5 Assignment 04

Jennifer Morgan’s “Laboring Women” and Angela Davis’ “Women, Race & Class” both represent concepts about labor that develops their central idea and assist in forming a better understanding of women’s roles in the course of history. Concepts of motherhood, monstrosity, and home all help develop the idea behind labor. In Morgans book black women and other indigenous women were seen as monsters and were considered inferior to European women. The appearance of their breasts and other physical features that made them indistinguishable from a male made them more suited as slaves. The degradation of women outside of Europe influenced many Europeans to use them for work. Labor was the main reason behind degrading women across the globe. In chapter one, she states they were compared to goats udders. This comparison to a domesticated animal shows the value the Europeans placed on women not native to Europe. So they can find a reason to enslave them due to the increasing need to cultivate land because of a rise in colonies. Labor was not mentioned very often in chapter one, but it was the main focus as to why the Europeans created a terrible image of indigenous women. Angela Davis uses labor to effectively explain the role of the housewife and the role of a black slave. Angela Davis uses two misconceived parallels occurring at the time to explain the actual connection and vital dependence they have. The pre and post civil war era and the women’s pre and post suffrage movement. Labor for slaves is being whipped and sexually assaulted on a major plantation. Labor for some white women at the time was the concept of being a housewife. Which consisted of tending to the kids, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the farm with their husband, etc. The mill Girls are also discussed in her book to explain the misconception of all women at the time. Poorer women worked at mills to support their families as well as the husband. In terrible conditions for terrible pay. Labor in her book is the common factor towards rebellion and revolution. Labor in Morgans book is used to understand the why. Why were African women and indigenous women degraded? Angela Davis investigates the the how. How did labor conditions and labor roles start a revolution?

The concept of a woman’s labor is brought up in both Federici’s and Morgan’s work and what their worth is. In Federici’s book he talks about the changes in the way land in handled led to a change in labor. Women suffered the most from the change because it was harder for them to become vagabonds and couldn’t support themselves. Federici states that as it became harder for women to find work they became limited to only reproduction labor. Not only were they limited to reproduction labor but they those who did work a wage job barely earned any money compared to men who worked the same job. This was purposely done to devalue a woman’s labor during a time of escalating misogyny. (Federici 83,84) In Morgan’s work, she goes into how African women were labeled and how that labeling had caused Europeans to see them as something monstrous and nonhuman. To provide context, Europeans believed  that the birth of a child was very laborious and that more difficult work followed with the tending and breast-feeding of the child, not to say that this isn’t correct because it is. In comparison to European women African women were said to have painless labor and could deal with breast feeding their child. This was used as a reassurance that they could work hard labor and not be bothered. (Morgan 36) To slave owners this was why African women were valued because they were seen as something that could produce both crops and more laborers. The concept of labor ties these works together because they show that regardless of what race a woman was or where they were from they still faced the same problem. European women were forced into reproductive labor because they didn’t have the chance to work and were exploited when they did; they were forced into a home life and to depend on men. African women were labeled by European travels as savage monsters and were taken advance of as both something that could work hard labor and produce more laborers. Both Federici and Morgan show that regardless of race women suffered from the actions men took against them.

The topic of motherhood is present in both the works of Davis and Federici, they have similar views on motherhood during the time. Motherhood can be described as the state of being a mother, a experience very few women were able to experience during the time. In Davis’s point of view “motherhood” wasn’t about taking care of your young and raising them rather producing as many offspring as possible and offering them to their masters. Back then African women were view only as machines that were able to produce and provide more labor. They were often forced to have babies to replenish the ones that have die due to various reasons. From the moment a child is able to crawl, he or she is put into work, these extremely young children would rarely spend time with their mothers as they are often placed elsewhere given different tasks to do. These children would spend countless hours working for their master just like the women who gave birth to them; there was no time for motherhood, the very idea of it was nonexistent. More often then not, these children would be sold off to other owners leaving their mothers behind and never seeing them again. They would barely know their own parents much less where they came from, just the fact that they gotta obey their owners for face the consequence of death. In most cases the children would die at a very young age but it doesn’t matter since another one is already born to take its place. Davis wanted to highlight how women didn’t get any time with their children much less knowing them before they passed away. Morgan brings up the traveler and how he saw how the native women would give birth in public and not showing any signs of pain. In western views such was considered as immoral and shameful, it was seen as the if the mother had no feelings towards the newborn. We view a mother as someone who is always standing behind their child supporting them and loving them. All of these weren’t really shown making it seem as if there wasn’t any love making the presence of motherhood absent.

