Abstract
In Making the Woman Worker: Precarious Labor and the Fight for Global Standards, 1919–2019, Eileen Boris offers a thorough feminist investigation of women as workers in the context of the history of the International Labour Organization (ILO) between 1919 and 2019 in terms of protection, equality, development, reproduction, outwork, home, and the future of work as expressed in the chapter titles.
In the introductory section, Boris underlines that women were initially considered as essentially different than the male worker in the concurrence of their physical and social conditions, and the (industrial) male worker, by default, was understood to be the representative laborer. This chapter also contains information on the following chapters, a brief yet explicit presentation of ILO’s institutional structure, and the transformation of the units dedicated to women’s work within the organization over time.
Chapter 1 offers a detailed outlook on the cultures of protection for women as well as other specific groups such as seafarers and emigrants, together with an examination of the issue of forced labor in the interwar period. Boris indicates that the cultures of protection were concealed under the notion of work, yet they were firmly connected to preoccupations regarding morality, family responsibilities, sexuality, and gender norms. This section strongly points out that special protections for women at work acted as means of control, reinforced existing hierarchies, and weakened protective labor standards. They were also a source of contest between ILO officials, legal equality feminists, and labor feminists during this period.
Chapter 2 is primarily centered on women at work in the context of ILO during the transition from times of war to peace. Boris elaborates the deliberations concerning maternity leave, of which “only years later did officials speak (…) as part of women’s economic rights rather than as a protective measure” (pp. 73–74), and focuses upon the lingering emphasis on the female as well as Third World difference, the latter in relation to indigenous women and their rights. This chapter highlights the discussions on equality as a notion associated with the prevention of discrimination and the issue of equal remuneration that was strongly supported by feminists as a basic women’s right amid the tensions between UN Commission on the Status of Women and the ILO. The variations among countries in terms of the implementation of maternity protection are also stressed, for which “huge gaps existed between standards and practice” (p. 74), and it is clearly demonstrated that the case of handling equality versus discrimination at work was similar in the chasm that yawned between norms and actualities.
Chapter 3 sheds light on the case of women in the Global South in relation to development from 1950s until the end of 1970s by also leading the reader to the question of whether women were actually a part or a means of development. We could see that in the heart of development discussions were handicraft and cottage industries, which were considered a key strategy for addressing underemployment and unemployment in Third World countries by and large for women, while, in reality, being precarious and reinforcing of women’s “second shift.” This chapter also signifies the transition of the ILO from women-specific protections to legal equality in the context of the rising gender mainstreaming, and tracks the ILO's initial contest against the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women before signing it in 1979.
Chapter 4 is centered on the exploitation of rural women’s work in the Global South in relation to the integration of capitalism into agricultural production as well as the overwork and double burden they face on the edge of poverty, essentially focusing on the period from mid-1970s to the end of 1980s. This part of the book is concentrated on ILO’s Programme on Rural Women (PRW), and PRW’s efforts are recognized in terms of the vitality of ethnographic research they undertook by adopting a bottom-up perspective, involving rural women in the process. This approach is seen to have helped with rural women’s empowerment journey in the Global South, created a solid basis for technical assistance to improve their conditions, and decolonized knowledge.
Introducing the deliberations concerning the position, definition, and rights of homeworkers, Chapter 5 elaborates the duality of homework as an area of exploitation and precarity with low pay and no regulations yet also as a source of income and economic growth. This section fundamentally marks Self Employed Women’s Association’s () efforts for recognition of homeworkers and the protection of their rights on the way toward the eventual adoption of Home Work Convention (no. 177) in 1996, which represented the consolidation of institutional support toward the informal sector via standard setting, despite opposition from the Employers’ group within the ILO.
Chapter 6 presents the process toward the adoption of Domestic Workers Convention (no. 189) in 2011. Domestic work, which provides a livelihood for women and their families while helping other women to work outside the home, has been characterized as intimate labor occurring in the private sphere with such problems as unlimited hours and harassment. Despite these issues, this chapter shows that there were struggles in the recognition and protection of domestic workers, predominantly justified by the hesitations toward the inspection of their workplace: the private sphere. While there are similarities with homeworkers’ battle for recognition, domestic workers themselves were in the spotlight during this process by actively being involved via lobbying and dissemination alongside their NGO supporters, which challenged the tripartite system of the ILO. In this section, migrant women and child labor are also discussed in the context of domestic work, and the supporting role of the United States in the adoption of the convention is emphasized.
Chapter 7 reflects upon the issues of unpaid reproductive labor as well as harassment and violence at work with its extended definitions. Inclusiveness concerning vulnerable groups at work, and the gender mainstreaming adopted by ILO as a vision by the end of the 20th century are underscored.
This book delivers a clear and detailed (though at times overelaborated) account of women in paid and unpaid work based on ILO’s century-long history and its transformation, focusing mainly on women who have been more disadvantaged than others in terms of definition, recognition, equal treatment, and empowerment. While references were made to the overall social circumstances, as in the example of postwar conditions, greater elaboration on the wider social context regarding women’s status during the periods covered in the book, where possible, would have strengthened the arguments even more. Yet still, this could also be considered as a strength since this outstanding work promises to present a solid narrative of the challenges, failures, victories, and oppositions in the process as well as support, conflict, and tensions among actors involved in the “making of the woman worker” during ILO’s 100 years, and the author keeps this promise.
