feminisation of migration

• globalisation of gender division of labour

  -in past most migrants were men

  -today almost half are female

  -female migrants find they're fitted into patriarchal stereotypes about women's roles as carers & providers of sexual services
• Ehrenreich & Hochschild


  -care work, domestic & sex work in western countries are increasingly done by women from poorer countries

  -result of several trends
• what are the trends causing women to do 'work'?

  -expansion of service occupations in western countries > increasing demand for female labour

  -western women have joined labour force and less willing/able to perform domestic labour

  -western men remain unwilling to perform domestic labour

  -failure of the state to provide adequate childcare
• Shutes


  -reports 40% of adult care nurses are migrants

  -most are female
• global transfer of women's emotional labour

  -migrant nannies provide care & affection from employers' children

  -at expense of own children > left behind at home in own country
• 'mail order' brides


  -women enter western countries as these

  -reflects gendered & racialised stereotypes
• illegally trafficked sex workers

  -women migrants enter country as these

  -kept in conditions amounting to slavery