In the works of Morgan and Federici the concept of “monstrosity” was addressed multiple times. In the work of Morgan, she wrote about how the the male travelers viewed the bodies of black women. Most of the descriptions that were used included the word monstrous. The concept of  “monstrosity” was used more to describe the mothers, on page sixteen Ligon states that mothers became monstrous and it reinforces their racial distinction. Throughout Morgan’s work the men go into full detail explaining the monstrosity of the the women’s bodies. One of the main points the men used to explain that they are a monstrosity was due to their breast. Again, on page sixteen they mentioned that images of female devils were depicted with sagging breast. Mothers would feed their babies on their backs and would just move their breast over their shoulder. The men used this description to justify that black women, especially mothers, were a “monstrosity”. In the work of Federici, she explains how women were degraded in many forms. The concept of “monstrosity” again was used more by men and how they viewed women. In this work women were considered to be so monstrous that they  believed they were true witches. During this time in the reading of Morgan, women were looked down upon if they worked out of their homes. On page one hundred and twelve there is an image of a women challenging the sexual hierarchy and  beating up her husband. In this image, it depicts the women as the evil one in the drawing where her husband looks at her with pure fear in his eyes. This right here demonstrates how men pictured women as a “monstrosity”. Federici emphasized how women were considered monstrous if they tried to play a role that was considered more for a male while Morgan demonstrates that women were depict as a “monstrosity” due to how men viewed their bodies.

Both Morgan and Davis portray the concept of Labor and enslaved women similarly in both their writings. Labor was only to be done by slaves including field work and house work. In Davis’ work she tells how women were degraded to the point where there were no difference in gender between the men and women. Both were used for the same work and seen as equals since the women were said to have muscular bodies. The purpose of the women was to tend to the field and the slave owners, same as the men. Davis mentions that the women would only become wives, mothers,and homemakers by accident. They were used solely for work or as breeder in which their children were either sold or used in order to make a bigger profit. The black women’s body was not seen as feminine by the europeans making them “useful” for various types of labor compared to men. Slaveowners actually preferred women over men or even animals because they were used as breeders to increase slave labor and they were able to work in the field, cook, sew, and more. In Morgans book the same idea that black women are not feminine and better used as workers because of their muscular traits is shown. The women were seen as productive and reproductive getting many uses out of one slave. Morgan explains how the women’s breast would hang so low when they would reach down to do their field work it looked as if they had multiple legs. She further explains that this showed the only things that the slave women were good for, which was bearing children and working in the fields. The women were much preferred over the men that they made up fifty percent of the slave workers as Davis informs us. The way the white men saw the black women’s bodies were the reason the women were subjected to this type of treatment. They were unattractive and unfeminine putting them in the same category as male workers.

A topic that can be found in the works we’ve read so far is motherhood. Specifically, the exploitation and unnatural abuse of motherhood towards women. What makes this topic so peculiar is how universal the documentation of similarities are between the works that we’ve read so far. In Davis’s analysis of motherhood in enslaved women, it’s no surprise that the first thing we’re reading is how the more fertile the enslaved women, the more desirable she becomes. This is entirely due to the fact that the banning of slavery made this a necessity for slave owners to continue exploiting cheap labor. Yet, Davis describes the treatment of these women as not being mothers at all, but simply instruments guaranteeing the growth of the slave labor force (Davis,  11). They were essentially breeders, useful for nothing more than cheap labor and the production of even more cheap labor. In Frederici’s work, we learn that motherhood was yet again a burden to women this time instead of having their motherhood exploited, it became a burden. When women were unable to adapt to being nomadic much in the same way that men could, it was due in part to either being pregnant, or simply being unable to do so because of possible abuse and exploitation of men. They had children to take care of which would slow them down, and it was much more dangerous for women to travel than it was for men. An interesting comparison into how both of these author’s talks about motherhood, is that Davis focuses on the specific physical components of motherhood that further enslaved women. Whereas Frederici focuses on how these particular physical aspects of being women are what held them down from being able to do the same things that men could. Though the concept of motherhood prevented these women from, in this case, further abuse it’s the how that makes it curious. Perhaps in large part due to the color and social status of these women is why the exploitation of motherhood affects them so differently, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the effects of it are universally felt.

Alfie Corteza

Professor Bullock

Assignment #4

A concept that Morgan’s work and Federici’s work share is motherhood. However, there is a disjunction regarding the quality of childcare when there is a comparison between the indigenous African motherhood and the parenting of Europe women. The comparison in Morgan’s literary includes Peter Kolb’s reference in his 1731 narrative that these savages have no feminity and their actions, and customs stray far away from the social norms of women in Europe, and as a result, it is inferior. With the way the literary piece states the considered barbaric parenting, it can be easily perceived that European maternal care to be held in high praise and superior to African motherhood. But, when you read Federici’s piece, it is stated that women in France and Germany were constantly monitored by everyone surrounding them to make sure that the mother is taking proper care of the child. By having no trust with the mothers with their children, it reveals that a significant factor as to why European women take the utmost care for their child is due to public scrutiny if she was deemed unfit. By being under constant judgment, Federici shows a flaw in the ruling of adequacy. Morgan article states that European women take proper care of their children compared to the “savages,” but Federici’s reports reveal that European women are not putting the effort required to raise a child properly.

