Nash June_Cultural Parameters

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ti CULTURAL PARAMETERS OF SEXISMAND RACISM IN THE INTERNATIONALDIVISION OF LABOR

[une Nash

Ms.Henrietta Holsrnan, a 1970graduate and trustee of Wellesley Collegewho runs a manufacturing concern in LosAngeles. raiseda furoron campus when she remarked that Hispanics are lazy and blackspreferpushingdrugs to workingin a factory, whileAsiansare likelytomove on to managerial positions. Defending the positionof the "successful entrepreneur .. . trying lo share her experiences with otherwomen," a Wellesley professor of economics stated that she was"describing her real lifeexperienceson the factory floor." (New YorkTimes, February 12, 1987)A Moroccan clothing factory manager explains that the femalemachinist who earns about 70percent of the pay receivedby a malernachinistdoing thesamework isjust "working for lipstick" and doesnot have to support farnilies. (Joekes 1985: 183)

The above incidents reveal attitudes, and the behaviors that underlie andreinforce thern, that con trol the t raff ic into and out of jobs in bothdeveloped industrial centers and in Third World countries. In the growingintegration of industrial and finance capital throughout the world, peopleare caugh t in the processes of industrialization and the cash econorny inways that challenge econornic analyses. Ethnicity and race intersect withgender to enhance power relat ions in wage work and the dornestic spheres.Understanding the ideologies of sexisrn and racisrn that structure the entryof these new populations i nto the world -econorny requi res a cul tu ra lanalysis of the beliefs and behaviors that go beyond econornic paradigrns.

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in societies where gender hierarchy is lacking? These questions will be examined in the eontext of dornestic household production, importsubstitution and export-processing industrialization, and in the informaleconomy of developed centers and developing periphery.The framework of analysis in this chapter draws upon world-systemsanalysis tempered by a concern for culturally distinct social formations thatco-exist with the capitalist mode of production (Nash 1981). In the international division of labor, the wage differentials between core and peripheralnations are growing (Chase-Dunn & Rubinson 1977;Hopkins & Wallerstein1977) at rhe same time that disparities of income and opportunities ofsegments of the work force within nations are increasing. RosaLuxemburg's thesis concerning the necessary coexistence of noncapitalistsectors with the advance of capitalist accumulation isalso important. Thisprocess is increasingly recognized by analysts of Third World societies(Bennholdt-Thomsen 1981; Long 1984; Portes & Walton 1981).Subsistenceproduction, whether in the family in advanced industrial countries or inpeasant enclaves in the developing periphery, generates the producers andthe consumerS whoare drawn into the market systems where supply and dernand are structured in culturally defined ways.

In the process of transculturation, however, whereby both capitalist andnoncapitalist institutions become transformed, the production and exchange of goods reproduce the society in ever-changing ways. Whereasneoclassical analyses take as given the structuring of supply and demandcurves in accord with economic maximization, these are problematic,responding to the underlying cultural propositions conditioning them. Thesocia l relat ions that women and men enter into as they reproduce, exchange, and consume goods define as well as respond to the organization ofproduction and reproduction. Contemporary Marxist-feminist analysis hasgone beyond the definition of classes based on relations in production, toconsider the dialectical relationship between these arenas. This chapter extends this analysis to show that the consciousness of both workers andmanager/owners derives from culturally forrned predispositions concerninggender, race, and ethnicity that control the entry of people into the laborforce and effect the class relations that emerge in production.Pro test and resistance movements der ive as rnuch force f rorn consciousness rising from these concerns as from the econornic exploitationthat governs their tife conditions. Most of the liberation movements indeveloping countries throughout the twentieth century have sprung up fromethnic, racial, and gender roots. (In that same period, some sectors of thelabor movement were transformed into economic interest groups that foundaccomodation within prvate capitalist expropriation.) Originating outsidethe workplace, the liberation movements flaunted the symbols that identified militants with the culturally constructed categories of gender and

___ ._ h ~ ~ ~ . ~ ~ _ . . ethnicity, whether it was the women carrying symbols of female fertility int 'hQ A ........... : . . .. + ....... 4-'....r=_ ..._= ... +\ .. ... r ,. __ _.. ... lL .......1... _--: ......\..- T....._1 ...1_ ,.3...

