Feminism: The Solidarity Between Women

The solidarity created between women of different privileges can be interpreted in several ways. Some women may use it as an exploitation of labor, causing harm to a migrant woman. Anderson explains the term, “maternalism” and how it applies to the migrant worker-employer dynamic. Employers use their superiority over migrant workers as a way of taking care of them. An example of the dynamic between the women is when the wealthier woman takes care of her hired help in a way that a mother would care for her child, like when a woman gives unwanted house goods and clothing to migrant workers. The employer sometimes may not even pay the workers because she thinks goods are enough. (Anderson, 111). The employer sees the migrant woman as inferior …show more content…
I believe that feminism is a problem of equality. Feminism in the western world is largely focused on helping white, middle class, heterosexual, cisgender women, who are exactly the women employing migrant workers. These women have fought for years for their rights for equality. According to Ehrenreich, “women do less housework than they did before the feminist revolution and the rise of the two-income family” (89). Women no longer need to fall into the stereotype of doing domestic work while their husband is the breadwinner—they can also be the breadwinner and have another woman do their work. While equality still has not been fully reached, these women still have a large advantage and could use it to help others, like the migrant workers for instance. Women that are more privileged have the power to create change for other women and to eliminate traditional gender roles and …show more content…
To sum it up, it degrades her, separates her from her family, forces gender roles and stereotypes on her, and forces her to live in terrible conditions. Women have many opportunities to earn money and migrate now, but for domestic, unwanted jobs. Many workers from foreign countries are still seen as slaves or property. Some migrant women are not paid a living wage and they have no regulated hours, meaning some women never have time off. While it is a generalization to say that all migrant women are treated this way, an alarming amount are, which creates a reason to discuss the issue. This issue affects me because I feel the need to check my privilege. I was never aware of the terrible conditions that migrant workers faced. I have seen Latina maids and European nannies, but I never thought about how those women could have been mistreated. I think that, as a privileged woman, I need to help these women, but not by treating them like a child. I need to help in a way that is not for my own self-righteous reasons, as we saw in the Nick Kristof documentary with the celebrities, but because I want to make change. Fighting for migrant worker’s rights and assuring that I am never mistreating someone is an important goal. Traditional gender roles and stereotypes do exist all over the world, regardless of wealth, and we all need to recognize the inequality. While the feminization of migration allows women to seek