Volume 57, July–August 2016, Pages 30–37
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- Department of Sociology, Social Sciences & Media Studies Bldg., University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9430, USA
- Available online 28 May 2016
Highlights
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- Ecuadorian mothers working in fair trade flowers have concerns about childcare.
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- To manage, they developed “gendered economic strategies” (Casanova, 2011).
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- Their strategies involved diverse childcare arrangements and visions for the future.
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- These strategies maintain gendered and privatized provision of care.
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- Fair trade floriculture does not sufficiently support care.
Synopsis
Ethical
trade initiatives are one strategy to alleviate the exploitative
tendencies of capitalist production for workers in the Global South, but
to what extent these initiatives support care is an open question. This
study uses qualitative interviews with 38 women workers with children
to examine their perspectives about employment and care at a fair trade
certified rose farm in Ecuador. Women described generally good working
conditions, but highlighted their job's long hours, low pay, and
inadequate childcare. Their job necessitated that they organized private
“gendered economic strategies” (Casanova, 2011) for securing
childcare—strategies which allowed them to provide financial support for
their children, but which strained their ability to fulfill gendered
expectations about care. Despite its benefits, I argue that fair trade
provides insufficient support for care in its standards and production
structures. In this case, it falls short of facilitating care
arrangements that would further development.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
