There are three main arguments against racial and sexual job discrimination: 1)
ID: 1197467 • Letter: T
Question
There are three main arguments against racial and sexual job discrimination:
1) Utilitarian Arguments (p. 368);
2) Rights-Based Arguments (p. 369); and
3) Justice-Based Arguments (p. 369).
Which of these seem to you to be: 1) the strongest argument? and 2) the weakest argument? Can you think of different kinds of arguments not discussed in the text? Are there important differences between racial discrimination and sexual discrimination? Do you think discrimination based upon sexual orientation should be considered differently than racial discrimination and sexual discrimination?
Explanation / Answer
Among mentiones the Rights based argument is the strongest while utilitarian based is the weakest.
Discrimination emanating from categorical distinctions on the basis of sex and race have historically intersected in multiple and diverse ways, and have taken specific forms during particular historical conjunctures, such as in the contexts of slavery and colonialism. The dominant structures of power often relied on violence to sustain their patriarchal and racial boundaries.
Unlike the State formation of pre-industrial societies, contemporary States establish their gender and racial regimes through the "unmarked" discourse of citizenship which is defined along the principle of individual rights. The gender regime of the liberal State is firmly ingrained in the patriarchal household, with the male citizen as its head. The racial regime of the liberal State has been regulated mainly through immigration and naturalization laws. Through the construction of racialized and gendered citizenship, modern states have reproduced the historically established structures of domination albeit in different ways. Analysis of the phenomenon of citizenship within the modern national State reveals how notions of gender (the "nuclear family"), and race (the "other") are implicitly woven into the laws.
The role of the national State, as well as the issues of gender and race, are gaining new significance as the world becomes increasingly globalized. The political, social and economic forces associated with globalization have ended some of the long-lasting divides of the twentieth century (for example, the East/West blocks of the cold war era). However, exclusions and identity-politics based on racial/ethnic/religious differences have become more prominent and are increasing. Anti-immigration policies are now common in many countries, and racist activism, which often accompanies such policies, has reemerged. These factors are becoming more pronounced at a time when women of the South are being incorporated on a massive scale into the multinational labour force.
In contrast to the experience immediately following World War II, when developed economies imported "guest workers" who were predominantly male (women being perceived as dependants), it is now the women of the South who overwhelmingly constitute the labour for the more recent phenomenon of relocation of mass production industries to countries where unionization is weak and unemployment high. The increased trade in services, particularly in the area of domestic work, care giving, the entertainment sector, among others has also increased the opportunities for women of the South to engage in migrant labour. Similarly, women of countries with economies in transition have found temporary labour migration to be their only option for survival. The decline in the State provision of welfare services in an era when the populations of developed countries are ageing predicates that the demand for female labour from the countries of the South to serve as care-givers will continue and intensify.
As the global economy secures cheap and flexible labour through immigration and offshore production, sexism, racism and class prejudices become personified through the women who are entering the labour market as suppliers of cheap and unorganized labour. This process increases women’s vulnerability to multiple forms of discrimination and subordination. At the same time, the global development of international human rights protection opens new spaces for women’s individual and collective struggles against all and multiple forms of discrimination.