The Injustice Domestic Workers Face Of The Uae

This paper will refer to both domestic labor and women’s labor in similar respects, but the two are not necessarily interchangeable. The use of the phrase “domestic labor” refers to work done within the home, particularly childcare, elderly care, and the upkeep of the household. The term “women’s work” or “women’s labor” encompasses domestic labor, but not all women’s labor is necessarily domestic. In her chapter “Industrialization, Wage Labor, and the Economic Gender Gap”, Estelle Freedman describes historically feminized fields of work that include other types of labor, such as industrial work in textile mills, retail, clerical, and teaching jobs. When referring to sex work, Laura Agustin uses the term in “Migrants in the Mistress’s House” to encompass everything from prostitution, sexual services in bars, clubs, and flats, erotic phone sex, peep shows, massage parlors, and lap dancing (110). However, she often does not differentiate between sex work and domestic work “because migrants often move between these sectors or work in two at once, and because a separation into two groups reproduces a scheme of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ girls” (97). For the sake of clarity, however, this paper will differentiate between “traditional” women’s labor

In the UAE, gender equality is on the rise like no other Arab state. As far back as twenty years ago female university graduates outnumbered men two to one. But per usual, in the Arab world women’s work roles remain fundamentally separated from men’s with only 35 percent of UAE women part of the “national” workforce, and 80 percent classified as “household workers.” But what’s crucial here is how quickly this movement is spreading; the UAE government’s emphasis on gender empowerment largely explains this 99 percent figure of perceived respect, in a country where women, who still generally abide traditional gender roles, are encouraged to decide their own work roles. The UAE is evidence, perhaps, that ‘traditional’ gender roles need not necessarily be at odds with respect for women although this might be anathema in the Western world. Of course, this can be analyzed many ways. Traditional expectations still weigh in, and perhaps, like in most of the Arab world, many women aren’t expected to voice the dissatisfaction they feel. However, there’s reason to believe these stigmas are on their way out in the UAE with 66 percent of women working in government, and a record number in high administrative

Cundal and Seaman discuss the many ways in which the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is abused and the effects of this misuse on the workers. Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) are working jobs that should be classified as long term positions, not short term. This incorrect classification affects a worker’s salary, healthcare plan, pension, vacation pay, and sick days. Cundal and Seaman also address the ways in which TFW are more susceptible to employer abuse than other workers. Temporary Foreign Workers must apply for a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) before switching employers, which can take up to five months; most workers cannot afford to live without a source of income for this length of time. This usually compels workers to keep serious issues private. Many workers are also uninformed about their basic rights, which often leaves them exposed to mistreatment or abuse by employers. Cundal, an immigration lawyer in Calgary and Seaman, a human rights and civil liberties researcher wrote an unbiased and fact based article using a wide variety of sources including articles, reports, and newsletters. Cundal and Seaman provided an extensive reference list in addition to footnotes to support their writing. The authors not only address the human rights issues faced by TFW’s, they also identify ways in which these issues can be resolved. Cundal and Seaman however, fail to provide information on how many TFW are affected by employer abuse and exploitation. This information is

Westerners often hear of how oppressed women are in Saudi Arabia. As a result, one might expect these women to be vocal about their challenges living in such a country. However, contrary to the assumption that they are unhappy, they are quick to defend their country, saying that their often overbearing abayas are parts of their tradition. These women say that they still enjoy freedoms and that “[i]t is Western women… who have been manipulated into becoming the toys of men” (Kristof 272). Even so, they still receive unequal treatment from men. Saudi women journalists must stay in their own rooms when they work while men do not. Because of these types of segregated and deleterious practices, Nicholas Kristof argues in his essay “Saudis in Bikinis” that the West is not being paternalistic in trying to advocate for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia; they are trying to free women who have never tasted true liberty. It is

Many factors all contribute to a demand for women workers in new sites and to the disintegration of families under stress from lack of income, causing women to look for alternatives away from home, and migration becomes the solution, even though it poses many pragmatic problems.

Shandra Woworuntu lived in Indonesia but in 1998 the country was hit by the Asian financial crisis, and the country was thrown into political turmoil. She was unemployed and needed to support her family when she saw an ad in the local newspaper for a career in hotels located in the US, China, and Japan. She paid a 2,700$ fee and underwent a long recruitment process with multiple interviews. After all the tests and interviews, she took the job and she was promised to make at least 5,000$ a month and that she would be back home to her daughter in six months. When she arrived in the US start her new career in the hotel industry, she horribly realized that something was wrong and that she had been trafficked into a world of prostitution and sexual slavery, forced drug-taking and violence (“Shandra

Women from diasporas in Third World countries, such as China and the Philippines, search for jobs in First World countries and migrate in order to make enough money to send back home. However, these women are often exploited in the labor force, or taken advantage of by their manager. For instance, emotional labor is work that regulates or suppresses other people’s emotions and feelings. Nursing or nanny work are common examples of emotional labor because these occupations demand more communication and interaction. People from Third World nation-states often come from a Communist system, in which all property is publicly owned and everyone works and is paid accordingly, to a Capitalist system, in which the country’s trade and industry are privately owned and the labor force exploits workers. As seen in the film Mardi Gras: Made in China and the novel Global Woman, Director David Redmon and authors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild portray the exploitation of women in the workforce and in marriage from Third World countries, thus suggesting that imposing emotional labor on female workers puts people in developing nation-states at a greater disadvantage and ultimately makes the poor worse off.

