Nimble fingers. The predestined fate based on exploitation and sexualized division of labor in export-oriented sector in the Balkans

Abstract

In the following article I will discuss women’s labor conditions in the export-oriented sector in terms of gender dynamics of labor and precarity. Firstly I will explain the motives of the expansion of the sector due to economic transformations. According to the latter, there is a change of
paradigms and women are considered to be the important engine to economic development and the resolution to the poverty problem. I will develop my argument comparing the traditional Western feminist
perspective with intersectionality feminism and how the former fails to explain the perpetual exploitation of poor women, insisting on liberation through self-empowerment. I will support my argument of
feminization labor by explain the phenomenon of emotional work and the emotional tendency of women
in the labor market. In this paper, I am going to focus on women’s labor conditions in the export-oriented sector in Balkan countries and how the economic transformation during the transition led these industries to become on the most important factor of development supported even by the state.