Charline Sempere - Women and Unfree Labour: A Feminist Political Economy Account
About my PhD thesis
My research aims to investigate (or reinterpret) the relationships between vulnerability to forced labour and gender. In other words, the research asks why and how women are disproportionately vulnerable to labour unfreedom. Theoretically, the research project moves away from sensationalist, exceptional and individualistic understanding of forced labour to adopt a Feminist Political Economy account of labour unfreedom as resulting from certain socioeconomic and political structures and social hierarchies. I will seek to shed light on the factors shaping the vulnerability of workers to labour abuse but also elements creating the demand for gendered and exploitable workers. Special attention will be given to the 'everyday' experiences of women workers, their stories, their struggle but also their agency and acts of resistance.
What made me interested in this topic
It was very much an organic process. Throughout my studies and as I became more aware of my family history, I developed an interest in issues related to migration and to the feminist cause. Also, I have studied different disciplines and it was Political Economy which enabled me to make the necessary links between various domains in order to understand social reality. A couple of years ago, I took a course during my MA at the University of Sheffield entitled Business, Labour and Migration which gathered all those aspects together. One of the main topics of the module was labour unfreedom and since then I have focussed my work on researching this issue.
What’s new about this work
Surprisingly, the perspectives of workers directly concerned by labour exploitation are quite often marginalised. One main priority of this project is to produce 'responsible knowledge'. As such, the voice, accounts and experiential knowledge of workers themselves will be centralised in the analysis and within this research project in general. I will seek to highlight the complex and nuanced everyday experiences of vulnerable workers: their struggle and oppression but also their agency, strategies and acts of resistance. My research project will also bring a fresh pair of eyes to what constitutes women labour unfreedom. Women's severe labour exploitation will be empirically investigated across the supply chains of two different industries which tend not to be compared, namely agricultural work and hospitality work. Forced labour will be treated as a labour and structural issue enabled by certain power dynamics and political economic systems. Therefore the research project will move beyond the traditional sole focus on sexual exploitation as the main manifestation of women modern slavery and criminal approaches to Modern Slavery.
What impact my research could have
This research wants to contribute to the debate around forms of labour unfreedom, its interaction with gender and its root causes. More specifically this project aims to generate a comprehensive and nuanced account of women’s disproportionate vulnerability to unfreedom, with the intention to better inform policy on the matter and alert against programs non-sensitive to gender factor.
What’s most interesting to me about my work
One of the most important and interesting aspects of this work is to create non-extractive, respectful and kind relationships with research partners, participants and with other individuals involved in the research process.