Australian dollars) (Burke, 2013). This industry represented the international fashion labels in Europe, America, cosmopolitanism and progressive brands such as Benetton etc. Most of the factory’s textile products were internationally exported, earning foreign currency and allowing it to become the largest industry in Bangladesh. The “Rana Plaza” was one of the main industry, which maintained the economy and society as individuals in Bangladesh. The power of capital at the Bangladesh level is the arrangement of dominance transnational businesses at the global level, which is a smaller rate of powerful

the defination of ‘feminism of poverty’ refers to situations of increasing poverty for women and the fact that more women are living in poverty than men, basically poor people are disportionately women (Townson, 2000).

The economy over many centuries have changed and developed in a variety of ways. One of the most influential economic systems that had developed between the 1700’s and the 1900s is capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that is controlled by individuals, rather than the government, and requires the working class to use all its resources in order for the capitalist class to retain a profit. One question that still remains is this; how do women’s rights compare to capitalism? There are many theoretical concepts that have helped shape capitalism throughout history. Women’s rights are the rights given to women to express equality when being compared to a man. In the year that capitalism was developed, patriarchy played a dominant role regarding home life and the workplace, which motivated women to take action. Women’s rights are significant in the development of capitalism because it protested the male dominant atmosphere to create opportunity for women to take part as working class and to obtain equal status with a man in regards to everyday living. This resulting in a dramatic change in our economic system. Gender inequalities during the 18th and 20th centuries had a mass contribution to how capitalism developed.

Even in the 19th century, Marx pointed to the tendency for capitalism to make super-profits from the exploitation of women and children. He wrote: "The labor of women...was the first thing sought for by capitalists who used machinery.” (Marx, Capital)

Women are more prone to live in low income circumstances than men, hence introducing the social problem of gender discrimination. Women have been discriminated in the workplace over time in that they are paid less than men in specific jobs and are not seen to be ‘suited’ to particular jobs, especially in the manufacturing and trade industries. Marxist feminist Margaret Benston believed that women were oppressed by capitalism in that they were treated almost as a back-up, or secondary option of cheap labour that enabled profits to be kept up. ‘In 1994, 6.41 million women were in low-paid jobs and on average women’s full-time gross weekly pay was 72 percent of that of men’(Kane, 2003:115).

The book, Microfinance and its Discontent: Women in Debt in Bangladesh written by Lamia Karim, gives us account on what causes a culture to be known as “economy of shame” status, such as in the case of Bangladesh. She writes on a subject that is a top list priority in the economical world these days, the corrupt ways NGO’s lenders do business not only in Bangladesh but across the world, however, she centralizes her views on Bangladesh and only a handful of NGO’s. Even though this was primarily a look at Bangladesh, it has resulted in capturing the attention of people across the globe not only with the NGO’s mention in the book but resulting in a closer look at all NGO’s and how they serve the people. Karim shares with the readers how the 1980’s nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) led in the way of microfinance institutions and claimed that they were providing women with an empowerment tool by issuing them loans. We find that over 80% of borrows are women and most are economically challenged already. With that being stated Karim also takes a look at how and why that is, she discusses the long term effects it is having on women and how it is furthering the exploitation of women in Bangladesh. She looked at how this type of exploitation has not only weakened further women’s economy in Bangladesh but has also strengthen the power NGO’s have over the people (mainly women) at the same time. It takes a look at this type of expansion and brands NGO’s use as a “shadow state

The purpose of this paper is to analyze to main questions. The first part of the paper will define transnational feminism and identify key factors within a transnational perspective. Another part will be discussing some transnational feminist critiques of mainstream “white/Western” feminism and will also give ideas that a transnational feminist would suggest in order to make positive changes for women. The second part of the paper will choose two concepts to define, as well as discuss how they relate to one another from a transnational perspective. In addition, the relation of how they related to gender or affect the political, social, and/or economic status of women in the world will be analyzed.

Socialist feminism which believes in a dual-system, indeed it focuses on both the public and private spheres and claims that woman freedom can only be achieved by working to end economic and cultural foundations of women's domination.

Nowadays, in a growing number of housewives who came out of their family and became a worker, we unconsciously admitted the phenomenon that women and men are no gender differences. Under this recognition, we focused more on class equality instead of gender equality. However, in Maria Mies’s Colonization and Housewifization, she questioned about this dissertation by giving examples and facts.

Capitalism and Exploitation are two terms that people generally use together to make a point. Capitalism is a system in which a country’s trade and industry is controlled by private owners for profit. Exploitation is the actions of treating a person unfairly so that you could benefit from it. In the “Working Day” section from Capitalist, Marx explains what he means by exploitation and whether it is connected to capitalism. One of Marx’s arguments is capitalism cannot be separated from exploitation. I agree with that argument because in my eyes it is tough to consider one without the other. In this essay, I will explain what Marx mean when stating that and I will compare his arguments to John Locke’s. They both speak on some of the same

In many developing countries globalization has brought masses of wealth to the elite at the expense of the poor. Consequently, many women of the poorer classes leave their homeland in search of opportunities for employment. These women are disproportionately affected by

The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. For instance, the status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.

The economics of intimate partner relationships play a role in patriarchy and the reinforcement of women abuse. Martin (1981) states that meritocracy is a discourse that everyone has equal opportunity in the workforce. It fails to recognize the barriers that prevent people from having the same opportunities as others. For instance, women face many social pressures that prevent them from working in the public sphere such as discrimination, sexism, being pushed down to apply for certain jobs because it dominated by males and may not have the physical requirement like body mass. Martin (1981) argues that capitalism supports patriarchal families and the idea that a woman's place is considered to be in the private sphere, the home, while a man is to be in the public sphere. Martin (1981) states that capitalism is about competition and succeeds when barring disadvantage or vulnerable populations including women from advancing to the top of the hierarchy so that people, predominantly white males, would remain in power. One strategy to prevent women from advancing in their career is to receive minimum wage and less income than men which therefore makes them easily replaceable in the work force. This defines women as temporary workers (p. 41). This leaves women economically dependent on men and gives a reason

Women in Bangladesh have had a long history of exploitation and have faced discrimination due to their gender. Bangladeshi women came to the international attention in the form of cheap and docile labour. Traditionally, the idea of separate spheres, where men are the breadwinners and women look after the household, comprised the typical Bangladeshi household. Due to the impact of globalization, the economic stability of the country has been severely destroyed and has forced many women to work for longer hours that seem not enough to let the ends meet. Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) is an agency for empowerment of women in Bangladesh and states that the current trend of globalization in Bangladesh, has an exploitative nature which is extreme to women in the society. Rural women have been working quite long in the agricultural sector, but with the commercialization of the agricultural sector, many women have migrated to the city centers such as Dhaka and working for garment or other industries for minimum wage. Women have a limited scope of economic development in a Bangladeshi society and are paid less than the men, due to the socio-political structure, as well as their lack of education, which is governed by the patriarchal ideology. Given that,