Homeworking Women: A Gender Justice Perspective

197 Pages·2019·5.325 MB·English

by  Annie Delaney, Rosaria Burchielli, Shelley Marshall, Jane Tate

HOMEWORKING WOMEN
Homework;workthatiscategorisedasinformalemployment,performedinthehome,
mainlyforsubcontractorsandmostlyundertakenbywomen.Theinequitiesandinjus-
tices inherent in homework conditions maintain women’s weak bargaining position,
preventingthemfrommakinganyimprovementstotheirlivesviatheirwork.Thebest
waytotackletheseissuesisnottoabolish,buttobringequalityandjusticetohomework.
This book contributes a gender justice framework to analyse and confront the
issues and problems of homework. The authors propose four justice dimensions –
recognition, representation, rights and redistribution – to examine and analyse
homework. This framework also takes into account the structures and processes of
capitalismandthepatriarchy,andtherelationsofdominationthatarewidelyheldto
be the major factors that determine homework injustice. The authors discuss strate-
gies and approaches that have worked for homeworkers, highlighting why they
worked and the features that were beneficial for them.
HomeworkingWomenwillbeofinteresttoindividualsandorganisationsworkingwith
orforthecollectivebenefitofhomeworkers,academicsandstudentsinterestedinfem-
inism,labourregulation,informalwork,supplychainsandsocialandpoliticaljustice.
Annie Delaney is Senior Lecturer, School of Management, College of Business,
RMIT University Melbourne, Australia.
Rosaria Burchielli is Associate Professor (Honorary), Department of Manage-
ment, La Trobe University, Australia.
Shelley Marshall is Vice Chancellor’sSenior Research Fellow, RMIT University,
Australia.
Jane Tate worked as Coordinator of Homeworkers Worldwide, Leeds, UK, until
September 2018.
“The injustices experienced by women homeworkers across the globe are shock-
ingly familiar, systemic and exploitative. Importantly this book analyses the pro-
blem and takes us to the powerful change that is possible through homeworkers
collectively organising.”
—Michele O’Neil, President of Australian Council of Trade Unions
“Thisisaveryimportantandtimelybook,drawingtogethertheauthors’collective
experience of research and activism on homeworkers. It highlights the lack of
recognition or rights of homeworkers’ despite their important commercial con-
tribution, and argues forcefully for gender justice. A must read for anyone inter-
ested in homeworkers.”
—Stephanie Barientos, Professor of Global Development
University of Manchester, UK
“Attentivetopatriarchyandcapitalism,informaleconomiesandglobalsupplychains,
and the material and ideological components of neoliberalism, these activist scholars
wield a robust gender justice framework to expose the harms of exploitative home-
work. Delaney, Burchielli, Marshall, and Tate unmask the making of invisibility and
uncoverthelivesandlaborsofwomenwhosedwellingshaveturnedintoworkplaces.
Buttheydomore:inanalyzingstrategiesthathaveworkedandthosewhichhavenot,
theyofferroadmapstoachievingrights,recognition,redistribution,andalargersocial
justice.”
—Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Distinguished
Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California,
Santa Barbara, USA
HOMEWORKING
WOMEN
A Gender Justice Perspective
Annie Delaney, Rosaria Burchielli,
Shelley Marshall and Jane Tate
Firstpublished2019
byRoutledge
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©2019AnnieDelaney,RosariaBurchielli,ShelleyMarshallandJaneTate
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Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
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infringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Delaney,Annie,author.
Title:Homeworkingwomen:agenderjusticeperspective/AnnieDelaney
[andthreeothers].
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2018.|
Includesindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018029447|ISBN9781783533626(hbk)|
ISBN9781783535323(pbk)
Subjects:LCSH:Homelabor.|Homelabor--Laborunions--Organizing.|
Employeerights.|Sexdiscriminationinemployment.
Classification:LCCHD2333.D452018|DDC331.4--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018029447
ISBN:978-1-783-53362-6(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-783-53532-3(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-429-43012-1(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
This book is dedicated to Jane Tate (1945–2018) who has
worked tirelessly to support homeworker recognition,
organising and to support and sustain homeworker net-
works. Jane will be missed by many, she was a good friend
and colleague. We also dedicate this book to the many
homeworkers who face hardship and disadvantage but
show amazing courage to find collective solutions to their
problems.
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of illustrations viii
List of contributors ix
Introduction: homework and gender justice 1
1 Understanding homework and homeworkers 14
2 The invisibilisation of homework 37
3 Extension of labour regulation to homeworkers 54
4 Corporate social responsibility: improving homeworkers’
recognition? 81
5 The logic of the supply chain: barriers and strategies for
homeworker representation 107
6 Homeworkers organising: transnational to local 133
7 Making change: a gender justice perspective 163
Index 181
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
0.1 A gender justice framework for homework 6
7.1 A gender justice framework for homework 164
7.2 An expanded gender justice framework for homework 165
Boxes
Definition of homeworker in C177 – Home Work
Convention, 1996 (No. 177) 63
Case study: UK 64
Case study: Belgium 65
Case study: Argentina 66
Case study: Australia 66
CONTRIBUTORS
Dr Annie Delaney is a senior lecturer in the School of Management at RMIT
University Melbourne, Australia. Prior to commencing an academic career, she
worked for the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA)
(1994–2004) and developed expertise on homework, international garment and
supply chain issues. Annie led national initiatives to improve garment home-
workers’ working conditions and recognition in the fashion industry and by Aus-
tralian federal and state governments. The successful implementation of a suite of
regulatory mechanisms to protect homeworkers including the homeworkers code
of practice, homeworker specific state legislation, and deeming provisions of
homework in national labour regulation are key outcomes of her work at the
TCFUA.
Annie’s knowledge and industry experience has informed her research career, in
whichshehasfocusedonhighqualityresearchoutputsandacommitmenttosocial
impacts. Annie’s research interests of gender, homework, informal economy, cor-
porate accountability and supply chains have led her to collaborate and consult
with a wide range of organisations. She has published extensively on homework, is
the recipient of several grants to conduct homework related research including
non-judicial mechanisms and redress and corporate denial techniques in global
garment supply chains.
Rosaria Burchielli migrated with her parents to Australia from Italy in the 1960s,
at a time when immigrants predominated in Australian manufacturing industries,
and where her parents found work. Her early experiences as a migrant shaped her
interest in socio-political participation and after completing university studies, she
worked in education, human rights and for the trade union movement in Mel-
bourne, Australia. In the mid-1990s she undertook a PhD in union effectiveness