Deck 11: Invisible Workers

Question 1

Which of the following statements about colonialism is false?

A) The past 500 years of history has been molded by European colonialism.
B) European colonizers believed native people to be inherently inferior and less evolved than themselves.
C) European colonizers demonstrated a commitment to women's work through their expansionist policies.
D) Members of formerly colonized states are not necessarily poorer than those in the First World.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Despite the vast variety in women's work, it generally boils down to the following __________.

A) status enhancement, emotional work, healing, and witchcraft
B) production, reproduction, status enhancement, and emotional work
C) production, reproduction, household and factory labor
D) social production, economic production, biological production

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Historically, modernization and development projects _________.

A) have helped women increase their status but have also increased their workload
B) have highlighted the importance of the female workforce
C) made women poorer and sicker than before the projects began
D) have given women access to the means of production

Answer 3

C

Question 4

At the present time, around the world _________.

A) women are able to earn the same salaries as men
B) few women die in childbirth
C) women receive the same education as men
D) fewer women are getting married

Question 5

Which of the following is no longer a current category of life circumstance?

A) Third World
B) First Nations
C) First World
D) Second World

Question 6

Which of the following statements about maternal mortality is true?

A) Maternal mortality remains high in many countries even though methods of reducing maternal mortality are well known.
B) Maternal mortality does not occur in matrilineal societies.
C) In developed countries like the United States, women no longer die during childbirth.
D) All maternal mortality deaths are preventable.

Question 7

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) _________.

A) are extremely contagious, especially relative to other diseases
B) are more dangerous to women than to men
C) including AIDS, are the leading cause of death for women of childbearing age in many major cities
D) all of the above

Question 8

Between 1950 and the 1970s, international development agencies conceived of women as __________.

A) equal to men and deserving of the same compensation
B) being able work ever-longer hours to shoulder the burden of unavailable social services
C) unfit mothers who were passive and in need of major help
D) unwilling to work because of wanting to devote their time to care and education of children

Question 9

What does the empowerment approach of development agencies assert?

A) Women need to perform in the economy in a more professional, businesslike manner.
B) Racial and class prejudices are more significant than sexism.
C) Nations will take better care of their poor and sick if they adopt female world leaders.
D) Governments should listen to suggestions Western feminists offer about solving inequality.

Question 10

The phenomenon known as housewifization __________.

A) has been women's primary role in First World countries since the Middle Ages
B) means women are recognized for their contribution to the family income
C) could help millions of poor women learn to better care for their children
D) uses the Western version of a wife as the model for women's work in capitalist and postcolonial labor systems

Question 11

Household workers ___________.

A) work in other people's homes, as well as needing to work in their own
B) usually do work like cleaning, changing diapers, yard work and cooking
C) are fundamentally unequal to their employers, and employment is never secure
D) all of the above

Question 12

The lowest paid members of the Malaysian factory workforce are known as_________.

A) invisible workers
B) factory daughters
C) household workers
D) daughters of capitalistism

Question 13

Malaysian factory workers have to obey rules _________.

A) about what to wear and what to keep private, especially about matters related to reproduction
B) enforced by other poor women who work as managers and disciplinarians
C) that commit them to work at these factories for upwards of 20 or 30 years
D) all of the above

Question 14

Lewis Henry Morgan observed the following about land ownership in the Iroquois Nation: __________

A) As in colonial America, only men were allowed to own land, although women farmed it.
B) Iroquois women were the first people to be alienated from the products of their labor.
C) Matrilineal groups farmed the land jointly, and cultivation not ownership determined use-rights.
D) Women owned land and required men to pay a fee every time they needed to plant something.

Question 15

Eleanor Leacock argued all of the following except that _______.

A) female subordination results from restricting women's diets
B) food gathering societies are relatively egalitarian in their treatment of women and men
C) stratification, monogamy, and private property together create the conditions for female subordination
D) childbirth and childcare do not automatically subordinate women to men

Question 16

The protests at the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina _______.

A) were organized by Marxist-feminists
B) were organized by women whose family members had been "disappeared" by the government
C) convinced the pope to intervene on behalf of Argentinians who disappeared
D) advocated peaceful compliance with the military government

Question 17

_______ viewed monogamous marriage as the male justification for treating women like property.

A) Frederick Engels
B) Hilary Clinton
C) Karl Marx
D) Ela Bhatt

Question 18

Grassroots organizations are _________.

A) a common form of social cooperation for solving problems that governments neglect
B) started by leaders of elite social groups
C) factories that produce tea made from grass and roots
D) failures in addressing global problems like childcare and chronic illness

Question 19

What does the acronym SEWA stand for?

A) Self-Employed Workers Association
B) Sassy Energetic Women Activists
C) Self-Employed Women's Agency
D) Sustainable Economics for Women's Agencies

Question 20

In recent years, international development agencies have started to ________.

A) refuse loans to women on the basis that their husbands earn a family wage
B) demand that men take an active role in acquiring potable water
C) generate better statistics concerning women's unpaid labor
D) reduce the need for grassroots organizations

Question 21

Discuss what we mean when we talk about women's invisible labor in developing countries. What examples of women's invisible labor exist in United States society?

Question 22

Using the work of Eleanor Leacock, discuss how a Marxist-feminist perspective has influenced the way feminists think about women's work around the globe.

Question 23

Describe the organization known as SEWA, and address the major resources it offers to women. Why are organizations like SEWA so desperately needed?

Question 24

The postmodernist perspective challenges simple cultural typologies like those Margaret Mead proposed. What characterizes the postmodernist perspective? Consider how this perspective influences how international development projects take shape.

Question 25

Female-headed households are the fastest growing family form on the planet. What social and economic consequences does this have for women?