Shenying Zhou
Sociology Final Paper
David M. McCourt
3.16.2017
Throughout the history, gender conflictions always spark an enormous debt worldwide. In past time, men and women were extremely inequivalent. To be more specific, in the traditional society, women totally did not have rights to vote and enroll in well-qualified education. They were even not allowed to look for employment which means they did not have income so that they had to rely on others’ economic assistance to survive instead of controlling their life by themselves. However, from the end of the 18th century, more and more feminist philosophies occurred and tried hard to fight for their property rights. Margaret Fuller who is one of the earliest female reporters wrote “Women in the nineteenth century” in 1845 which called for everyone not to be sexism. (Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia Copyright 1994) She argued that the development of whole society would be severely limited if people’s role defined by their sex. This trend indicated that women’s social status had been started to change and more people would think about how women’s role infects the society development. With the changing condition of the capitalist society, female, fortunately and deservedly, achieve more rights and higher societal positions. Indeed, the relationship between the changing of female’s role and the development of capitalism closely relate and interact with each other. Throughout the historical stage to the nowadays society, women’s role has three dominate transformations that they transformed from a reproductive machine to a secondary labor force, and then to a more skilled worker and consequently to a financially independent individual. More vitally, these changings largely accelerate the development of capitalism. The goal of the capitalist society is to gain the enormous economic gains as much as possible. Altering women’s social role and the rising gender power, undoubtedly, stimulates the economic growth and cater the society’s much well.
By 15,000 years ago, the population numbered was 15 million which is equal to present population of Mexico City. On the eve of Industrial Revolution, the world population had tripled to about 700 million. (Robbins 133) Karl Marx, who is both economist and sociologist, shared an idea of surplus reserve of labor. He saw capitalism as creating the surplus of population to compete for the scarce jobs so that the firms could pay the wage as low as possible. To achieve the high economics growth rate, the first element required is adequate labor force and the rising population could make the supply and the demand for labor on equilibrium. In 1961, the annual population growth rate was 1.353% and in the 1963, with a rapid growth, the rate increased to 2.074%. In general, worldwide population rate depends on two factors which are birth rate and death rate. The death rate is directly controlled by the advances of medicine and sanitation. However, the birth rate has many various influenced factor. For instance, the economic expansion and the population growth are related closely with each other and in a circulation.
Colonization is one kind of economic expansion, which is one related factor of population growth that I mentioned above, that foreign governors establish control over another country and sent their citizens to the settles which was very common in the developing countries such as Africa and Mexico in the past time. Anthropologists, Carol R.Ember (1983), suggests that fertility increased with the intensification of agriculture activities by colonizers in the Third World.(Robbins 148) Population grew rapidly under the colonization. Women in the Africa, just like the women in elsewhere, responded to the colonial economic pressures by increasing the fertility rates. (Robbins 148) Women began to wean their children earlier so that they can get the pregnancy again to offer the labor force for the intensive work assigned by the colonizers. Demographer John Caldwell (1982) introduced the wealth flow theory which lists two reproductive strategies that the first one is to restrict the reproduction if there is no economic profit and the other one is to maximize the family size if children bring the family benefits. In the scenario of the extended family structures, wealth flows from children to the older which basically means children would suffer a large part of economic burdens of parents. Children play the role of the creator of wealth in their childhood by doing the cheap but intensive work. As a result, Women in the developing countries would like to reproductive because most parents in developing countries expected the economic assistances from the younger generation and the large family size could expand the economic and political contacts for the family members as well. Women, at that time, had nothing to do except birthing and caring babies at home. They would more likely to be called as a “reproductive machine”. However, the rapidly improved fertility created the enormous amount of potential labor force and consequently brought the society huge productivity and economic growth as well.