Unfortunately, rape of female migrant farmworkers in the fields is a tragic phenomenon that is far too prevalent. These women are treated as sexual objects at the hands of their supervisors and coworkers, and are subsequently sexually harassed, abused, and raped. While sex plays a role in these crimes, the primary motivator behind sexual abuse in the fields is the power of the perpetrators coming into play with the powerlessness and vulnerability of the women workers.

Since workers lack this mobility both within the job market as well as physically within the country, many employers have the ability to isolate a worker from society and services and thus exploit them. Abusive employers can threaten to lay off a worker if they decide to file a complaint, which would subsequently result in the worker being repatriated. Delphine Nakache (2013) writes that this might also make TFWs ineligible for employment insurance because they are legally restricted from new employment, providing another reason for workers to not report abusive employers (p. 6). Zachary Marshall (2015), a Researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario, states that this vulnerability linked to mobility issues

1), report that TFWs in the Gulf States face “the kafala system, an oppressive employment system that quashes worker mobility by forcing migrant workers to continue their employment relationship with abusive employers” (ADHRB, 2014, pg. 5) and that “[TFWs] often find themselves given wages at a less-than-subsistence level, or can even have their wages completely withheld for up to years at a time...Runaways are labeled illegal, and can be detained for years or deported at their own expense” (ADHRB, 2014, pg. 6). “There is a general unawareness about the plight of migrant workers among police and the public ... [TFWs], who are often viewed negatively and blamed for stealing jobs from native Bahrainis ... are often themselves blamed for the abuses that they suffer. In order for meaningful change to occur, attitudes that are more compassionate to migrant workers need to be encouraged among the general public” (ADHRB, 2014, pg.

Work-related experiences differ in regard to gender, education, nationality and most importantly the skills that people have. In the case of The Story of a Sweatshop Girl, her experience is largely centered on her inexperience at work which forms the center of harassment, intimidation and abuse by other workers particularly of higher rank. For instance, she would often be called ‘a stupid animal’ when she makes a mistake. Worker abuse is rampant all through among those people who settling in America and doing their first jobs. Worker harassment is also common as shown by male workers who would often call her names and inappropriately touch her. However, there are only verbal assurances in which protection is provided. When she reports to her boss about being targeted by other employees, he indicates that no one is supposed to disturb her. No action taken against this.

Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild’s collection of writing titled: Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex workers in the New Economy, published in 2002, is a good description of the dirty little secrets that haunt many underprivileged, non-white, Third World women experience. This reading is a rather detailed story of hard working women that are trying to support their families back in their native lands. Domestic servants are nothing new to the world- it’s something that has been passed down through many generations, continuing the persona of oppressed women. Millions of people, mostly from poor countries, flee hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to seek better pay for their families.

The consequences of these abuses result in human pain and suffering. Kristof and WuDunn wanted to inform their audience on the severity of the matter at hand. Through statistical alongside anecdotal evidence, the authors were able to inform their audience on an unfamiliar topic by breaking down the problem into segments while building a personal connection through stories. This reportage exposes the injustices women face and makes a call for change to help this humanitarian

Indeed, employees in SAWP are often unaware of the rights they are entitled to them. Furthermore, some of these rights, like their labour and health, are commodified. Moreover, due to the limitations of the workers to search employment elsewhere, workers are typically stuck with their employer. The lack of the threat of employees leaving, in turn, leads to many incidents related to health and safety being unreported. Furthermore, emphasis on the work done by SAWP migrants being low-skilled work, they are in turn easily replaceable. If they get ill and cannot work long hours required for the job or refuse jobs that will risk their health and safety, they are easily dismissed (Hennebry, 2015, p. 535). Although the employer is required to

As some women in first world countries go out of the home to work, women from lower classes immigrant women from the third world perform the functions of childcare, ‘homemaking’, domestic tasks etc. these women who constitute the transnational labor of care have bad working conditions, few rights and opportunities or work satisfaction. As some upper class women break the glass ceiling, other women enter the market to perform the transnational labor of care, at low wages and bad conditions, without these women to perform the domestic tasks, to perform this transnational labor of care( example of Filipino migrant maids), other privileged women would not be able to leave the home to work and take up white collar occupations. Thus some women