Gender-Differentiated Employment Practices in the South Korean Textile Industry

In this article, gender-differentiated employment practices are examined with a focus on different mechanisms of labor control in the South Korean textile industry, a prototypical Third World industry based on export-oriented industrialization. The analysis focuses on how labor control mechanisms, such as gender segregation in jobs and authority relations in the factory, the nature of worker dependency (based on the different forms of employment relationships), and subcontracting interact with gender and produce different outcomes for men and women workers in spinning and weaving and clothing industries. These practices are used to maintain the competitiveness of the South Korean product in the international market as well as for the maximization of profit in the textile industry.