Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2121060
Paula Rodríguez-Modroño, Astrid Agenjo-Calderón, Purificación López-Igual
ABSTRACT The platform economy is conquering the domestic work and home care sector in countries of the global North as a response to the scarcity of affordable quality care services. Based on in-depth interviews with workers, firms and stakeholders, the objective of our study is to unravel the new mechanisms of exploitation and invisibility of this reproductive work, carried out mainly by migrant women from the Global south. This article deploys a feminist political economy approach to assess the new inequalities created by the intrusion of platform capitalism in the social reproduction sphere. Our study shows how the platform labour model fits perfectly in an informal and devalued care sector with a large labour supply composed of migrant women from the global South. Digital platforms take advantage of inequalities of gender, race, and immigration status to access a precarious workforce. The low reservation wage and lack of agency of migrant women, who are denied access to other sources of income and formal employment, act as key elements in the advancement of the mechanisms of exploitation and exclusion. Though care platforms facilitate access to work by migrant women, their working conditions are characteried by precarity, lack of access to social protection and unemployment benefits. Our results confirm that digital platforms have reinforced the ‘casualisation’ of labour markets, gendered segregation and subjugation in labour markets.
{"title":"Platform work in the domestic and home care sector: new mechanisms of invisibility and exploitation of women migrant workers","authors":"Paula Rodríguez-Modroño, Astrid Agenjo-Calderón, Purificación López-Igual","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2121060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2121060","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The platform economy is conquering the domestic work and home care sector in countries of the global North as a response to the scarcity of affordable quality care services. Based on in-depth interviews with workers, firms and stakeholders, the objective of our study is to unravel the new mechanisms of exploitation and invisibility of this reproductive work, carried out mainly by migrant women from the Global south. This article deploys a feminist political economy approach to assess the new inequalities created by the intrusion of platform capitalism in the social reproduction sphere. Our study shows how the platform labour model fits perfectly in an informal and devalued care sector with a large labour supply composed of migrant women from the global South. Digital platforms take advantage of inequalities of gender, race, and immigration status to access a precarious workforce. The low reservation wage and lack of agency of migrant women, who are denied access to other sources of income and formal employment, act as key elements in the advancement of the mechanisms of exploitation and exclusion. Though care platforms facilitate access to work by migrant women, their working conditions are characteried by precarity, lack of access to social protection and unemployment benefits. Our results confirm that digital platforms have reinforced the ‘casualisation’ of labour markets, gendered segregation and subjugation in labour markets.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"619 - 635"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48470483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT Using the feminist lens of women economic empowerment and the concepts of resources, agency, and achievements, and the inter-related concepts of power, this article shares the experience of women beauty workers and women cab drivers working on different types of platform models in India. While beauty work is essentially a feminised sector of work in India, ride-hailing is a male-dominated form of work. The analysis is drawn from in-depth interviews with women workers, platform management, and union leaders, among others, to understand struggles and ways of ‘being and doing’ of women workers on platforms. The article presents the different types of platform models – freelance, fixed salary, and hybrid – and the differential impacts of these models on the working conditions of the women in these two sectors. The article then continues to unravel the concept of ‘flexibility and autonomy’, and the precarious nature of work for these different contractual arrangements as well as the implications of algorithmic controls and management on women workers. It eventually highlights that this ‘new’ gig economy contributes to the continuation of the informal nature of work, along with the precarity of the same, which hinders their ability to achieve empowerment.
