Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group

The Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group foregrounds the intersectional and transnational dimensions of inequality in the study of work and labor under capitalism. By fostering interdisciplinary conversations, the working group aims to deepen the understanding of how jobs, workplaces, labor markets and labor movements are shaped by gender and its connections with race, ethnicity, class, family, sexuality, migration, citizenship and geopolitics across borders. 

The working group organizes workshops, networking activities and public events as a joint collaboration between the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW). By bringing together gender and labor scholars to discuss cutting-edge research and innovative methodologies, the working group aims to advance knowledge of the complex interplay between labor commodification and social reproduction. Its analysis focuses on workers and sectors that are typically neglected in scholarly and policy discourse, yet are indispensable to supporting people’s lives, families and communities as part of the “caring economy.” This includes workers in private households, as well as workers who perform emotional and service labor across diverse settings. 

A core focus of the working group’s research activities is to connect students, faculty and campus affiliates with community-based partners engaged in transformative projects for social change. The working group takes into account the long-standing exclusion of non-traditional work and workers from existing employment standards, labor rights and social protections and explores the creative practices of resistance and survival that are rooted in working people’s families, communities and histories. The working group also examines new approaches to building cross-sectoral and multi-racial solidarity both within and beyond organized labor, pushing the horizons of what is recognized as transformative labor organizing.