í Assignments

In Saskia Sassen’s essay, “Strategic instantiations of Gendering,” she argues that the media and policy circles believe that the leading narrative of our current global economy is based on the factors that place and distance are no longer relevant and that the main key players are the highly educated professionals. Sassen argues that with the emphasis on this particular narrative the information outputs are missing other key factors. As the fact that global migration of maids, nannies, nurses, sex workers and contract brides play a major role in globalization. As the information outputs are neglecting to acknowledge that these low wageworkers have been in existence way before our current economic globalization and are now major players.

Globalization does create the demand for high-level professionals; which then require heavy demands on their lives with long work schedules. This in return generates the need to have the household task to be taken care by the “ serving classes,” which are mainly composed of immigrant and migrant women (5). With the demand of service workers, these low wageworker are incorporated into global markets and play a major part to its growth, but unfortunately they go unnoticed. They are not seen as viable members of globalization.

Globalization has created global growth but has placed many countries in great debt that in return has created a great deal of unemployment. As governments find new creative ways to shrink their debt to be able to compete with the global markets they have implemented exporting workers and permitting mail order brides, as ways to coping with their unemployment. Unfortunately the exportation then gets tied in with global sex trade as criminal organizations look for the means to cash in as they start trafficking in migrant workers. As the workers go over to other countries for employment they tend to send remittances to their families back home. Which then becomes a major source for their government.

As the world economy grows so does the demand for the low wageworkers. Consequently we can see how globalization helps to promote the exploitation of the migrant women who tend to suffer the most without any recognition or without the opportunity to grow. Sadly the mass media and policy makers don’t’ believe that they are not considered to be major contributors to globalization, as the serving class workers tend to hold jobs with limited growth opportunities and the ones that face the most exploitation.

In Sassens essay, she explains that the leading professionals are in demand. Also, the more professionals that are outworking are directly linked to the low-wage immigrant and women workers. High paid professionals acquire a lifestyle that directly creates a demand for the low-wage worker such as nannies, repairmen and sex work. These immigrant workers also send money back to their home countries to create opportunities there. Globalization particularly in urban cities create the large gap in income where high paid upper class keep immigrants and women employed. The low wage immigrant/women workers do not have opportunities for advancement or other career opportunities. If they are not able to further their careers, they will stay at the low wage level.

In the dynamics of globalization when it comes to locations in urban areas, Women are taking on more high paying professional roles. Gentrifications in the urban areas are the cause of professionals moving in and not having the time to do household female/wife duties. These duties include cleaning/childcare. This is what keeps the momentum for the demand of the service worker in these areas. Women whether they come to these areas intentionally or not, are taking on the roles of a wife/caretaker/homemaker.

Globalization of economies is related to the system of women in these domestic work roles. Sassen believes we should look and economic globalization differently in order to see this side of it. Low-wage Immigrant and women workers are at the center of these systematic types of work in these cities. Instead of focusing on the hypermobility etc. We need to see why the demand of these immigrant workers continues to increase. The government is depending on these women workers whether they are here on their own or if they have been trafficked. The traffickers make money from the women and the government depends on these women to fulfill the demands for the domestic service industry. The profit making industry continues to fuel this system that keeps low wageworkers in demand but we do not view globalization in this way.

Corporations are big contributors to keeping women in clerical low paying positions. Corporations also contribute to the demand of service workers such as janitors, restaurant staff etc. Even if these workers are part of this cooperation’s, they are hired as help and remain viewed as a service worker or isn’t viewed at all. They are invisible to the cooperate professionals.

In Sassen  essay, “Strategic Instantiations of Gendering,” Saskia Sassen (2003:1)  she argues “today’s dominant account about economic globalization in media and policy, as well as in much economic analysis, emphasizes hypermobility, global communications, and the neutralization of place and distance.”  Sassen states that place does not matter and only people with education matter.  the new transitional worker is over looked and only the privilege is accounted for and stated that the global migration of maids, nannies,nurses,sex workers and contract brides(1). Sassen talks about the immigrant cultures where women take on jobs to make ends meet and take care of their family in other country. Sassan argue that the contribution and marginalization of immigrant women are factors that contribute to the growth of the global economy but goes unnoticed in today’s society.  Low wage workers are overlooked and are not credited but is the driving force behind the country’s capital. She spoke about how these women would be trafficked across country lines for jobs and the trouble they faced.