{"title":"Locating women workers in the platform economy in India – old wine in a new bottle?","authors":"Anwesha Ghosh, Mubashira Zaidi, Risha Ramachandran","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2131258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2131258","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using the feminist lens of women economic empowerment and the concepts of resources, agency, and achievements, and the inter-related concepts of power, this article shares the experience of women beauty workers and women cab drivers working on different types of platform models in India. While beauty work is essentially a feminised sector of work in India, ride-hailing is a male-dominated form of work. The analysis is drawn from in-depth interviews with women workers, platform management, and union leaders, among others, to understand struggles and ways of ‘being and doing’ of women workers on platforms. The article presents the different types of platform models – freelance, fixed salary, and hybrid – and the differential impacts of these models on the working conditions of the women in these two sectors. The article then continues to unravel the concept of ‘flexibility and autonomy’, and the precarious nature of work for these different contractual arrangements as well as the implications of algorithmic controls and management on women workers. It eventually highlights that this ‘new’ gig economy contributes to the continuation of the informal nature of work, along with the precarity of the same, which hinders their ability to achieve empowerment.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"765 - 784"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47734621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2131254
Julice Salvagni, Rafael Grohmann, Évilin Matos
ABSTRACT This article analyses the process of gendering platform co-operativism through a case study of two rider co-operatives owned and managed by women: Señoritas Courier in São Paulo, Brazil and Les Mercedes in Barcelona, Spain. While both co-operatives arose in response to similar concerns and have adopted a common approach, one is located in the global South, while the other is in the global North. This allows for a comparison of how prefigurative politics have shaped the terms of platform co-operativism, as well as an analysis of the transnational character of worker struggle. The article is particularly interested in: What was the impetus for the formation of the two women-owned platform co-operatives? How have the co-operatives sought to redefine the relationship between gender, work, and technologies? The paper argues that the expansion of women-owned platform co-operatives constitutes an opportunity to advance a more inclusive, feminist digital economy. Members see co-operatives as an important dimension of collective organisation and the articulation between paid and unpaid care work. Both co-operatives strive to create a safe environment which provides support in work and motherhood. However, platform co-operatives have struggled to expand amidst a highly competitive market. The article concludes with a discussion on the need for public policies that can support platform co-operativism among women delivery workers.
{"title":"Gendering platform co-operativism: the rise of women-owned rider co-operatives in Brazil and Spain","authors":"Julice Salvagni, Rafael Grohmann, Évilin Matos","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2131254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2131254","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyses the process of gendering platform co-operativism through a case study of two rider co-operatives owned and managed by women: Señoritas Courier in São Paulo, Brazil and Les Mercedes in Barcelona, Spain. While both co-operatives arose in response to similar concerns and have adopted a common approach, one is located in the global South, while the other is in the global North. This allows for a comparison of how prefigurative politics have shaped the terms of platform co-operativism, as well as an analysis of the transnational character of worker struggle. The article is particularly interested in: What was the impetus for the formation of the two women-owned platform co-operatives? How have the co-operatives sought to redefine the relationship between gender, work, and technologies? The paper argues that the expansion of women-owned platform co-operatives constitutes an opportunity to advance a more inclusive, feminist digital economy. Members see co-operatives as an important dimension of collective organisation and the articulation between paid and unpaid care work. Both co-operatives strive to create a safe environment which provides support in work and motherhood. However, platform co-operatives have struggled to expand amidst a highly competitive market. The article concludes with a discussion on the need for public policies that can support platform co-operativism among women delivery workers.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"707 - 724"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43106678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2118464
H. Kwan
ABSTRACT The article offers a timely study of the gendered experience of gig work in China and prioritises the nexus of an intersectional feminist approach to explore women workers’ situated problematics and precarious employment in ride-hailing platforms. Drawing on ‘chatnography’, conducted over a period of 17 months and semi-structured interviews with 30 women platform drivers, this article makes two important contributions to the robust scholarship of gender and precarious work in the gig economy. First, this research argues that gendered precarious work relations are still prevalent in China's on-demand economy, especially in male-dominated ride-hailing platforms. The patriarchal gender norms and oppressive work relations perpetuate gender inequality and women's oppression. On the one hand, women platform drivers experience gender discrimination from passengers, netizens and followers, male platform drivers, and algorithms. On the other hand, women platform drivers are subject to risks and women's health problems. Second, this study highlights women platform workers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and their resistance to precarious employment and argues that working-class, migrant, and single mothers are in the most perilous situation. This article proposes that platform co-operatives are an alternative organisation of the gig economy, which creates gender-egalitarian, democratic working conditions for platform workers, especially marginalised women workers, and calls for support, actions, and funding for platform co-operativism from international and local agencies, grassroots organisations, governments, universities, co-operatives, and active consumers.
