The article focuses on the persistent links between workplace stratification and gender ascription in the organization of flexible high-tech production. Using a comparative case study analysis of three multinational electronics firms in the Philippines, it examines three key organizational factors: firm nationality, product characteristics, and existing labor relations—that help drive variation in the gendering and gendered impact of technological upgrading. It also considers three extra-organizational factors—trends in flexible production, the role of the host state, and gender ideologies—that also influence firm choices. The article assesses the variation in gendered processes and outcomes focusing on the fulfillment of workers’ practical needs versus strategic gender interests. The article finds that despite continued variation at the firm level, extra-organizational pressures will likely contribute to continued gender stratification as firms upgrade, leading to the potential masculinization of skilled high-tech work.
Appelbaum, Eileen, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne E. Kalleberg. 2000. Manufacturing advantage: Why high-performance work systems pay off. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
3.
Austria, Myrna S.1999. Assessing the competitiveness of the Philippine IT industry. PIDS discussion paper. Makati: Philippine Institute for Development Studies.
4.
Bello, Walden, Herbert Docena, Marissa de Guzman, and Mary Lou Malig. 2004. The anti-development state: The political economy of permanent crisis in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Diliman and Focus on the Global South.
5.
Bello, Walden, David Kinley, and Elaine Elinson. 1982. Development debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines. San Francisco: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
6.
Berlik, Gunseli. 2000. Mature export-led growth and gender wage inequality in Taiwan. Feminist Economics6 (3): 1-26.
7.
Bureau of Labor Relations. 1999. Labor management schemes and workers’ benefits in the electronics industry. Unpublished draft. Manila, Phillipines: Bureau of Labor Relations.
8.
Chant, Sylvia, and Cathy McIlwaine. 1995. Women of a lesser cost: Female labor, foreign exchange and Philippine development. London: Pluto.
9.
Chhachhi, Amrita. 1999. Gender, flexibility, skill and industrial restructuring: The electronics industry in India. Working paper series no. 296. The Hague, the Netherlands: Institute of Social Studies.
10.
Chhachhi, A., and R. Pittin. 1998. Multiple identities, multiple strategies: Confronting state, capital and patriarchy. In Labor worldwide in the era of globalization, edited by P. Waterman and R. Munck. London: Macmillan.
11.
Chow, E. N., and R. Hsung. 2002. Gendered organizations, embodiment, and employment among manufacturing workers in Taiwan. In Transforming gender and development in East Asia, edited by E. N. Chow. New York: Routledge.
12.
Chow, E. N., and D. M. Lyter. 2002. Studying development with gender perspectives: From mainstream theories to alternative frameworks. In Transforming gender and development in East Asia, edited by E. N. Chow. New York: Routledge.
13.
Chun, J.2001. Flexible despotism: The intensification of insecurity and uncertainty in the lives of Silicon Valley’s high-tech assembly workers. In The critical study of work, edited by R. Baldoz, C. Kroeber, and P. Kraft. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
14.
Delbridge, Rick. 1998. Life on the line in contemporary manufacturing. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
15.
Deyo, F.1997. Labor and industrial restructuring in Southeast Asia. The political economy of South-East Asia, edited by G. Rodan, K. Hewison, and R. Robison. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
16.
Elson, Diane. 1999. Labor markets as gendered institutions: Equality, efficiency and empowerment issues. World Development27 (3): 611-627.
17.
Ernst, Dieter. 2002. Digital information systems and global flagship networks: How mobile is knowledge in the global network economy?East West Center working papers, economics series no. 48. Honolulu, HI: East West Center.
18.
Eviota, Elizabeth U.1992. The political economy of gender: Women and the sexual division of labor in the Philippines. London: Zed Books.
19.
Fan, Cindy. 2002. The elite, the natives, and the outsiders: Migration and labor market segmentation in urban China. Annals of Association of American Geographers92 (1): 103-124.
20.
Fernandez, Roberto. 2001. Skill-biased technological change and wage inequality: Evidence from a plant retooling. American Journal of Sociology107 (2): 273-320.
21.
Ferree, M. M., and C. M. Mueller. 2004. Feminism and the women’s movement: A global perspective. In The Blackwell companion to social movements, edited by D. Snow, S. Soule, and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
22.
Fox, J.2002. Women work and resistance in the global economy. In Labor and capital in the age of globalization, edited by B. Berberoglu. Lanham, MD: Rowan and Littlefield.
23.
Hassim, Shireen. 2005. Voices, hierarchies and spaces: Reconfiguring the women’s movement in democratic South Africa. Center for Civil Society seminar series. Available from http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/files/Hassim%2520SM%2520Final%2520Paper_1.pdf.
24.
Hossfeld, K.1995. Why aren’t high-tech workers organized? Lessons in gender, race, and nationality from Silicon Valley. In Working people of California, edited by D. Cornfield. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
Hutchinson, Jane, and Andrew Brown, eds. 2001. Organizing labour in globalising Asia. London: Routledge.
26.