By having two different ideas regarding the effectiveness of the European women’s childrearing, it sends confusing messages as to whether or not women, in general, are capable raising a child. Also, it sends a difficult comparison as it does not make a clear separation of how proficient African and Indigenous women raise their children compared to European women. It is confusing as it states that women of color cannot take care of children to the same level as European women, and yet they harshly criticize European women. By denouncing European mothers of their effectiveness as parents, it begs the question who raises the children the best then? Furthermore, these two articles do not complement each other as they contradict their argument as to which race has superior maternal care.

Industrialization caused a rise in the demand for labor. Women have been exploited for their labor in the oppression that resulted in the capitalistic wage system. Federici discusses the advent of the full-time housewife whose image and role in society seem to be institutionalized in order to exploit their ability to produce children and replenish the labor force. The exploitation of women is the product of a male controlled wage system in which women were separated from. This increased their dependence on men therefore they were molded into their limited roles as housewives that birthed, and mothered children without any recognition, or reward.

The exploitation of reproductive labor seems to have been catalyzed the creation of the housewife role, but ideas of molding women into such an image had been apparent throughout history. Morgan discusses how traveling men viewed women from around the world. Through their lens, they also generalize cultures. This is concept is critical in understanding how the exploitation of women is rationalized.

As fascinated as they were, European travelers found the appearance and behavior of women barbaric. Women body parts were not an exhaustive topic. The ongoing analysis of animalistic breasts does also happen to appropriately follow the topic of giving birth. Writers emphasized how astonishingly high the rate of birth was as well as how public they were. Their ability to reproduce seemed to be far greater than that of a their European counterparts, yet they were still viewed as being barbaric.

Through observing women, these seemingly uncontrolled family structures of these different cultures were at constant discord with what Europeans considered civilized life. Between Morgan and Federici, the reproductive labor of women had been exploited due to both capitalism and years of rationalizing that their oppression of women in the home is appropriate in the context of civil life.

Labor was given depending on gender and race, Morgan and Federici developed similar arguments regarding this concept. Both authors focused on the positions women had in the labor industry during the start of capitalism. Labor is the physical work where one expose their body to perform a task in exchange of a piece of valued printed paper that will allow them to fulfill the requisites of survival in a society. However, the intensity and effort one must do varies among each owner or boss leading the group of individuals. Some might not have any ambition of gaining power while other might have being advantageous and exploited its workers. Women were an easy target for the labor oppression. As Federici argued that each shift in the society such as the incrementation the prices of good and food as well as the jobs offered made inferior and powerless. Similarly, Morgan explains how the physical appearances of women deteriorated their value and were not respected by the descriptions of travelers which diffused race ideologies making owners of slaves discriminate and exploit the black race only by the way they look. People depend on what they can they do with their own hand in order to not starve, have a place to live and have a coexistence. However, the divisions created by the people due to their own concupiscence on humanity made labor unbalanced. White supremacy played a role on creating that distinction and women were given the domestic labor which when it comes to the entire system of labor their work is despised. In addition to their arguments, they both mentioned the way women played their role as mother while working. Some women will have to carry their babies on their backs as they also feed them. Their role as mothers was not taken as an important task to be perform but for them to exploit women in labor was of major importance. It was inevitable to not do any kind of work, the exceptions were not allowed. Under all the circumstances labor was a priority for the survival of the African women and men.

The concept of motherhood is seen in both Davis and Morgan’s work. Black women were often seen as just reproductive bodies in society, more so than mothers. Black women would often be pushed to have more children in order to increase the slave population. In Morgan’s work, she discusses how females were being called devils for having too many children. If women were to give birth to more than one child, than their children would be considered monsters. Women never got too truly experience being a mother. Black pregnant women were being sold with no conscious. Morgan uses motherhood to discuss the division of races and how black mothers were being depicted as animals. Enslaved black women would often have their children sold so it was difficult to even be a mother at this point. They were looked upon as more of a breeder. Morgan describes motherhood as giving birth and increasing the population, not raising their child and caring for them. Davis introduces motherhood, stating how the perfect woman would be them becoming the perfect mother. Davis shows us how women would often be forced to become mothers making it an involuntary choice. Women would constantly being forced to have children to increase population. She discusses how white women were able to care for their children, whereas black women would give birth and have their children sold to slave owners. In other cultures, women were being shamed for giving birth and would often have their children killed and buried immediately after birth. Davis and Morgan’s work both show how women were dehumanized for having children and how their reproductive systems would often be used against them and make them as breeders and not mothers.