Industrializing Women: Taking Out the Trash

After reading John Lie’s article “From Agrarian Patriarch to Patriarchal Capitalism: Gendered Capitalist Industrialization in Korea” I have realized the strong impact that class has on the lives of women. I have always acknowledged that women are oppressed throughout the world. We are globally oppressed with powerful statements such as “you throw like a girl” and are equally oppressed throughout classes. Li e writes, “In elite household, the patriarch rules over the household… (And) as with elite women, peasant women endure considerable oppression, working harder and longer than men in general.” Women’s position in society is often, universally, viewed as subordinate to men. Rich women are expected to live under the rule of their husbands, much like lower class women are. However, I empathize with the plight of the poor woman because not only does she work, she is also expected to do the same amount of cooking, laundry and caring for children as is the un-working woman. Patriarchs have also affected the amount of money women are paid for their labor especially considering that the work of women is considered a cheap form a labor much like American society views the work of Hispanics as cheap labor. This is a very disappointing and disheartening reality. Much like Americans often joke, “I’ll hire a Mexican to cut my whole lawn for $10 dollars” there are parts of the world (America included) where hiring women is viewed in the same light. There is so much resistance to changing the widely accepted social structure of men on top, women under men, and children under adults and animals under everybody because it is seen in so many aspects of our society. It is hard to view a woman as able to think, lead and earn as much as a man if she is seen as a subordinate in her home and to her children. Women’s equality will never be universally achieved if women, even feminists, allow patriarchy to prevail in certain aspects of their lives. It has to be torn down everywhere for it to cease to exists. That means dismantling patriarchy in religion, in our homes, in our places of work, in music, in advertising and in every social construct. It would mean every woman choosing to stop making statements like “I don’t have to take out the trash because I am a girl.”