Feminization of Labor
In his definition of feminization of labor, Ross states women are inherently more likely to take on more work in the white-collar, no-collar, unpaid internship role because the around the clock efforts of these jobs are similar to the work schedule of a housewife. A housewife’s duties generally have no distinction between keeping home (working) and being at home (not working). As the duties of keeping home do not hold the traditional hours of an office, a housewife’s tasks take place both day and night intermingled with every day’s pleasures. So therefore, in attempt to explain feminization of labor, Ross implies that by simply being women they are attuned and inclined to the work-ethic of having no clear distinction between work time and leisure time, compared to their male counterparts. While I personally find this connection to be assumptious and furthering the gendered divide, there is no denying that the majority (77% according to Ross’s research) of unpaid internships are held by women in which their efforts exceed the formal model of a 5-day, 40 hour work week. Perhaps it would be better to examine the reasoning behind the gendered imbalance by interpreting women’s extra efforts in the workplace as striving to disprove discriminating assumptions of being the inferior sex, working harder than male counterparts to dispel gendered inequality but consequently creating a new gendered assumption that women are more readily open to being exploited in their effort and time in the new mobile labor sector.
In addition to the feminization of the creative industries, like those in tech and corporate American unpaid internships, another feminization of labor is taking place in the physical workforces that produce the electronic devices for upon which creative industries utilize. Ross explains that these factories that create devices in countries like China are employed almost fully by rural female teenagers receiving little compensation for long work hours. The remote locations of the factories partnered with little competition of other work and few opportunities for women in general, make possible the exploitation of this class of women.
