Assembling Women

"In her thought-provoking book, Assembling Women, Teri Caraway bucks much of the literature to argue that the feminization of the work force is a temporary phenomenon among some employers. Thus it is not market orientation that matters but rather capital-versus labor-intensive industry. Caraway's findings are a significant contribution to the literature on women's work under EOI policies, and are based on a finely layered multi-sectoral approach that draws on other feminist and other political-economy theories of feminization and its effects."-Industrial and Labor Relations Review "Assembling Women is an apt and comprehensive description of ongoing industrial developments in Indonesia, an area of the world that has not received as much attention as it deserves. It is enormously satisfying in its descriptions. Teri L. Caraway writes lucidly and with aplomb. The breadth of the book is equally impressive. It covers four different industries: garments, textiles, plywood, and automobiles. Caraway elegantly and helpfully focuses on gendered discourses of work and her familiarity with the extensive literature on globalization and women's employment."-Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Princeton University, author of For We Are Sold, I and My People "This very well-written book offers a nuanced understanding of the relationship between changing industrial policies on the one hand and gendered employment patterns on the other. Assembling Women contains an excellent integrative discussion and assessment of long-standing debates relating to the impact of export-oriented industrialization on female workers."-Frederic Deyo, Binghamton University, author of Beneath the Miracle "Teri Caraway is going to shake things up. Her meticulous and innovative investigation of the genderings of four different industries in contemporary Indonesia uncovers when and how and by whom women's labor is made 'cheap.' Profit seeking is not alone the cause. She reveals the independent influence of factory managers' own ideologies of femininity and of masculinity. I'm going to tell lots of people about Assembling Women."-Cynthia Enloe, author of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire