Caribbean Transnationalism As A Gendered Process

1. Caribbean Transnationalism As A Gendered Process Christine G. T. Ho September 1999 Presented by Ally Roberts

2. Reasons for Migration • Expand life choices • Shortage of Schools • Declining living standards • Production of skilled workers for local economy • Postcolonial Caribbean Government emphasizes capital rather than human resources in development plans

4. Global CapitalismTechnological innovationsRestructuring Relocation to cheaper labor markets • Shifts • Before – fixed salaries, relative job security, fringe benefits • Now – temporary workers, no benefits or fixed salaries • Consequences • “downsizing” • Rising unemployment • Falling wages • Wage inequality

5. Results in migration of all social classes in search for a better life However, the impact of Global Capitalism not only varies from class to class but differs according to gender. Transnationalism

6. Migration Patterns Caribbean Elite • Migrate as entire families • Settle permanently • Migrate independently • Practice circular migration • Pave way for eventual migration of others Working Class Women

7. Women in the Caribbean as Mothers • Caribbean family structure • Matrifocal – patterns of relationships within the household that have a matrilateral bias whether or not a husband –father is present. • Mother-child bond cherished above all others • Expected to be the most enduring • “Old Age Insurance” for elderly women • Not to be confused with Matriarchy – female headed households.

8. Child Care • Collective responsibility • Usually falls to groups of females, some kin and some not • Not uncommon for children to be moved between households and live with kin that are not their biological parents

9. Nuclear Assumption • Nuclear household structure • Monogamous marriage • Egalitarian conjugal relations • All assumed to be universal • Caribbean • Brittle conjugal relationship • Low frequency of early legal marriage • High illegitimacy rates • Matrifocality • Child dispersal • Considered “normlessness” by scholars

10. Flaws to Nuclear Assumption • Not needed for child rearing or financial support of women and children – capitalist construction • Projects Eurocentric ideals on Caribbean society • Obscures complex linkages between the family and the wider political economy • Most families studied have been from low-class families and results have been attributed to poverty

11. Poverty Thesis • Too simple and disregards the shared cultural imperatives in the middle and upper class • Overlooks duel union system • Reserves legal marriage to status equals and nonlegal unions for partners in lower classes • Lower class men usually do not marry right away because it is expensive and is an ideological symbol of rising in social status • Polygamous relations are practiced across cultures result in illegitimate children from all social classes of men

12. Solution • Matrifocality allows for women to be supported by their children under the capitalistic economic system. • Caribbean kinship sanctions “segregated” gender roles, where men and women lead almost separate lives. • Leads to a lack of support by men as they are not expected to support emotionally or help physically with the domestic sphere. • Women have double work load and rely on support from other women and kin.

13. Social Feminists • As long as an ideology of gender inequality persists, gender relations will remain unequal • Material changes in the mode of production may alter the family as an economic unit but do little to change it as an ideological (nonmaterial) one. • Patriarchy can only be destroyed by a psychocultural revolution

14. Women in the Caribbean as Workers and as Mothers • Gender Paradox • Low earning power in men – not expected to be sole bread winner. • By denying women male financial support and protection, the capitalist system also demands economic independence and responsibility for their families. • Due to unskilled labor, not able to make ends meet and women must appeal to men to make ends meet. • Women strive to be economically independent but are still dependent on their men.

15. Women in the Work Force • Women generally work in the “informal” sector and are thus unrecognized by the labor statistics • Due to low education they are forced to work for low wages in less than full time jobs in domestic fields • More likely to be affected by domestic situations like pregnancy or illness of family members • Stand as a labor reserve and if remain there will not be able to achieve economic independence as some feminists believe is needed for women’s emancipation

16. Dichotomy • Public/Private – (general) • Industrial Capitalism created a shift from the private being important to public being more important • Reduced importance of women’s roles in domestic positions • However, without women, there would be no work force because of women’s ability to reproduce • Family wage was created to keep women out of the work force and created a financial dependence on men.

17. Caribbean • Caribbean men usually not paid family wage • Women have not been excluded from the work force • Women maintain double workload with low income jobs and domestic work which has been devalued by capitalism • Women have resorted to having many relationships with men (lovers, children, husbands) to have people to help them in order to survive • Gender equality not reached in Caribbean

18. Globalization and the “Woman Question” in the Caribbean Has participation in the labor force enhanced the general status of women? “Feminization” only in low wage labor industry and does not release women from the dominant ideology that they are supplementary workers. It also does not free them from the “double day” labor.

19. Safa’s (1995) Comparative Study Female workers in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba; studies the impact of industrialization and the impact on gender relations in the household

20. Puerto Rico – Higher rate of unemployment in men have forced women into the work force into low wage and menial work. Dominican Republic – due to failing sugar industries, the country shifted to export manufacturing. Women have been major contributors of household income though they work under poor conditions. Cuba – promoted gender equality by offering social services and through the Family code of 1975 which states that couples are to share in domestic and financial responsibilities. However, males are considered managers and women production workers, though equal pay for equal work.

21. Ho’s conclusion • Paid employment for women has both positive and negative consequences. • At times it produces greater economic independence, but at others it creates a double work burden. • The economic independence of women may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for gender equality either locally or globally. • Women either work under poor conditions or they emigrate to other countries.

22. The Human Cost of Gendered Transnationalism • Women are the protagonists in the drama of globalizing Caribbean kinship, which requires the active maintenance of circuits of exchange of goods, services, communications, travel and personnel.

23. Trinidad family and their relocation patterns Price Family

24. Price Family Pearl 12 3 Pearl Debbie – Michael - child Tyrone Janet Angela 7 Marilyn - Gloria Ronnie 5 Tyrone - Angela Janet - Andrew 6 Marilyn Pearl Debbie 1 10 8 Debbie – Children Sharon - Children 2 Tyrone 11 Sharon – Steve – two kids Daniel 4 Sheila Rachel Joan 9 Trinidad Collin Daniel and family Daniel

25. Caribbean Transnationalism • Rests on the foundation of the family and the cultivation of kinship ties • Price women were the launchers of the location changes • Shared living spaces, child care, car pooling, meals all allowed the family to use family resources to save money and maintain family ties • Children are sent back and forth between states and countries to visit families and to take advantage of best schooling options

26. Henry (1994) • Caribbean women who relocate to Toronto, Canada have found it difficult there because there is a lack of kinship ties. • This results in women being unable to find child care and thus must take low paying jobs just to get by, not moving them upward but keeping them stagnant.

27. Tolls to Transnationalism • Greatest toll is marriage and relationship breakdown. • 90% of sample ended in split relationships (Henry). • North American immigration policies destabilize and reshape family units for best results in labor needs. • Women are less likely to return because their earning power and their personal freedoms are greater overseas. • Family dynamics are strained when reuniting families that have not had much connection due to earlier migration.

28. Conclusion • Despite its human cost, migration continues because of individual and family desires to renegotiate their class position. • Migration is about social mobility as much as it is about geography. • Sending money home helps the family members remaining to also gain in social mobility • However, transnationalism focuses more on individual social mobility instead of unified class efforts for upward mobility. • The racism that Caribbean migrants experience hinder their economic efforts but strengthen bonds to their home country and the kinship groups they depend on.

29. Conclusion Continued…. • Costs to Transnationalism • Importance between family and work • Because of global capitalism Caribbean women have used kinship groups to assist in migration and in an effort to reach a higher class position.