Introduction: Nimble Fingers and Foreign Investments

Abstract

This book is about the interaction between multinational companies and working women in the UK, Ireland, France and the Federal Republic of Germany. It does not seek to establish whether multinationals are better, or worse, employers of women than firms which confine their operations to one national economy (so-called ‘uninationals’). Rather, it examines the contrast between the internationalisation of the activities of multinationals and the localisation of women’s lives; and between the changing international division of labour and the persisting sexual division of labour in manufacturing industry. It is concerned with the ways in which multinationals create and destroy female labour forces; and with the clash between global logic and community values.KeywordsForeign InvestmentFemale LabourInternational DivisionWage CostFree Trade ZoneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.