Dissertation Research: Barbadian and American Women as Data Processors in the New International Division of Labor

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This dissertation research award will support a graduate student in anthropology to study the movement of the "pink collar" sector of the information processing industry from urban centers in the U.S. to off-shore regions of the Caribbean, and the impact of these shifts on Barbadian women incorporated as data processors and North American workers who face possible job losses. Methods include participant observation and structured interviewing, in Barbados and in the US, of executives in the data processing firms, political leaders, and workers. Data form a sample of 50 Barbadian women will be compared to a comparable number of US data processors with respect to their life-and work-histories. This research is important because the restructuring of AMerican industry is a significant fact of modern life, and studies which shed light on what this means for workers on both sides of the fence -- the developing countries receiving jobs from the US and the American workers facing changed labor markets -- can help inform social policy aimed at ameliorating social problems.