{"title":"Gendered precarious employment in China's gig economy: exploring women gig drivers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and resistances","authors":"H. Kwan","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2118464","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2118464","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article offers a timely study of the gendered experience of gig work in China and prioritises the nexus of an intersectional feminist approach to explore women workers’ situated problematics and precarious employment in ride-hailing platforms. Drawing on ‘chatnography’, conducted over a period of 17 months and semi-structured interviews with 30 women platform drivers, this article makes two important contributions to the robust scholarship of gender and precarious work in the gig economy. First, this research argues that gendered precarious work relations are still prevalent in China's on-demand economy, especially in male-dominated ride-hailing platforms. The patriarchal gender norms and oppressive work relations perpetuate gender inequality and women's oppression. On the one hand, women platform drivers experience gender discrimination from passengers, netizens and followers, male platform drivers, and algorithms. On the other hand, women platform drivers are subject to risks and women's health problems. Second, this study highlights women platform workers’ intersectional vulnerabilities and their resistance to precarious employment and argues that working-class, migrant, and single mothers are in the most perilous situation. This article proposes that platform co-operatives are an alternative organisation of the gig economy, which creates gender-egalitarian, democratic working conditions for platform workers, especially marginalised women workers, and calls for support, actions, and funding for platform co-operativism from international and local agencies, grassroots organisations, governments, universities, co-operatives, and active consumers.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"551 - 573"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46875973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2131259
Nedha de Silva
ABSTRACT Globally, women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact has varied between groups of women, women in the informal sector, mainly those managing micro- and small-scale businesses, have been severely affected. Drawing on the case of urban Sri Lanka, this paper explores the challenges that women owners of micro- and small-scale businesses faced during the pandemic and how they leveraged digital technologies to overcome these challenges. The paper adopts a feminist intersectional lens, which examines the everyday experiences of women in gendered economies through semi-structured interviews conducted in three phases during the pandemic. The first section of the paper details the challenges that women faced during the pandemic, including issues of mobility, competing care responsibilities, lack of institutional support, financial security, and health. The second section discusses how women used digital tools such as social media to overcome these challenges. The paper argues that although digital tools were initially used in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, they have been permanently incorporated into everyday entrepreneurial practices of women.
{"title":"Navigating the digital informal economy during the COVID-19 pandemic: vignettes of Sri Lankan micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs","authors":"Nedha de Silva","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2131259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2131259","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Globally, women have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the impact has varied between groups of women, women in the informal sector, mainly those managing micro- and small-scale businesses, have been severely affected. Drawing on the case of urban Sri Lanka, this paper explores the challenges that women owners of micro- and small-scale businesses faced during the pandemic and how they leveraged digital technologies to overcome these challenges. The paper adopts a feminist intersectional lens, which examines the everyday experiences of women in gendered economies through semi-structured interviews conducted in three phases during the pandemic. The first section of the paper details the challenges that women faced during the pandemic, including issues of mobility, competing care responsibilities, lack of institutional support, financial security, and health. The second section discusses how women used digital tools such as social media to overcome these challenges. The paper argues that although digital tools were initially used in response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, they have been permanently incorporated into everyday entrepreneurial practices of women.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"477 - 495"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49381712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2121059
Mohammad Amir Anwar
ABSTRACT Paid work and gender equality are key elements of international development discourse on women’s economic empowerment. New digital technologies are considered to generate paid work opportunities for the marginalised groups in Africa, particularly women. The rise of the platform economy (work digitally mediated via platforms), for example, is framed as a panacea to poverty and informality among women. Yet the evidence remains anecdotal so far. Drawing on the author’s empirical research conducted between 2015 and 2021 on two kinds of digital labour (remote and place-based work) in Africa, the paper examines the job-quality outcomes among women gig workers in five African countries. The paper highlights new gender-based inequalities on platforms and the ways in which women cope with such outcomes. In particular, it outlines economic insecurities, discrimination at work, high work intensity and adverse physical and psychological impacts among women workers on platforms. It advances the cause for women’s labour rights and offers policy recommendations for a gender-equitable platform economy.