Sassen argues that global cities in the U.S. and across the world contributed to the process of creating these industries and not recognizing the growth in global capital. She spoke about the sex workers and how much money the government made off these workers. She states that 4 million people were trafficked in 1998 which made a profit of 7 billion dollars. Which is so sad to think that these poor women who have been exploited generated so much money for the government. She argues that the work force is made up mostly of women and most of the country’s revenue is made up of the money that these women work by any means then send home to their families in other country. It’s funny how this article states that women make up the majority of resident workers and they are mostly women of color. Which the last piece we read by Paul England stated that women earned less and work less because of motherhood. Sassen shed light on how women are important to the working class. She said that immigrant women are important actors in the new informal economics of cities of the global north. Women take more important roles in society like active and social roles. Women have been exploited throughout time and it can be seen that they have been playing and doing their part but have not been recognized.

In Sasika Sassen’s “Strategic Instantiations of Gendering”, the author argues about “information outputs” that are missing from today’s dominant global economy. She states that media and policies surrounding the global economy in respect to women suggest that the highly educated professional is the only driving factor of the global workforce. She continues to argue that the contribution and marginalization of immigrant women are key factors to the growth of the global economy but usually go unnoticed in today’s world. In other words, the recognition of hypermobility and capital gain in the world economy is credited to the high wage, highly educated worker, and does not consider the low wage, marginalized immigrant woman worker. The article argues that the overlooked immigrant woman worker is one of the major factors in the gains of the global market and should be recognized as a driving force.

Sassen continues to argue that the global economy’s growth was dependent on producing a labor force of low wage women workers which focused on “first world” women’s domestic roles. Some of these domestic roles included industries such as nannies, maids, nurses and prostitution. The author argues that global cities in the U.S. and across the world contributed to the process of creating these industries and not recognizing the growth in global capital because of them. As these specific roles were being created for capital, the demand for these industries were on high and became highly profitable. These methods are seen across the world but are often not recognized as part of the dominant factor of the global economy.

When we tend to look at how the creation of a labor force happens in our global markets, in my opinion, one thing is clear: the exploitation of specific groups is a constant factor on how to gain capital. I think of how the era of slavery in the U.S. used African Americans as the driving force to its economy and profited heavily on the work of slaves. In this article, we tend to see amazing similarities on how lowly paid women workers and immigrants are exploited in given service areas to help global economies get richer and bigger. The hardest part to understand is that women and immigrants in these industrialized complexes are contained in a system that does not given them an opportunity to grow and build wealth as the ones who exploit them. They are continuously marginalized, discriminated and exploited for the almighty dollar and not recognized as the major element of global economic growth. In order to begin a system to deal with this issue, we must begin to expose the conversation and demand opportunities of equity amongst all. We must look at global cities where these systematic practices and policies exploit women and immigrants, and construct definitive action and conversations to promote change.

Part A

What I got from the essay doing gender “Giving Good Service” is that the another was trying to make a connection between gender and how it affects people’s definition and of what good service is. She discusses how gender affects ones behavior in their job. I like her example of the waitress, because female waitresses arose from the stereotype that women provide a motherly and caring vibe. Because of this women’s behavior changes to adapt to the stereotype. Another example used was the police officer in which is female officers are not seen at the same superiority as male officers and therefore are not given the same respect or seriousness. Hall also discusses how gender is used to determine whether male or female would be more beneficial for the business to earn. She brings up women’s jobs such as housekeeping, nanny, waitress, or bartender because women are seen as caregivers or sex symbols. The gender is used as a tool to benefit the business or customers. Business really add to this idea in that they make provocative uniforms for their female employees to wear rather then the males. This can be seen today in food industries such as hooters. I am pretty certain that the men do not walk around in bras or belly shirts. In the NY Times employees from hooters discussed how degrading the uniform was and that refusing to wear it is not an option and will lead to be fired from the job. I believe the excuses business use to defend themselves is that they are trying to appeal to the customer however they are not realizing the message they are sending out to their employees and young men and women. A big problem that arises is harassment that comes with particular job such as waitress or bartending. Superiors will inform employees that flirting and sex appeal is a requirement of their job. I find this completely outrageous and don’t understand why this is being accepted in today society. We must step away from money being more important than our self-respect and dignity.

