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The Feminization and Racialization of Labour in the Colombian Fresh-cut Flower Industry

Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama is Assistant Professor in the Women's Studies Department, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. Focusing on the case of Colombia and the experiences of Latinos/as in North America, her areas of research and expertise include the contradictions between the promotion of continental neo-liberal international trade, and the respect for individual and collective human rights – particularly labour, environmental, and the rights of women and racial minorities. Address: Department of Women's Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati. [email: sanmigo{at}email.uc.edu]

This article examines the basic features of the working and living conditions of the mostly female labour force of the Colombian flower industry. It argues that in this export industry, critical feminist thought on neo-liberal international trade and the feminization of labour is valid only for workers in the lowest ranks of the industry, the majority of whom are racialized women from low-income, peasant, indigenous, or mixed-race rural backgrounds who face precarious forms of labour. Meanwhile, an elite group of women from urban-middle and upper classes with Western education and European or mixed-race backgrounds work in management, participate in the growers’ associations and oversee the exploitative conditions and health risks that flower production creates for their racialized lower class ‘sisters’. This case emphasizes the importance of considering the intersections of socio-economic status and race, together with gender and other structures, in order to determine who benefits and loses from production for the global market. The article also introduces the concept of ‘racialization of labour’, arguing that the jobs created in the industry are not only feminized but racialized.

Key Words: feminization of labour • racialization of labour • Colombian flower industry

Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 71-88 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0169796X0602300205


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