{"title":"Platforms of inequality: gender dynamics of digital labour in Africa","authors":"Mohammad Amir Anwar","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2121059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2121059","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Paid work and gender equality are key elements of international development discourse on women’s economic empowerment. New digital technologies are considered to generate paid work opportunities for the marginalised groups in Africa, particularly women. The rise of the platform economy (work digitally mediated via platforms), for example, is framed as a panacea to poverty and informality among women. Yet the evidence remains anecdotal so far. Drawing on the author’s empirical research conducted between 2015 and 2021 on two kinds of digital labour (remote and place-based work) in Africa, the paper examines the job-quality outcomes among women gig workers in five African countries. The paper highlights new gender-based inequalities on platforms and the ways in which women cope with such outcomes. In particular, it outlines economic insecurities, discrimination at work, high work intensity and adverse physical and psychological impacts among women workers on platforms. It advances the cause for women’s labour rights and offers policy recommendations for a gender-equitable platform economy.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"747 - 764"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44095423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2117931
Ariela Micha, Cecilia Poggi, Francisca Pereyra
ABSTRACT Platform labour, especially when it comes to its flexible schedules, may represent a job insertion possibility and a source of income for many women. However, such opportunities are not exempted from gender bias. This article inspects how the expansion of the platform economy affects gender inequalities by focusing on two platform occupations: ride-hailing and delivery services. First, it investigates gender gaps in terms of working hours and earnings via linear regression as well as their determinants. Second, qualitative data further deepen the analysis of female riders’ and drivers’ experience in male-dominated territories, exploring how it is perceived and endured by workers. This paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires between 2019 and 2021. The analysis suggests that the gender-differentiated economic performance of riders and drivers is associated with demographic and on-the-job characteristics, implying restrictions for women workers in terms of how long, where, and when they can work. Algorithmic management further reinforces these initial female disadvantages, through tools such as scoring systems, dynamic pricing, and selective work allocation. The article concludes by providing some insights into a gender-transformative approach to the future regulation of these activities.
{"title":"When women enter male-dominated territories in the platform economy: gender inequalities among drivers and riders in Argentina","authors":"Ariela Micha, Cecilia Poggi, Francisca Pereyra","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2117931","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2117931","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Platform labour, especially when it comes to its flexible schedules, may represent a job insertion possibility and a source of income for many women. However, such opportunities are not exempted from gender bias. This article inspects how the expansion of the platform economy affects gender inequalities by focusing on two platform occupations: ride-hailing and delivery services. First, it investigates gender gaps in terms of working hours and earnings via linear regression as well as their determinants. Second, qualitative data further deepen the analysis of female riders’ and drivers’ experience in male-dominated territories, exploring how it is perceived and endured by workers. This paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires between 2019 and 2021. The analysis suggests that the gender-differentiated economic performance of riders and drivers is associated with demographic and on-the-job characteristics, implying restrictions for women workers in terms of how long, where, and when they can work. Algorithmic management further reinforces these initial female disadvantages, through tools such as scoring systems, dynamic pricing, and selective work allocation. The article concludes by providing some insights into a gender-transformative approach to the future regulation of these activities.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"575 - 600"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46772268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2115256
Bhaswati Borgohain
aggregation, multiplicity, and synchroneity across all categories of labour, employment, work, and livelihood even if perceived within a strictly market framework – are all covered in this book. Consequently, there is the issue of whether time is a commodity, and whether and how it can be valued as an economic resource and a material asset that is commodifiable and hence measurable, quantifiable, calculable. Another important aspect examined is that of violence. Violence is an integral part of capitalism, created and expedited by the state and its business interests and corporations via institutional and increasingly technological mechanisms. Violence is not only normalised and actualised, but also legitimised and often internalised both in the public and private domains. As the author asserts, ‘Having a monopoly on the use of physical violence is a defining feature of nation states’ (p. 183). Additionally emphasised and also deplored is that while multiple forms of violence perpetrated have been researched and analysed, the interlinkages to care and caring have been peripheralised in academic discourse as well as policymaking. Of particular interest is the rather inspiring identification of several forms of challenges to neoliberalism in several countries cutting across sectors and sub-sectors, both formal and informal. The forms of resistance and also solidarity include those, of course, of trade unions, feminist movements, struggles against racism, etc., and additionally of affective relational resistances and even refusals. Kathleen Lynch’s book is based on strong and quite impeccable theorisation and conceptualisation, and contains dynamic intersectionality by consistently incorporating considerations of class, race, religion, age, and ethnicity. The result is a serious and enriching reconsideration of the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘caring’, as well as the methodological designs and structures currently in use, impacting thereby a re-thinking and re-formulation of policy designs and practices that are ostensibly aimed at protecting and promoting gender equality. An attentive reading of this book will increase sophistication of methodology and enhance its applicability and relevance in order to capture the ‘harms’ and injustice being perpetrated by the neo-liberal paradigm where especially women have to bear the burden of increasing financial austerity and the continuous reductionist character of an already weak welfare state.
