Facilitation One

Hildegarde Velasco
WST200 -- Gender & Power
Spring 2009
April 8th, 2009

Facilitation: "The Care Crisis in the Philippines (2003) Children and the Transnational Families in the New Global Economy," Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives Fourth Edition, Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007, 416-425.

Key-Words: transnational, egalitarian, OCW (overseas contract worker), remittances, estrangement

Key-Phrases: care deficit, "stalled revolution", collective mobility, family solidarity, nuclear household, extended kin, nontraditional gender roles, "ideological stall", public accountability, familial responsibilities

Key-Names: Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, Fidel Ramos, Rosemarie Samaniego, Ellen Seneriches, Jeek Perenos, Rudy Montoya, Armando Martinez, Theresa Buscara, Jason Halili, Arjun Appadurai

Key ideas:

• Gender ideology in the past has assumed women to be care givers and men as the providers. However, in the Philippines, economically, women have been shown to be the main contributor in these transnational families. The government has in turn spoken out against the migrant mothers, in essence trying to put them in "their places" in their domestic jobs at home.
• Media influence has stigmatized transnational families through biased reports. These reports have created an image of abandonment and exaggerated suffering of the children of these families.
• Men also have responsibilities in the family. The gendered roles of giving emotional care does not only fall on women. Gender egalitarian views place accountability of care not only on mothers, but on fathers as well. In addition, roles of motherhood and fatherhood should be seen as both providing for the children.

Questions & Quotes:

1. How much power should the media play in portraying the effects of these transnational families? Should there be some regulation to the media, and who would be in charge of regulating?
2. How is migration gendered in this article? Who should be allowed to migrate?
3. After reading the narratives of those who are part of transnational families, who is strained the most? Is it fair for women to leave their children behind?
4. Seemingly, why is there no attention to fathers taking responsibility while their wives are gone?

"If we want to secure quality care for the children of transnational families, gender egalitarian views of child rearing are essential…Gender should be recognized as a fluid social category, and masculinity should be redefined, as the larger society questions the biologically based assumption that only women have the aptitude to provide care." (423)

"Moreover, calling for the return migration of women does not necessarily solve the problems plaguing the families in the Philippines. Domestic violence and male infidelity, for intance -- two social problems the government has never adequately addressed -- would still threaten the well-being of children." (423)