Women’s S/udieslnf. Forum, Vol. 12, No. 5. pp. 551-557, 1989

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0 1989 Pergamon Press plc

BOOK REVIEWS

WOMEN OF THE THIRD WORLD: WORK AND DAILY LIFE,

by Jeanne Bisilliat and Michele Fieloux and translated by Enne Amann and Peter Amann, 97 pages. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Rutherford New Jersey, 1987. US$19.50 cloth.

According to its Preface, this is the first book in the Women in Development field written in French that has been translated and published in English. Such cross- cultural feminist efforts need encouragement. Indeed, many English publications in the field should be trans- lated into the majority languages of the world. Then, many more literate women could participate in the Women in Development discourse.

Women of the Third World was completed in 1982, and much of the data in the book is drawn from the 1970s. However, the information provided continues to be important and relevant. The general patterns of wom- en’s subordination described here have not abated but been strenghtened during the crisis-ridden 1980s.

Emulating the format of Ester Boserup’s classic work, Woman’s Role in Economic Development, this book discusses women’s work in agriculture, migration, the urban informal sector and factory production. Drawing data from secondary sources, the book clearly demonstrates women’s exploitation in economic produc- tion across the Third World.

Everywhere, women are incorporated into the cash nexus and the market economy as the subordinates of men. Many women work longer hours than men but make less money even when they do exactly the same tasks as men. New skills, technology, and subsidies are generally handed to men. As a result, the productivity gap between men and women in agriculture increases.

In the multinational-owned Free Trade Zones wom- en’s work is often classified as semi-skilled or unskilled, while technically similar male work is classified as skilled. Most women, however, cannot find even such discriminatory jobs in the formal sector. They are forced to work as maids, petty traders, and prostitutes in the expanding informal sector of Third World cities. The leading occupation for women in Latin America is that of housemaid, and some poor families in Thailand bond their daughters to agents in the prostitution business just in order to survive.

This picture of growing poverty, injustice, and vio- lence in the lives of Third World women is by now famil- iar, especially to those studying women in “develop- ment.” Is the cause of this situation simply the inequality between males and females? Would equaliz- ing wage rates or reclassifying jobs in favor of women suffice? A major weakness of this study, as of Boserup’s study, is the avoidance of these questions.

It is important to recognize that most men them- selves draw very low wages and are victimized within the global economy. Male unemployment is a significant

factor in the rise of female headed households and in- creasing male involvement in crime and violence. While we must continue to pay close attention to gender dis- crimination, we must also be careful not to separate gender issues from their ethnic, class, and other social contexts.

Unlike Boserup, Bisilliat, and Fieloux, the authors of this study, point out that Third World poverty is root- ed in capitalist development and the dependency rela- tionship between the North and the South. However, they pay no attention to the widening social class dis- parities that have accompanied capitalism and depen- dency and the class contradictions in the subordination of both women and men.

In their Conclusion, the authors refer to the structur- al violence that keeps women down and the differences between male dominant trade unions and the “freely chosen small groups” that women workers usually tend to organize. However, the book ends somewhat surpris- ingly, attributing the continued subordination of Third World women largely to their own ignorance. It is claimed that ignorance keeps women docile and victim- ized.

Perhaps, many more poor women are conscious of their plight and the roots of their oppression than out- siders are led to believe. Perhaps it is not their ignorance as much as their preoccupation with immediate survival and the fears created by domestic, class, and state vio- lence that prevent many women from exercising their freedom. Still, many peasants, traders, service workers, and Free Trade Zone workers around the world are chal- lenging the dominant power structures. It is in the em- powerment of these poor women of color that the prom- ise of a truly new world order lies. Their struggles need far more attention and support.

ASOKA BANDARACE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO, U.S.A.

WOMEN, HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, AND HOUSING, edited by Caroline 0. N. Moser and Linda Peake, 222 pages. Tavistock Publications, London and New York, 1987. US$49.50 cloth and US$14.95 paper.

Vast numbers of poor people in the Third World live their entire lives in overcrowded, insecure, and squalid housing conditions, without piped water, electricity, sewers, paved roads, or public transportation. The ma- jority of them are women and children. This book offers a wealth of detail about women’s involvement in various housing projects in Mexico, Brazil, Guyana, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Kenya, and Sri Lanka over the past 10 to 15 years. It is both a testament to women’s determination and perseverance to obtain housing for themselves and their families, and an indictment of housing projects

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