The Effects of Capitalism and Culture of Consumption on Women and Children

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The Effects of Capitalism and Culture of Consumption on Women and Children In economic sphere, global capitalism has been oppressing defenseless people in the community such as women and children. The field of economics has been dominated by men, and as a result, women and children’s contribution to the economy was not recognized. Global financial institutions have been striving to accumulate private profit at the expense of these women and children. In the culture of consumption, consumers, who are mostly women and children, are no recognized despite their crucial importance of consumption in the economy. For a long time, the consumers have held a small place when it comes to economic matters and this greatly affect women and children negatively. Although global capitalism and culture of consumption has been encouraging the production and consumption of the commodities, the readings by Marilyn Waring gives critical ideas that shows how women are being oppressed.

Global capitalism and culture of consumption strive to encourage production and consumption of commodities, yet they lack official measurement of women's household production services. As shown in the documentary, the standards of national economic accounting by UNSNA lacks clarity on how the household production services by women should be measured (Waring). It is claimed that women spent a lot of time in household production services, and men can't come even closer to them when it comes to household production services, yet there is a lack of official measurement for their housework (Robbins). Thus, despite women’s effort in household production services, their housework still lacks official measurement criteria.

Additionally, there is the problem of measuring the value of unpaid household labor services. The value of unpaid household labor by women is not measured as it is not recognized

Surname 2 by both the product accounts and national income and is always excluded (Waring). Therefore, the lack of official measurement of volunteered labor force shows that the value of unpaid household production services by women is underrepresented in the national economy. In capitalist economy, the labor that the women provide in unpaid housework is just seen as a gift, nothing else (Robbins). Thus, the reference of women's labor force as a gift shows how women's labor force is not recognized On the other hand, global capitalism and culture of consumption have also been discriminating the children. Although the culture of consumption was encouraging children to be consumers rather than being workers, global capitalism was exploiting children as it encourage children workers to be paid less that the men workers (Robbins). This shows how the capitalist economy is discriminative against the children who are defenseless in male dominated economy.

The capitalist economy depended on cheap labor from the most vulnerable sector of working class, which included children (Robbins). Thus, in global capitalism, children are exploited as they are paid less than men because they are seen as source of cheap labor.

In conclusion, the capitalist economy discriminate against the women and children as shown above. Factors such as the lack official measurement of women's household production services, problem of measuring the value of unpaid household labor services, and exploitation of children as a form of cheap labor shows the global capitalism and the culture of consumption oppressed the women and children. Thus, using Marilyn Waring critical ideas and Robin Richard reading shows how women are being oppressed by global capitalism and the culture of consumption.

Surname 3 Works Cited Robbins, Richard H., and Rachel Dowty. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism.

Pearson Education, 2019.

Waring, Marilyn. If Women Counted. HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.