Women's work and social reproduction in Thailand

This paper seeks to analyze ‘women’s work’ in Indonesia’s online shop businesses by looking at the forms of work that emerge in those businesses. This paper employs qualitative research methods by using transcribed in-depth interviews with 20 informants from six cities in Indonesia. By looking at flexibility as the defining characteristic of exploitation under platform capitalism, home as the central working space in the social media-based online store, and the ongoing process of feminization of work in the online business sector, this study advances two claims. First, the intersection between platform capitalism and logistics revolution in the online shop business has created new forms of work. Second, the social media-based online store, which is mostly operated by women, shows that flexibility and feminization of work under platform capitalism have direct impacts on the lives of the female business operators and their work. A closer look at the emergence of online stores also reveals how social reproduction work shapes ‘women’s work’ in the online business

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The Problem of “Women’s Work” and the Idea of Work Democratization for the Liberating Empowerment of Women

Jurnal Perempuan ◽

10.34309/jp.v24i2.319 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 141

Author(s):

Fathimah Fildzah Izzati

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Labor Market ◽

Social Reproduction ◽

Women's Work ◽

Women's Movements ◽

Women’S Work ◽

Patriarchal Society ◽

Development Institutions ◽

Democratic Spaces ◽

The Way

<p class="p1">Women never make choices about their work democratically. In patriarchal society, “women’s work” is constructed as work that is in the area of social reproduction and is “natural” for women. Consequently, women are increasingly in a vulnerable position in the labor market. In addition, women also face obstacles to being actively involved in various democratic spaces such as unions and women’s movements, and wider social movements because they bear a double workload that is life-consuming. However, various women’s empowerment programs launched by a number of development institutions to overcome the problems faced by women turned out to be far from women’s interests. Empowerment, also known as “liberal empowerment”, actually depoliticized and atomized women. Feminist scholars also call for the importance of realizing “liberating empowerment”. Related to that, this paper sees that the process of democratization of work on women’s work is an effort that can be done to pave the way for women’s liberation.</p><p class="p1"> </p>

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