Joekes, Susan, and Ann Weston. 1994. Women and the new trade agenda. New York: UNIFEM.
27.
Katz, Harry C., and Owen Darbishire. 2000. Converging divergences. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
28.
Kelkar, G., and D. Nathan. 2002. Gender relations and technological change in Asia. Current Sociology50 (3): 427-441.
29.
Kenney, M., R. Goe, O. Contreras, J. Romero, and M. Bustos. 1998. Learning factories or reproduction factories? Labor-management relations in the Japanese consumer electronics maquiladoras in Mexico. Work and Occupations25 (3): 269-304.
30.
Kuruvilla, Sarosh. 1996. Linkages between industrialization strategies and industrial relations/human resource policies: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India. Industrial & Labor Relations Review49 (4): 635-658.
31.
Lee, Ching Kwan. 1998. Gender and the South China miracle. Berkeley: University of California Press.
32.
Lin, V.1987. Women electronics workers in Southeast Asia: The emergence of a working class. In Global restructuring and territorial development, edited by J. Henderson and M. Castells. London: Sage.
33.
Luthje, Boy. 2004. Global production networks and industrial upgrading in China: The case of electronics manufacturing. East West Center working papers, economics series no. 74. Honolulu, HI: East West Center.
34.
McKendrick, David, Richard Doner, and Stephan Haggard. 2000. From Silicon Valley to Singapore: Location and competitive advantage in the hard disk drive industry. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
35.
Mehra, R., and S. Gammage. 1999. Trends, countertrends, and gaps in women’s employment. World Development27 (3): 533-550.
36.
Milkman, Ruth. 1991. Japan’s California factories: Labor relations and economic globalization. Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations, UCLA.
37.
Mills, Mary Beth. 2003. Gender and inequality in the global labor force. Annual Review of Anthropology32:41-62.
38.
Molyneux, Maxine. 1985. Mobilization without emancipation? Women’s interests, the state and revolution in Nicaragua. Feminist Studies11:225-254.
39.
Molyneux, Maxine. 1998. Analyzing women’s movements. Development and Change29:219-245.
40.
National Statistical Coordination Board. Various years. Statistics on men and women in the Philippines. Government of the Philippines. Available from http://www.nscb.gov.ph/stats/wmfact.htm.
41.
Ng, C., and M. Mohamad. 1997. The management of technology and women in two electronics firms in Malaysia. Gender, Technology and Development1 (2): 177-203.
42.
Ong, Aiwa. 1991. The gender and labor politics of postmodernity. Annual Review of Anthropology20:279-309.
43.
Parrenas, R. S. 2001. Breaking the code: Women, migration, and the 1987 family code of the Republic of the Philippines. Paper presented at the Workshop on Globalization and the Asian “Migrant” Family, National University of Singapore, 16 April.
44.
Perez, D.1998. The situation of Filipino women workers in export processing zones and industrial enclaves in the Philippines. In We in the zone: Women workers in Asia’s export processing zones, edited by Asia Monitor Resource Center. Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center.
45.
Powell, W., and K. Snellman. 2004. The knowledge economy. Annual Review of Sociology30:199-220.
46.
Safa, Helen. 1981. Runaway shops and female employment: The search for cheap labor. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society7:418-433.
47.
Salzinger, Leslie. 2003. Gender in production: Making workers in Mexico’s global factories. Berkeley: University of California Press.
48.
Seguino, Stephanie. 2000. Accounting for gender in Asian economic growth. Feminist Economics6 (3): 27-58.
49.
Seidman, Gay. 2003. Institutional dilemmas: Representation versus mobilization in the South African Gender Commission. Feminist Studies29 (3): 541-563.
50.
Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc.2003. SEIPI information book. Alabang: Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc.
51.
Standing, Guy. 1999. Global feminization through flexible labor: A theme revisited. World Development27 (3): 583-602.
52.
Theodore, Nik. 2003. Political economies of day labor: Regulation and restructuring of Chicago’s contingent labor markets. Urban Studies40 (9): 1811-1828.
53.
Tzannatos, Zafiris. 1999. Women and labor market changes in the global economy: Growth helps, inequalities hurt and public policies matter. World Development27 (3): 551-569.
54.
Vallas, Steven. 2003. Why teamwork really fails: Obstacles to workplace change in four manufacturing plants. American Sociological Review68 (2): 223-250.
55.
Whitley, Richard D.1999. Divergent capitalisms: The social structuring of change and business systems. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
56.
Wolf, Diane L.1992. Factory daughters: Gender, household dynamics, and rural industrialization in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.
57.
World Bank. 1997. Philippines: Managing global integration. Vol. 2, report no. 17024-PH. Poverty Reduction & Economic Management Sector, East Asia and the Pacific Office. Washington, DC: World Bank.
58.
Wright, Melissa. 2001. Desire and the prosthetics of supervision: A case of maquiladora flexibility. Cultural Anthropology16 (3): 354-373.
59.
Yun, Hing Ai. 1995. Automation and new work patterns: Cases from Singapore’s electronics industry. Work, Employment & Society9 (2): 309-327.
