‘And I'd like to thank my wife…’: Gender Dynamics and the Ethnic 'Family Business

Australian Feminist Studies

Volumn 8, Issue 17, 1993, Pages 93-108

  Alcorso, Caroline ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33846115825     PISSN: 08164649     EISSN: 14653303     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/08164649.1993.9994678     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. This article, originally submitted to Australian Feminist Studies in October 1991, is based on the findings of a two-year research project on economic restructuring, migrant employment and the growth of small business in Sydney that was conducted by the Centre for Multicultural Studies in 1988–1989. The project was funded by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the research group comprised David Tait, Katherine Gibson, Jock Collins, Stephen Castles and Caroline Alcorso. The empirical component of the research involved a survey of 165 small businesses in Leichhardt, Marrickville and Fairfield (Sydney). Its findings are presented in Castles et al., The Global Milkbar and the Local Sweatshop: Ethnic Small Business and Economic Restructuring in Sydney (CMS/OMA) Sydney, 1991, and a version of this article appeared in a collective book published by Pluto Press in 1992. Thanks for helpful comments on this article go in particular to Katherine Gibson and also to Ghassan Hage.
2. Edna Bonacich, Ivan Light & Charles Wong Choy, ‘Koreans in Business’, Society, 1977, pp. 54–59.
3. See also Pnina Werbner, ‘Enclave Economies and Family Firms: Pakistani Traders in a British City’ in J.S. Eades (ed.), Migrants, Workers and the Social Order, A.S.A. monograph no. 26 (Tavistock) London, 1987, and Kwang Chung Kim and Won Moo Hurgh, ‘The Burden of Double Roles: Korean Wives in the USA’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 151–167.
4. Ivan Light, ‘Asian Enterprise in America: Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in Small Business’ in Scott Cummings (ed.), Self-Help in Urban America — Patterns of Minority Business Enterprise (Kennikat Press/National University Publications) Port Washington, New York & London, 1980, pp. 47–8.
5. Michele Barrett, Women's Oppression Today (Verso) London, 1980.
6. Werbner, ‘Enclave Economies and Family Firms’, pp. 222–3.
7. Jock Collins, Cappucino Capitalism: Italians and Small Business in Australia, Working Paper no. 3, KCAE Working papers series (University of Technology) Ku-ring-gai, 1989.
8. Lawrence A. Lovell-Troy, ‘Clan Structure and Economic Activity: The Case of the Greeks in Small Business Enterprise’ in Cummings, Self-Help in Urban America, pp. 58–85.
9. See Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh, The Anti-Social Family (New Left Books) London, 1982, pp. 90–2.
10. Barrett and McIntosh, The Anti-Social Family.
11. Lenore Davidoff, ‘The Separation of Home and Work?’ in Sandra Burman (ed.), Fit Work for Women (Croom Helm for the Oxford University Women's Studies Committee) London, 1979, p. 66.
12. Gill Bottomley, ‘Mediterranean Women in Australia’, paper delivered to the symposium of Mediterranean Women's Organisations in Greece, Multicultural Australia Paper no. 35, (CHOMI) Melbourne, 1984, p. 1.
13. Barrett and McIntosh, The Anti-Social Family, pp. 88 et ff.
14. Intermediate, that is, in the sense of being home-based but waged work within capitalism (Davidoff, ‘Separation?’, p. 66).
15. Davidoff, ‘Separation?’, p. 93.
16. Clothing and Allied Trade Union, ‘Outwork in the Clothing Industry’, Sydney, 1987.
17. NSW Department of Industrial Relations and Employment (DIRE), Self Employed or Employee? A Survey of Women in NSW Doing Paid Work at Home (Women's Directorate) Sydney, 1987.
18. Belinda Probert and Judy Wajcman, ‘Technological Change and the Future of Work’, Journal of Industrial Relations, September, 1988, pp. 432–47.
19. Caroline Alcorso, Non-English Speaking Background Immigrant Women in the Workforce (Office of Multicultural Affairs/ Centre for Multicultural Studies) Wollongong, 1991, p. 43.
20. Ron Casey, Immigrant Women in the Labour Force (Bureau of Immigration Research) Melbourne, forthcoming.
21. Annie Phizacklea, ‘Entrepreneurship, Ethnicity and Gender’ in Sallie Westwood and Parminder Bhachu (eds), Enterprising Women: Ethnicity, Economy and Gender Relations (Routledge) London, 1989.
22. Phizacklea, ‘Entrepreneurship, Ethnicity and Gender’, p. 31.
23. Phizacklea, ‘Entrepreneurship, Ethnicity and Gender’, p. 22.
24. The term ‘exploitation’ is used here in an economic sense to refer to the appropriation of surplus labour time.
25. Phizacklea, ‘Entrepreneurship, Ethnicity and Gender’, p. 24.
26. Christine Delphy, Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women's Oppression, edited and with an introduction by Diana Leonard (Hutchinson) London, 1984, p. 60.
27. Delphy, Close to Home, p. 60.
28. Delphy, Close to Home, p. 67.
29. Delphy, Close to Home, p. 67.
30. Delphy, Close to Home, p. 71.
31. A recent analysis of the relationship between women and men’s earnings produced substantial evidence for rejecting the assumption of the joint household income, and suggests that the ‘household income is rarely pooled in its entirety, nor is there equal access to it’ (Michael Bittman, Juggling Time: How Australian Families Use Their Time, Report to the Office of the Status of Women [Commonwealth of Australia] Canberra, 1990, p. 7).
32. Bittman, Juggling Time, p. 56.
33. Sasha Josephides, ‘Honour, Family and Work: Greek Cypriot Women Before and After Migration’ in Westwood and Bhachu, Enterprising Women, p. 50.
34. A recent survey of Sydney and Brisbane Asian businesses found that ‘full-time wives usually participated fully in making decisions and often were autonomously responsible for particular branches or functions’ and claims that ‘contrary to stereotypes, Chinese and Indian businesses provide a major role for women’ (Constance Lever-Tracy, David Ip, Jim Kitay, Ian Phillips and Noel Tracy, Asian Entrepreneurs in Australia (Office of Multicultural Affairs/ Centre for Multicultural Studies) forthcoming, p. vii). One could question such a conclusion given that of the 144 business people interviewed, it was felt necessary by the research team to interview only 20 women. However, further research is clearly necessary to establish to what extent differences are related to differences in business type.
35. Josephides, ‘Honour, Family and Work’, p. 49.
36. Des Storer et al., But I Wouldn’t Want My Wife To Work Here: A Study of Migrant Women in Melbourne Industry (Centre for Urban Research and Action) Melbourne, 1976; and Alcorso, Non-English Speaking Background Immigrant Women, 1991.