{"title":"Mining, Displacement, and Matriliny in Meghalaya: Gendered Transitions","authors":"Bhaswati Borgohain","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2115256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2115256","url":null,"abstract":"aggregation, multiplicity, and synchroneity across all categories of labour, employment, work, and livelihood even if perceived within a strictly market framework – are all covered in this book. Consequently, there is the issue of whether time is a commodity, and whether and how it can be valued as an economic resource and a material asset that is commodifiable and hence measurable, quantifiable, calculable. Another important aspect examined is that of violence. Violence is an integral part of capitalism, created and expedited by the state and its business interests and corporations via institutional and increasingly technological mechanisms. Violence is not only normalised and actualised, but also legitimised and often internalised both in the public and private domains. As the author asserts, ‘Having a monopoly on the use of physical violence is a defining feature of nation states’ (p. 183). Additionally emphasised and also deplored is that while multiple forms of violence perpetrated have been researched and analysed, the interlinkages to care and caring have been peripheralised in academic discourse as well as policymaking. Of particular interest is the rather inspiring identification of several forms of challenges to neoliberalism in several countries cutting across sectors and sub-sectors, both formal and informal. The forms of resistance and also solidarity include those, of course, of trade unions, feminist movements, struggles against racism, etc., and additionally of affective relational resistances and even refusals. Kathleen Lynch’s book is based on strong and quite impeccable theorisation and conceptualisation, and contains dynamic intersectionality by consistently incorporating considerations of class, race, religion, age, and ethnicity. The result is a serious and enriching reconsideration of the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘caring’, as well as the methodological designs and structures currently in use, impacting thereby a re-thinking and re-formulation of policy designs and practices that are ostensibly aimed at protecting and promoting gender equality. An attentive reading of this book will increase sophistication of methodology and enhance its applicability and relevance in order to capture the ‘harms’ and injustice being perpetrated by the neo-liberal paradigm where especially women have to bear the burden of increasing financial austerity and the continuous reductionist character of an already weak welfare state.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"810 - 812"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45589575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2130516
H. Majid, M. Mustafa
ABSTRACT This paper explores the intersection of work with access to and use of digital technologies and the resulting impact on women’s empowerment. Drawing on detailed in-depth interviews across Pakistan with low-literate, low-income women employed in three categories of work – domestic, factory, and home-based – we map how women’s work intersects with their access to digital technologies to affect their economic and social lives. Our paper highlights the barriers that women face and explores whether and how in a patriarchal, religious context with restricted physical mobility and limited access to the internet, women circumnavigate their constraints by leveraging digital technologies.
