Response 10

It is not only in the United States where women get treated differently than men. Many other countries are degrading women, especially in the work place. I attended an event on campus called, "Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshop and Social Injustice." While sitting in the audience, taking in all the information presented to us by Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu, I was in shock. Jim and Leslie traveled to Indonesia to the Nike Sweatshop. There they lived as any other sweatshop worker would. The workers always worked overtime, about fifteen hours a day, six to seven days a week, making a salary of $1.25 a day. They also lived in a nine by nine cement box and were unable to send their children to school. This was the life that everyone in Indonesia, who worked in the Nike sweatshop and other sweatshops, lived.

When it came to women, I could not believe what I was hearing. Ninety percent of the factory workers were women. If the women did not follow orders, they would either be harassed or put to death. The women were allowed only two bathroom breaks a day, one before lunch and one after. There were only five bathrooms and that is if they were all working, which was uncommon. Since there were only five bathrooms and so many women, it was pretty common that women did not get a bathroom break. Since women have to deal with a menstrual cycle unlike men, women would often have to go to the bathroom more often than men to change what ever form of protection the used. To be able to use the bathroom while in the middle of a job, the woman would have to get out of line and ask the line chief if she could be excused from the line. The woman would most likely hear "Bitch, get back in line." Women were offered two days of menstrual leave.