Dr. Sara DiazWGST 202: Gender, Difference, and PowerGonzaga University

Gendered Inequalities

Response QuestionResponse Question

•Why are women workers preferred for manufacturing labor in export processing zones?

THE PANOPTICON

The Panopticon• Prisoners can all be

seen by a central watch tower.• Never know when

they are being watched.• Learn to self-surveille,

self-discipline.• This is the birth of

“corrections.”

Surveillance• We are all under

surveillance.• Literally (CCTV in UK)• Figuratively• We police each other

and ourselves.

• The idea of self-discipline extends beyond the space of the prison

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

•What are some of the human rights violations that occur in factories?• In what ways do women discipline their

bodies in factory work?• How do they respond to constant

surveillance?• How do women resist in the factories?

Resistance

• Working for debt cancellation• Sums are to large to ever work out from under and

money has not brought the changes promised.• Haiti

• Working for fair-trade agreements rather than free-trade agreements• Free Trade + Environmental/Social/Wage Justice?

Can we imagine what that would look like?• Self-Determination• Can we democratize the WTO and IMF?

Discussion QuestionsDiscussion Questions

•What is Ananya Roy critique of the idea of charitable consumption?•What does she argue those in the Global

North should do instead?

Movements

•Maquilapolis - Promotoras•Working across borders, for example

STITCH (Support Team International for Textileras), unionizing across boarders.• USAS• Demonstrations when the World Trade

Organization holds its meetings.

Feminist Activism

• Activists are asking that women not be forced to pick between the lesser of two evils.• Instead they want to change the options.• They want to turn limited options into a wide range of choices. • From the film: “I’d like to be a lawyer, but that’s very expensive.”• Her only option is to work in a maquiladora to support her family.

• Feminists would like that woman to be able to say: “I’d like to be

a lawyer, so I will choose to pursue that line of work.”• What kinds of social, economic, and political changes would

need to happen for her to simply be able to choose to be a lawyer?