{"title":"Transformative digital spaces? Investigating women’s digital mobilities in Pakistan","authors":"H. Majid, M. Mustafa","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2130516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2130516","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper explores the intersection of work with access to and use of digital technologies and the resulting impact on women’s empowerment. Drawing on detailed in-depth interviews across Pakistan with low-literate, low-income women employed in three categories of work – domestic, factory, and home-based – we map how women’s work intersects with their access to digital technologies to affect their economic and social lives. Our paper highlights the barriers that women face and explores whether and how in a patriarchal, religious context with restricted physical mobility and limited access to the internet, women circumnavigate their constraints by leveraging digital technologies.","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"497 - 516"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46761479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2022.2136838
Shaeera Kalla
In South Africa, digital labour platforms for domestic work sit at the nexus of formal and informal labour, apartheid geospatial planning, and persisting racialised accessibility to labour markets. Domestic work remains one of the most important sources of income for black African women and its demand is only growing in the digital age. However, the rising demand has not reversed the devaluation of paid domestic work (Ally 2009). The devaluation of paid domestic work is both an extension of the devaluation of women’s unpaid reproductive labour under global capitalism (Fraser 2017) and bottom-of-the-pyramid models of development which redeploy the jobless as entrepreneurs in the making (Dolan and Rajak 2018). Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has made significant strides towards recognising domestic work as work but while the legal frameworkmay have changed, social attitudeswhich devalue domestic work persist. There are over onemillion domestic workers in SouthAfrica.Despite their contribution to the economy – through carework for children, the elderly, the sick, as well as providing psychosocial emotional and intimate support and labour – domestic workers are systematically exploited, and viewed as ‘unskilled’. Platforms create or disrupt markets by bringing together different users to interact and transact. Supporters of digital labour platforms argue that they offer opportunities to ‘bring informal workers out of the shadows and into the mainstream’ (Grunewald 2017). However, Meagher (2018) posits that the rise of platforms has exacerbated a ‘broken social contract’which used to be characterised by stable employment and social welfare provision but has been replaced by ‘an emergent regime of accumulation that encompasses a new capital– labour relation that institutionalises informal work’ (Ettlinger 2017, 69). In sub-Saharan Africa though, the majority have never been formally employed and therefore precarity and informality are the norm rather than the exception (Meagher 2018). SweepSouth is the first Silicon Valley venture capital-backed South African start-up, describing itself as the ‘Uber-for-cleaning services’, and claiming to create employment, with its marketing and branding aimed at poor black African women. Hill Collins and Kunushevci (2017) argue that when women reject the representations of themselves as
{"title":"Hacking platform capitalism: the case of domestic workers on South Africa’s SweepSouth platform","authors":"Shaeera Kalla","doi":"10.1080/13552074.2022.2136838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2136838","url":null,"abstract":"In South Africa, digital labour platforms for domestic work sit at the nexus of formal and informal labour, apartheid geospatial planning, and persisting racialised accessibility to labour markets. Domestic work remains one of the most important sources of income for black African women and its demand is only growing in the digital age. However, the rising demand has not reversed the devaluation of paid domestic work (Ally 2009). The devaluation of paid domestic work is both an extension of the devaluation of women’s unpaid reproductive labour under global capitalism (Fraser 2017) and bottom-of-the-pyramid models of development which redeploy the jobless as entrepreneurs in the making (Dolan and Rajak 2018). Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has made significant strides towards recognising domestic work as work but while the legal frameworkmay have changed, social attitudeswhich devalue domestic work persist. There are over onemillion domestic workers in SouthAfrica.Despite their contribution to the economy – through carework for children, the elderly, the sick, as well as providing psychosocial emotional and intimate support and labour – domestic workers are systematically exploited, and viewed as ‘unskilled’. Platforms create or disrupt markets by bringing together different users to interact and transact. Supporters of digital labour platforms argue that they offer opportunities to ‘bring informal workers out of the shadows and into the mainstream’ (Grunewald 2017). However, Meagher (2018) posits that the rise of platforms has exacerbated a ‘broken social contract’which used to be characterised by stable employment and social welfare provision but has been replaced by ‘an emergent regime of accumulation that encompasses a new capital– labour relation that institutionalises informal work’ (Ettlinger 2017, 69). In sub-Saharan Africa though, the majority have never been formally employed and therefore precarity and informality are the norm rather than the exception (Meagher 2018). SweepSouth is the first Silicon Valley venture capital-backed South African start-up, describing itself as the ‘Uber-for-cleaning services’, and claiming to create employment, with its marketing and branding aimed at poor black African women. Hill Collins and Kunushevci (2017) argue that when women reject the representations of themselves as","PeriodicalId":35882,"journal":{"name":"Gender and Development","volume":"30 1","pages":"655 - 666"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47540425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：