British Culture Essay

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Xingchen Liu British Culture Essay Professor Bloom Word Count (essay itself): 1007 4. ‘Write a critique of one aspect of globalisation from the readings posted on NYU Classes and relate it to at least one speaker’ When we move away from “the mainstream view of globalization” (Sassen 256), the situation is not as unequivocally good as we are usually told. Although many developed countries have experienced tremendous growth as a result of globalization, its downside cannot be neglected. While the move to a global economy is associated with a focus on highly skilled work, there is a substantial basis of low-skilled work underpinning it: “between 30 and 50 percent of workers in the leading sectors are actually low-wage” (262). In addition to the division between the highly skilled and low-skilled part of the labor force, the global marketplace also evidences a gender divide, with its impact “more pronounced [on women] than it is upon men and (…) more detrimental” (Shah 47). What is the impact of globalization on women from developing countries? Globalization has led to an increased need for female immigrant workers in the First World. The lifestyles of high-paid professionals lead to “a demand for low-paid service workers” (Sassen 255) as the demands of the global marketplace take up so much of high-skilled workers’ time that “[d]omestic tasks are relocated to the market” (259) rather than being part of people’s private lives. Increasingly, childcare is offered as part of the job package for high-paid professionals, which goes to illustrate the increase in domestic-related jobs (263). The leisure habits of professionals also lead to an increased need for “service workers” to staff places like restaurants and luxury stores (262). Jobs in the domestic and hospitality industry are more traditionally the realm of women, leading to a “feminization of the job supply”
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