The second transformation of women’s role was from a productive machine to the simple labor force that encouraged the economic growth due to the massive production. Throughout most of history, women had a lack on education and had fewer own property and rights. Because of the stereotype of women that they are less talented than men, they were forced to stay at home and doing housework. Consequently, women could not control their lives by themselves because they did not have own income. The transformation of females’ role occurred during the Industrial Revolution. According to the basic economy, modern industries is divided into two categories, Primary industries and secondary industries. Primary industries refer to the markets with high capital investment and wages such as automobile manufacturing. These factories usually hire well-trained and content workforce. Then within the secondary industries which involves fast food and textile industries, there is low-paying, harsh working conditions and uncertain demand for work force. Traditionally, the desirable employees for secondary industries are unskilled labor and subjugated groups such as women and children. In 1851, 31 percent of the labor force in the England consisted of women, 45 percent of whom were in manufacturing. In the English textile industry of 1840, over 75 percent of the workforce was women and children. (Robbins 51) Hiring women for labor-intensive work is the feature of industrial capitalism. This phenomenon is notable because it not only shows the change in the labor force majority, more importantly, but also represents the rising social status of females. The growth of oversea assembly opened an entrance for young women into the labor market and more and more employers in developing countries such as Malaysia and Mexico thought that women are biologically suited for assembly plant work. For instance, the assembly plants in Malaysia owned by Japanese and American corporation preferred young single female for several reasons. A Japanese manager told that “You cannot expect a man to do very fine work for eight hours… If we employ men, within one or two months they would have run away… ”(Robbins 50) which means women are better able to concentrate well on the routine work than men and many jobs are designed for females. Moreover, they are more preferable since their better eyesight, which is so indispensable for sewing work in the textile or clothing factories, than the older. Employers also considered female are easier to train and adopt new works. Most crucial reason is that the wage paying to women is far more less than the that paying to men because the works done by women were considered to be unskilled and inexpensive due to the segmentation of the population which basically stands out that the division between the skilled and unskilled jobs depends on people who do the work. The firms could maximize the profits by paying minimum amount of wages to the worker and achieved highest productivity. Due to the carefulness, meticulosity and docility of women, they had more chance to leave house and move into cities to work. Even though the working conditions of women were considered to be harsh and the wage was relatively low, many economists and policymakers still asserts that this kind of employment is the progress for women to change their subjugated position and ultimately achieve the social status around the world. (Robbins 51) People’s status regularly represents by their income and own rights. Because of the employment in the assembly plants, women could earn income, even just a little amount, which is portion of their control. Women could bring the money into household to make a better quality of family life instead of caring baby at home for whole day long. On the other hand, women were able to consume for themselves, for example, shopping and dancing, by using their newfound freedom and the wages which stimulate the consumption in the whole society. In sum, the creation of this kind of work would be the vital stage of economic development in the nation. Capitalism, generally, is characterized as a black box which convert money into more money. The creation of assembly plants, segmentation and the discipline of work could be good example of a black box because it creates great efficiency and ultimately bring the economic benefits to the society. On the other hand, the rapid growth of assembly plants also raised the employment rate to the women population and consolidate the women’s social status.
The rising female’s social status also promotes the work place equity. A research shows that the financial returns of companies with three or more women are substantially higher than that have no women. (“European Commission Women on Boards Fact Sheets,” an overview of multiple research studies) Evidences also point out that the gender-diverse groups would have better organizational outcome.
Then, women transformed from the low-paying labor force to a more educated individual and skilled worker which was the most notable change throughout the history. This transition occurred with change of the population growth rate which follows the trends of demographic transition theory. According to the theory, world population growth very slowly at the human beginning. At the first stage of the demographic transition, both of the birth rate and the mortality rate were so high and the rate of population growth was relatively stable. During the end of eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century which is the second stage of the demographic transition, mortality rate declined rapidly due to the advances in medicine, sanitation, health measures and better living conditions. The reduced mortality rate directly caused the rise of the population rate in the country. Due to the population pressure, the birth rate, at least in the developed country, finally declined. . According to the wealth flow theory, in the scenario of the nuclear family which mainly occurs in the developed country, wealth flows from family to the children which means parents should support children’s life and give them economic assistances. What’s more, they have less control on children’s wealth and their rights to reproductive than before Family’s cost on children is over the benefits they can receive so that women in the developed countries are mostly unwilling to birth too many children which cause the reduce of the fertility rate. Take an example of American women. The fertility rate in North America decreases from 3.7 births per women in 1960 to 1.8 births per women in 2014 and the curve is keeping downward sloping all the time. (World Bank) There are many reasons for the reduced fertility rate and the most crucial one is the long term societal changes on women employment. Women now are more willing to enroll in education program and to take skilled jobs so that the time of marriage and first births delay. Some people even choose not to get pregnant because they could not spirt no efforts on caring baby, which, in another words, means they could not be so responsible to their own child. Although the overall population growth rate is stable and increasing very slowly, the capitalism still grows well because majority of people, which includes both men and women, participate in the education and work.
