Maids to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers by Nicole Constable

For the longest time, women’s role in society was very narrow and set in stone. Women weren’t given the chance to decide life for their own, and there was a very sharp distinction of gender roles. Women were viewed as inferior, weak, and dependant. They were expected to be responsible for the family and maintainance of the house. But as the 19th century began, so did a drastic change in society. Women started voicing their opinions and seeking change. Trying to break away from this ideology called “cult of domesticity” was a lengthy, burdensome, and demanding struggle.

Moreover, women struggles in industry has posed new questions and renamed the meaning of morality in human beings. This represent an exploration for self determination against the capitalist and agencies with power control. For instance, Malay women have migrated to the state of 20th century homelessness in order to construct substitute homes and new identity of them stated in the book.

“We may look and act modern in many ways, but we can’t escape what we are... obedient chinese daughters.” This quote sums up the world that May and Pearl live in, that no matter the culture, no matter the time period, and no matter the situation, your gender decides your fate or does it? The theme of gender and how they dictate our roles in society run rampant in Shanghai Girls by Lisa Lee. Lee’s novel covers a great deal about the immigrant experience and the struggles they had to go through to adapt to their new environment but one thing they didn 't need to adapt was the parts they played in their families. The importance of this traditional society,where the men are the breadwinners and the women the caretakers are first shown in how Pearl and Mays family worked. The father was expected to make money and take care of the household, while the mother, May and Pearl were off fooling around. When the situation turns dire, the father does not conform to his role to help his family and takes the easy way out and sells off his daughters. However the father did not account for his daughters refusing the offer he already made to pay back his debts. This caused a thunderstorm of confusion and trouble, which led to the death of respect, Pearl had for her father. For in this critical moment, the father wet himself and could not muster out a word but the mother brilliantly stepped in and defused the situation. “I see hardness in her that I’ve never seen before.”,

Certainly, to follow one fault line of industrial employment, the disturbance stemming from extra-domestic authority imposed on families through outwork weighed far more heavily when workers entered the factories. For in practice country mills were known to intrude between parents and children on their payrolls, while mill girls not infrequently discovered painful dissidence between their roles as

Women working men’s jobs were not as welcomed in society as they were in factories. People held on to the belief that women should be house wives and not have to do much in the way of work. The man should provide for the family, and the women should take care of the family. Many of the women who worked were lower class and had to help provide for their families, or were the only providers for their families. Women who worked men’s jobs were looked down upon and thought to be no better than dirt. Although women working in factories were still women, men did not show them the same respect as they did a woman working as a secretary or teacher.

Historically, societies across the world confine women to the home—from the cult of domesticity that dominated American thought in the twentieth century to the stifling influence of the traditional economy on women in Africa—females typically submit to their husbands in marriage to conform to social standards. However, regional differences arose, and women developed unique identities in different parts of the world, wielding special influence in some cultures, but remaining imprisoned in the home in others. Fences, by August Wilson, All My

Dating back throughout history woman were often considered to be too soft or docile to work. In the early 1800’s, as well as the 1950’s, it was thought that woman should not only be pure in heart, mind and body, but that they should be submissive to their husbands and not work outside the home, this was known as the Cult of Domesticity (Keister & Southgate, Inequality: a contemporary approach to race, class and gender, 2012, p. 228).

The second job she holds down is with The Maids. This job entails a 7:30 - 3:30 work day at $6.65 an hour. This is the best paid and nicest looking maid job she encountered, and chooses to work there. She quickly finds out, however, the societal downfall of being a maid. Every house she goes to, the homeowners are rude, and often very ‘standoffish’. They seem to want no part of a maid, the class of workers that is ‘below all others’, in their eyes. "Were nothing to these people...nor are we much to anyone else," (100) one of her coworkers explained.

In this society, women are treated as servants; consequently, stereotypes are progressing to label women as maids. Wives are expected to clean, nurture

The first chapter of the book is named as “the easy task of obeying”. This chapter talks about the respect and place that was given to the women in colonial society. The chapter

My literature review is on the Gender Matters set of essays. The first essay is The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Women by Christina Larsen.This essay is about the unmarried, educated women in China and why they are still unmarried.. The second essay is The Invisible Migrant Man: Questioning Gender Privileges by Chloe Lewis. This piece is about the struggles and issues that married male migrants face and have faced.The last is Body-Building In Afghanistan by Oliver Broudy.It is about the men who are unemployed in Afghanistan whospend their time working out. My literature review is written in the following order: Larsen’s essay, Broudy’s essay, and lastly Lewis’.

The resilience of women and the hardship of men were prominent during this time. However, women were still deeply grounded in their home life (Bolin, 74). Particularly women from middle-income families were left with job of being able to balance work and home life (Bolin, 74). Being a caregiver and taking care of the domestic needs of the home was very important. During this time tradition values were deeply routed in the home. Women made sure not let their home life consume them because their may focus was being a good wife and mother. This is a trend that has made its way even in today’s society. “Even now lack of adequate day-care (necessitating private baby-sitting service), low paying jobs for women, and the growth of technologies that open the door to and “electronic cottage industry”, indicate that women’s home production is a mutable but perhaps permanent response to women’s economic and social inequality under capitalism” (Hollingsworth, & Tyyska). The oppression in the past is shown to have made and imprint on society even to this day. Even though

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.

Sometimes their ritual behaviour can be made bearable by the award of luxuries. Wives – being closest to the Commanders – have ready access to ‘black market’ items such as cigarettes and makeup, even alcohol. Handmaids on the other hand, are given their necessities, but things like hand cream or cigarettes are merely desirable items at the back of their mind – bait to be used by more powerful figures. These women have been placed to serve their government through their positions and relinquish all desires for emotional attachment.

The emergence of the market economy has spurred unprecedented waves of rural to urban migration seeking emplotment. One particular group of women that have migrated, especially for factory work, are dagongmei, or “working girls,” young female migrants. As explored in Leslie Chang’s book Factory Girls and her TED talk, it is important to listen to the voices and lived experiences of the migrants themselves, rather than speak for them or assume them to be helpless victims of capitalist exploitation. It is important to recognize that many of these women choose to migrate for a variety of reasons, some to get away from the family, some to gain a sense of independence, others to escape a difficult rural life. As explored in her book Made in China, Pan Pun Ngai does agree that it is true that many women eagerly migrate for work voluntarily, and usually do not view their circumstance as being one of victimhood. In fact, many view the label of dagongmei as not an identity to be ashamed of, but rather a new identity and sense of self for the millions of young country women