Ideological constraints are deeply embedded in material relations of production and reproduction that continually reinforce perceptions of what isnatural and therefore justified.Development programs have been criticized for their failure to incorporate women and ethnicenclaves in ways that would overcometheir subordination in political and economic spheres (Afshar 1985; Benera 1982;Boserup 1970; Buvinic, Lycette & McGreevey 1983; Nash & Safa 1986;Tinker & Bramsen 1976;Ward 1984;Wellesley Editorial Committee 1980;Young et al. 1981; Youssef 1976);this critique isnow being extended into acritique of how they are being expelled from employmentin the formal sectors in the growing crisis of world capitalism.Ethnographic evidence points to a sharpening of the cleavages alongracial and gender lines during the expansive decades of capitalist penetration throughout the world. In order to clarify the particular historical circumstances in which these cleavageswere forged, forms of male dominancethat rest on patriarchy and those that derive from the imposition of malehegernony must be distinguished. The perpetuation of patriarchy incapitalist enterprises within those countries with religious and moral cornmitments to elder male supremacy over women and young males is welldocumented and provides us with insights into the working of culturalpremises in the restructuring of sorne economic systems. This process differs from the prornotion of rnale dominance in Third World countrieswhere it was fostered in the introduction of capitalist enterprises. It shouldalso be distinguished from gender hierarchy in developed capitalist centerswhere the reciprocal responsibilities of patriarchy for providing security andprotection for dependents are Iacking. The tendency to universalize JudeoChristian categories such as patriarchy obscures the basis for exploitation,as women and ethnic and racial minorities are drawn into capitalist wagelabor rnarkets.Ethnographic analysis of the cultural parameters of racism and sexismalso raises questions about trends assumed to be universal in the course ofcapitalist expansiono Comparative research on the household and domesticmode of production reveals that this has not only survived capital is tpenetration but, in fact, may be an increasing phenomenon. Women's sub'sistence production in ethnically distinct enclaves hascontributed to the advanee of capitalist enterprises at the same time that it servesas an alternativeform of survival. In the present crises of capitalism, with the stagnation ofwhole economies burdened by debt in the Third World and with the declineof production in developed countries, these enclaves that have resistedcapitalist encroachment rnay well become the basic nucleus for survival.What is the relationship between the domestic reproductive sphere andcapitalist institutions? How are noncapitalist relations merged and builtupon in capitalist expansion? How are the ideologies regulating the labormarket shaped in culturally differentiated contexts? Where do they build onpreexisting patriarchal premises and w h e : r : e ~ d ~ o ~ t h : e ~ : ' ~ ' ; ~ " : ' P ~ v : o : ~ ~ . :.. u ~ ; ~ ~.. ~ ~ F o ~ ~ ' : " ~ v : " ~ , ~ - = ~ : " = ~ = , : " , , : , , , , , _


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l4 June Nash Cultural Parameters o/ Sexism and Racism /5South African miners, the Huari ceremonies of Bolivian tin miners, or thefreedom march led byMartin Luther King, Jr. A common theme in thesernani festat ions in many di fferent places throughout the world was arecognition of the th re at to a way of li fe as people were drawn in to thecapitalist structures that denied their humanity. These movements enter intoand inform labor struggles, particularly in the ThirdWorld and increasinglyin the United States,A useful frarnework for examining these transformations is that which

Fernando Ortiz (1947) calls "transculturation"-the mutual, reinforcingchanges in relations, behaviors, and beliefs with the advance of capitalismoWe shalllook at the structuring of gender, ethnicity, and race in the contexts of the household, the workplace, and the informal economy. As nations and enclave economies within them have moved from neocolonial exchanges of raw materials for manufactured goods, to import-substitutionand export-processing zones, and finally to a shrinking of capitalist enterprises and resort to the informal economy, dramatic changes have occurredin all these arenas. The focus on the intersection of race and gender will becounterpointed in First and Third World countries as reciprocal and selfreinforcing changes transform both center and periphery.CHANGES IN THE HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY

The householdeconomy is the locus for the production of cornmodities,for sale as well a s for use byi t s members , and for the transformation ofexchanged goods into use values. Although the process of industrializationhas paralleled the reduction of the household's involvement in the production of exchange values , i t remains as a complemeritary s ite even in advancedcapitalist economies. Marx and Engel'sexpectation of the demise ofthe family and the diminishing of household production activities has no tbeen realized in the advancing industrialization that followed their prediction (Humphries 1977). This is a result of the cultural resistance rnobilizedboth by householdmembers to reject the cash nexus and by the wider politythat saw the threa t to reproduct ion of the social order in the household'sdemise. An emic or inside view, of the operation of the household stressesthe perception of rnembers that they are rejecting the commoditization ofpersonal relations in the exchanges that take place within kinship relations.The etic, or outside, view explains the noncash exchanges that take place asmaintaining low costs of reproduction of the labor force.Both emic and etic approaches are necessary to comprehend the reasons

for the survival of the family and household organization of production,Norman Long's (1984) cornparative analysis of the organization of production and reproduetion in families and households throughout the world indicates the cultural priorit ies that condition the deployment of resourcesand the allocation of rewards. Contributors to his vol ume frorn a wderanze of societies show r ha t n rm waca relar ionshins ha.SNi o n k in sh in n r

