Becoming a Factory Girl: Young Samoan Woman and a Japanese Factory

Abstract

In 1991, a Japanese corporation established an export-oriented automobile wiring factory on the Pacific island nation called Samoa. This factory currently employs approximately 1,600 local workers, predominant young single women. These women work in the space where automobile industrial culture, Japanese business philosophy, the Samoan government's development policies, Samoan tradition, and their own aspirations meet. In this hybrid factory culture, the women are required to negotiate the conflicting priorities of these distinct interests and ideologies. Since 1991, thousands of local women have passed through this wiring factory; however, their voices have yet to be adequately heard. This thesis discusses daily experiences of those factory girls and the impact their multinational employment had on their quality of lives. The study is principally based on the data collected through interviews with the factory employees and my direct observations while I worked on the shop floor in the summer of 2000.