Thought Provoking

Just wrapped up Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild. Although we're all aware of the hardships faced by immigrant women who try to enter the workforce of their adopted country, this book really drove home the point of the countless disadvantages that they face.

I haven't been this revved up about a "feminist" issue since I took a course called "Women and War in Japan" at Waseda back in 2002. The comfort women conundrum made my stomach turn then, and a lot of the issues addressed in Global Woman did the same.

This book also made me thankful for the privileges that I do have, despite being of "the fairer sex": my ethnicity does not promote discriminatory practices, my class has allowed me all the finer things in life, my education has provided me with the insights to recognize that maybe other people in this world aren't so lucky, invoking compassion and fairness to those I come in contact with.

On a side note, Barbara Ehrenreich is a recent gem of an author that I've discovered.
Anyone looking for a critical voice of American society's ills, look no further.
Her latest, This Land Is Their Land, is not to be missed.