Jeffrey Sallaz - “Behind the World's Back Office: How Patriarchy...
Thu, 01/31/2013 - Kahin Center 640 Stewart Ave
In 2011, the Philippines became the "call center capital of the world." How did the Philippines (a country of less than 100 million people) come to surpass India (with over 1.2 billion people) in terms of overall revenues and employment in the voice-based outsourcing field? This talk argues that it is not any supposed "cultural affinity" between the Philippines and "the West" that explains the country's ascendance. Rather, it is the remarkably low turnover rate in the call centers of the Philippines. This in turn derives from the fact that call centers in the Philippines constitute a feminized labor market in which women (and gay men) experience call center work as a means by which to free themselves from domestic patriarchy.