Part B:

Budig and England explore how motherhood affects employed women’s wages. They come to the realization that there is in fact a wage penalty for motherhood. Through their research they give five explanations as to why mothers wages are affected. The first reason as to why women are not offered more money or earn less is because employers believe that mother hood causes women to lose job experience. Women move from full time positions to part time or take time off to care for children or take maternity leave. Budig and England’s research (pg205) showed that men suffer no such penalty even after having children. Although most business owners see time off for mothers as a negative, Budig and England see the positives of mothers taking time off to care for their children. The idea presented here is that “caring labor” equals “productive adults” who later contribute to economic productivity. Higher pay goes to women who are deemed qualified because of their seniority which is a result of their work attendance. The research shows that the wages of women who take time off or “lose work experience” are in fact affected and lowers chances of better pay or more hours. The second reason for wage penalty is due to mothers moving into “mother friendly” jobs. Most times women will exchange a higher paying job for a lower paying job due to the fact that the work is less demanding or allows them more time off. It is believed that motherhood results to lower productivity, the third reason ties into the stigma is that mothers are exhausted from their home duties or they are less pro-active at work because they are in fact storing energy so they are able to do what’s know as second shift work. Childbearing Women are seen as unreliable due to their need to check in with their children, go to appointments and take sick leave for both themselves and their children. This is the reason why women try to find mother friendly jobs; they acquire flexible hours or jobs that have onsite day care. The fourth reason behind the reason for un fair wages is due to discrimination from employers. Along with all of the previous reasons the authors state that employers find it distasteful to employ mothers. Examples of employers discriminating against mothers is by placing them in jobs with less benefits minimal promotion as well as giving them minimal hours or minimal pay. Lastly the last reason for the wage penalty for motherhood is the idea that it is the characteristics of the women and not so much the discrimination from the employer. Budig and England state that women are more likely to have children because they feel motherhood will bring more satisfaction to their lives then their careers.

Due Sunday, December 4th, by midnight. Word count: 400 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. If you paraphrase, make sure to include the proper citation.

In her essay, “Strategic Instantiations of Gendering,” Saskia Sassen (2003:1) argues “[t]oday’s dominant account about economic globalization in media and policy, as well as in much economic analysis, emphasizes hybermobility, global communications, [and] the neutralization of place and distance.” Drawing on details from her work, explain what Sassen believes is missing from these account of our global economy that focus on “information outputs”?

In the report “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, and Sam Osoro (2013) they gave factors that fueled the racial wealth gap in the U.S. the factors are: home ownership, Income and Employment, Inheritance and College Education

They talked about how home ownership is the biggest driver of radical wealth gap between white homeowners and black owners. Growing up everyone’s dream is to get married and live in a house with the white picket fence. But due to limitations like residential segregation set by the government that is harder to achieve if you are African American families.

There’s a huge gap when it comes to income between blacks and whites due to hiring discriminations, training and promotions because if you have no training you can’t get the job then you can’t get a promotion if no one will hire you right. Because your name is Shanquisha and not Becky. Not having a great job leave people of color at a lower rate financially. Their jobs don’t provide retirement plans and sometime benefit so it leaves little room for savings or any kind of investment. Most people are only able to live from check to check. The article mentioned that wealth for African Americans is     needed to cover emergency savings while wealth in white families is well beyond the emergency and can be saved or invested more readily (Shapiro5).

When it comes to inheritance for African American chances are that there is none because you come from a struggling family and there is nothing to inherit but debt. But Shapiro mentioned that most Americans inherit very little or no money, but among the families followed for 25 years’ whites were five times more likely to inherit than African-Americans 36 percent to 7 percent (Shapiro5). In the study they found that whites receive inheritance ten times more than African Americans.

The homeownership and inheritance play apart in why there’s an education gap because if u live in an area that is segregated with low incomes then it’s already working against children. They can’t afford to go to private school so they must settle for public schools. It also cost to go to college so most people have to work instead of going to college or have to work and go to go to college in order to avoid debt which most of us is doing at this time.

I agree with their finding I feel like as an African American the cards are stacked against us when you look at only a handful of people can say they don’t know what struggle is and when you look into it trying to achieve the goal of owning an home, being financially stable and acquiring an education so you can be set for life with a little saving in the bank chances are it will take life time to achieving it due to the way life is set up. We see it every day where there is a different set of requirements and rules set for us where you can force an African American to turn over his birth certificate to prove he was born here to be the president but you do not have to make your taxes public in order to become the president if your white.

In the report, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” by Thomas Shapiro Tajana Meschede, and Sam Osoro, The research shows that their are cultural and structural differences racial differences in and they identify the variables in different ways, such as inheritance, home ownership, educational attainment and lastly income. To help us understand the racial wealth gap and how it reflects towards Whites and African Americans, The economic divide.

