Gender and Labor Politics in East Asia

3 units

The course explores anthropological and historical approaches to work and labor through a focus on East Asian women's experiences of labor force participation. We will ask how gender ideologies, kinship patterns, national politics and global economic transformations shape the meaning of work and labor for different groups of women over time by analyzing the linked nexus of factory work, sex work, and service work. We will examine how anthropologists, historians, and sociologists have studied issues of class, resistance, industrialization, and urbanization in the East Asian context. Readings will focus on Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Prerequisites: Anthro 160B or permission of instructor.