During the last 30 years, the development of capitalism has already been at the stable stage. The male-female relation, more specifically, the family structure, changes as a result of the improved economic conditions. Throughout the history, woman was considered as the belonging of her husband. Even though they were in the relationship of marriage, they were just bonded with each other by the sex relation. In the other words, female was considered as a machine of reproduction through a period of time in the history. However, it is not always negative. The State of the World’s Population, 2000 concludes that women had the power to make decisions about sexual activity and its consequence. It quotes that women could avoid many of the 80 million unwanted pregnancies each year. (Robbins 152) Summarily, women, who were thought to be the negligible role in the society, actually play the prime determination on the fertility rate and the population growth. When it comes to male-female relations, after women’s social status become more stable, women are considered their husbands as the companions instead of an economic assistance or an individual whom only has the sex with. Women also are more likely to attend school than the men so that delaying the time of marriage and reproduction. Moreover, they also have more choice on the selection of jobs which are employed more well-trained, well-educationed, and skilled worker and offer high wage such as technical specialist and lawyers. From 1950 to 1980, the percentage of women working in manufacturing increased from less than 15 percent to more than 50 percent. (Robbins 154). Women have their own rights to take the fertility decision because they have own earning and do not rely on their husbands any more. It shows that the fundamental social position of female has been altered. It transforms from an individual who living in the lowest level in the society to a role who have essential effect to the development of capitalism. Due to the women’s meticulous and patient attitudes towards the works, they are more preferable than men in the labor market and they could create more economic benefits.
Women’s role and their financial ability also related to the family investment of a children who will be the potential labor and consumer in the future. Take a present example of American family. In 1975, it was still economically possible for one of the parent remain staying at home which was usually women. In the nowadays society, more and more families require the income from both parents to stay afloat. In 2010, 44.8 percent of U.S families with children included two working parents. (Emily Baxter 2014) The data shows that more and more women start to seek for a job in order to share the family economic burdens with her husband. Why the family income so important? Because high family investment on children would offer children formal and professional education which is very costly. what’s more, if both parents are educated and have rich experience on the work, they could give their children more advice on the future career. There are 48 percent of children from low-income families are not ready for school at the age of 5 and these low-income families children will have 15 months gap with children from relatively high-income families. Access to early childhood education is the essential path to the success, and it also helps the United States break the cycle of poverty. All in all, investing in children would make the United States more competitive among the global economy. And childhood in nineteenth-century America was very different than today because the children are more considered as a consumer instead of a labor. Child psychologists and home economies advised parents that children needed toys for exercise and toys to relax. (Robbins 24) The research gives the data that in nearly half of American states, children can cost more than the average rent payment and up to 35.9 percent of a low-income family. Women, instead of caring children at home, they decide to go out to take some high-paying jobs so that they have the ability to offer their children the high quality life, formal education, and the toys and games they would like to play. Women not only produce the productivity for the society by themselves, but they also lead their children to create the economic benefits for the capitalist society as well.
Brigham Young quoted that, “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; You educate a generation.” Women’s influence is more powerful than the society thought. As a worker, thanks to their carefulness by nature, they could effectively rise the productivity. Because they are more willing to get in the school, they could acquire much fresh new knowledge to make progresses on technological development. As a mother, they could give their children best family education and tell them how to do well on the school and job based on their own experiences so that their children would also, in few years later, become a creator of economic benefits in the society. Women are now playing a central role in the world. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a strong case for economic inclusion of women as being a vital source of economic growth when she spoke at the first Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation High-Level Policy Dialogue on Women and the Economy. (US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks to the APEC Women and the Economy Summit, Sept. 16, 2011)
Undoubtedly, the changing situation of women’s role, which basically are the increasing their access to capital and equity in the labor market, has already had a giant positive impact on the evolution of the capitalist society and will continue to affect it in the future.