Life on Global Assembly Line

Rhetorical Analysis of “Life on the Global Assembly Line”

“Life on the Global Assembly Line” written by Barbara Ehrenriech and Annette Fuentes is about third world countries’ cheap women labor in the early 1980’s. Ehrenriech is an American feminist, author and journalist who frequently contribute to New York Times, Harpers, and the Progressive. Meanwhile Fuentes is an American Journalist who often writes about Health and Education for newspapers such as New York Times. The main idea of the essay is about the lives of women in third world countries who are exploited by first world countries for the cheap labor. Ehrenriech and Fuentes intended to inform feminists about the manipulation of women’s labor in third world countries by their government and employers. The writers use emotional and ethical appeals throughout the essay to grasp readers’ attention towards the issue, supported by facts from credible sources to create effective arguments.

The essay talked about how most production processes were sent to third world countries because of their cheap labors. The focus is on women who are the most hired in these assembly line industries. The harmful workplaces lead to other problems towards the women such as lung and eye diseases. The third world governments also play important roles in this issue. They keep on promoting women labor to attract more investors into their country and gain the profit from it.

One important technique that the writers successfully portray in this article is the examples of first hand experiences to illustrate the issues. The writers effectively create readers’ emotions through this technique. One of the great examples which bring sad and sympathy feeling toward the women labor is a story about a woman named Min Chong who works as a sewing-machine operator from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. at a garment factory. She shared her experiences about her work conditions. Even though working at the clothing factories look safe, Chong said that the...