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neighborhood or communi ty t ie s define the divis ion of labor and theredistribution of social products in ways that defy monetary calculations. Irthere were a one-to-one relationship between the construction of roles incapitalist relations and those in households, then wage-earning women whocontribute the maior share of the family income would become householdheads. It is clear that this is rarely the case. Similarly, if opportunity costswere the major basis for decisions about number of chi ldren to be born,then family sizewould be closely correlated with the economic contributionchildren make to the home. Occasionallythere are correspondences in suchequations (Rothstein 1986), bu t t he re are as many exc ep ti ons to the rul e.High birth rates persist inmanyThird World countries whether or not thereis development and despite the failure to absorb populations in the formaleconomy (Anker e t al . 1982; Buvinic et a l. 1983).These prior it ie s can be ana lyzed using a redis tr ibutional model t ha tfol lows the cul tura lly media ted terms of exehange within families andhous eho ld s. Karl Po lan yi (1944) d ef in ed the p oli tical economy ofredistribution as one based on the central izat ion of soc ia l surpluses andallocation of shares to individuals and groups in accord with cul tura llydefined priorit ies. He illustrated its operation in noncapitalistic societiessuch as tribes and chiefdoms, where the power of governingindividuals andgroups was validated by their command over resources.'But when we examine the operation of families and households crossculturally, we find that power relations operate within these units in waysthat defy the assumptions of communalistic exchange. Inequalities existwithin families that affeet the power, prestige, and share of the resourcesgarnered by family members.

Patriarchal Roots of OppressionMany feminist analysts (Eisenstein 1979;Hartmann 1979; Kuhn & Wolpe1978; Mies 1986; Millett 1970; Mitchell 1973) attribute the persistent forms

of inequality in household allocation and redistribution to patriarchy as ap rima ry force usu rp ing e conomic rat iona le in the mat er ia l c ondi ti onsgoverning women's lives as they enter into capitalist domains. Kate Millett(1971) was among the f irst feminis ts to extend the term patriarchy beyondits core meaning-dominance of the ascending male generation over wornenand youths-to the rule of men as a unive rsal mode of power relationships.Roisin McDonough and Rache! Harrison (1978) have tried to reappropriatethe term for a materialist-feminist approach that sees its operations withinthe context of historical class formation. This attempt fails, just as Millett'sdoes, by robbing the term of its ethnographic meaning. "Patriarchy" refersto elder male authority in a gerontocracy. It provides reciprocal benefits tothe subordinate females and youths in the soc ie ty where i t preva il s, and itimplies persistence from past ins ti tu tions, princ ipal ly those related lonastor:llsorif' tif 's (R nbin 1975)_


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These conditions are rarely present in the contemporary societies where itis invoked to explain male hegemony. Colonial institutions often imposedwhat i s cal led "patriarchy" on primordial bases where matri l ineal kingroups or egali tarian societies may have prevailed (Etienne & Leacock1980). The universalistic use of "patriarchy" distorts the evidence by suggesting that the existence of male dominance was prior and universal. Theinstitutionalization of patriarchy in early states of the Middle East, MiddleAmerica, and Asia was a specific historical process in which women becamesubordinated to elder males within the household and domestic productionof commodities was expropriated for the state. The riseof these institutionsand their diffusion through military conquest and colonization can be tracedhistorically and ethnographically (Nash& Rohrlich 1981;Silverblatt 1980).As the history of conquest and colonization shows, patriarchy had not arrived in all areas with the expansion of the world-systern, and asethnographies of contemporary societies reveal, female autonomy can beseen in many areas (cf. Schlegel 1977,especially the essays by Awe, FluehrLobban, Lewis, Sutton, and Makiesky-Barrow).

If welirnit"patriarchy" to those caseswhere it applies to intergeneratonalpower relat ions monopolized by men and use "rnale hegemony" in thosesituations where it is imposed, we can appreciate the distinct processesoftransculturation that occur in those countries that had developed patriarchalinstitutions in precolonial times and those that lacked gender hierarchy.Cooptation of Patriarchy in theAdvance of CapitalismIn the modernizing nationsof the Middle Eastand Asia, capitalist institutions have reinforced, and in turn been strengthened by, building on preexisting partriarchal relations. In the caseof Iran, the Shah, and in part icularhis sister, challenged partriarchal control over women by advocating pract ices to overcome the signs of women's subordination, liberating them inthe terms advocated by liberal, bourgeois feminist movements by removingthe veiland purdah. Women wereexpected to add wagelabor in the market( to their home chores. In the expansion of t rade with the West, women and

young girls were employed full-time in the manufactureof carpets. Withthis additional burden they wereeven more intensively exploited bymales intheir households since they did not own the product or the meansof product ion, and could not enter the marke t that remained a bast ion of Islamicmale leaders. Men disposed of their earnings in education for male childrenor in their own businesses, only summarily addressing the needs and interests of females in the household (Afshar 1985). In the backlash sinceKhomeini's revolution, the new regime appeals to patriarchal traditions inselective ways, with elite professional women the most stigmatized sincethey were expelled from highly paid professional and government jobs,Although labor force participation rates for women have declined along

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