Homes are usually the largest asset in any persons life. You need shelter in order to survive. Research shows a 25 years period and the difference to home ownership is the 27% of income/growth between blacks and whites. The research shows that owning a home benefits most white-families because they have more access to financial assistance and credit more than African American families, and it provides them with more wealth and security. In contrast to African Americans where they tend to have high-risk mortgages and are more likely to foreclosure their homes. Another factor is that because African-American are more likely to be without a job than white, they are forced to be on unemployment and survive and low or no funds. When it comes to Education, Although many students attend college, not many of them finish. When it comes to college completion there are more whites than African-Americans that finish with a degree and are weight less by student debt than African Americans. This is one of the biggest obstacles for any family household to be in a significant debt because they want to send their child for a college education.

Overall the studies show that there is always going to be a slight inequality og both races and that poverty is always going to run more around african americans than whites.

In the report,” The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” by Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, nd Sam Osoro, they indicate the four main factors that have fueled the racial wealth gap in the U.S..They break down and explain in detail each of the four main factors, home ownership, Income and Employment, Inheritance, and College Education.

The first factor they discuss is Homeownership; the study shows that homeownership is the largest form of investment for most American, similar the American Dream which everyone who moved to America dreams of owning a house and have it full pay at once. To own a home is the biggest investment and eventually becomes one of your the most important aspects to your life. At first, African American families were giving loans very quickly and with low-interest rates, once the economy hit a recession they were forced to go into foreclosure, creating a bigger gap for between the equality of Whites and African Americans.

The second-factor Income nd Unemployment, due to African Americans suffering and having to be set back because of the discrimination they have suffered for many years in the employment situation.Due to the discrimination, they have low wages which do not allow them to become wealthy. Many face unemployment because they have been discriminated thru the hiring process. It creates instability for them and their families.

The third factor is inheritance, most White American families have been around for many years, which has given them the opportunity to be able to gain wealth to pass down to their future generations. However, that is not the case with African Americans who have suffered discrimination in labor and wages which have not allow them to create wealth for them and have an inheritance to pass down to their future generations.

The fourth factor is College Education, at first education was a way to better-living condition and way to create wealth for you. The college has become more and more expensive making very hard to be able to attend college and not be in massive debt. Not only having a debt but many have to drop out of college before actually finishing their degrees due to a high cost of college degree and having to support their families. Many White have their parents who pay for their full college tuition or have an inheritance to be able to ay for some of their college years.
Lastly, the article discusses the Social and Cultural factor many believe that marriage is easier for bills when having two incomes, yet when both spouses are paid low wages it does not make it easier having too low incomes to be able to support a family. I strongly agree with the research and numbers show how the discrimination has set back African Americans in a way that it becomes extremely hard to be bale to catch up to the success of the White Americans.

The racial wealth gap between Whites and African-Americans in the United States is extremely large. In addition, the gap continues to widen due to some of the factors found in this report. The factors show that Whites in the United States have and continue to have an advantage that keeps them in a beneficial position financially verses African-Americans. These factors are Homeownership, Household Income, Unemployment, Education and Inheritance. These factors are some of the main causes of the gaps, which have been only increasing the gap over time.

Owning a home is the American dream and one of the largest investments for American families. Many factors within the process of homeownership that African-Americans do not benefit from are keeping them at the lower end of the gap. Discrimination keeps African-American’s in certain neighborhoods where the equity might not increase as much as it would in a White neighborhood. This segregation has been set in place to make sure the wealth gap continues to benefit white Americans. White Americans are able to build equity and have access to credit, home loans and lower interest rates, which puts them ahead in being able to increase their financial portfolios.

Household income and unemployment go hand in hand since the discriminatory disadvantages that African-American’s experience in the workplace puts them in positions where they are making far less than White Americans. African-Americans are more likely to be on unemployment for a longer period of time and are more likely to have to use their emergency savings and therefore are not able to have extra money for investments.

Educational inequalities give White Americans a head start on future financial success because education in predominately African-American neighborhoods is poor, which then can hinder them from being prepared for higher education. African-Americans are also more likely to continue higher education due to finance obligations at a younger age. White Americans are more likely to graduate from college with less or zero debt and African-American’s graduate from college which a larger amount of debt and are not able to save or invest their money.

Since White Americans are able to save more money and have more investments, they are able to save money for the younger generations. They are able to give their children money to put a down payment on a home, help them in case of an emergency, pay for elite education. All of the factors that give their children an a head start with their financial portfolios.

I agree with these factors hindering non-white Americans from achieving fianancial success. I do think that systems have been set in place especially with segregation and school zoning to keep certain races in a particular area. Tax breaks will continue to be a major contribute to the gap as well.