Sweatshops Child Abuse

1369 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Sweatshop practices and the effects

Many shoppers around the world are unaware of where their clothes are made. It is estimated that 10% of the average North American’s clothes in their closet are made in a sweatshop (a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions (Merriam Webster)). 250 million of these workers are children and they are exposed to psychical dangers/abuse everyday . However, despite the push to recognize the physical abuse that is inflicted on these children, the psychological effects can possibly be the bigger problem that the children are facing. Why is the psychological abuse inflicted on children in sweatshops more problematic? Through the satisficing theory, one is able to understand why the psychological …show more content…

When children are working in sweatshops, it interrupts their educational studies, since they are working in these factories for over 16 hours a day, leaving no time for school. Without an education, they stop learning the fundamentals of life. They are not giving themselves a chance to be able to better their life, and find a job that does not involve inhumane working hours, little pay, mental and physical abuse. Sweatshops strip children from having an education, and with that it sets them up for a challenging road ahead. Children who are working part time in these sweatshops, have been recorded to perform 12% lower than children who have an education, and the percentage is even lower for children who work full time at these sweatshops . It is also stated by forensic psychologists that these children who are removed from their education, and do not learn the fundamentals of proper behave, end up breaking the law in their teenage years, which sets up a struggle for their adolescent stage of life . Woking in sweatshops for more than 16 hours a day interferes with their cognitive development as well, since they are not able to develop the necessary skills. These sweatshops keep children in the facilities, working, that it leaves them no time to learn important life skills. These cognitive skills include thinking, logic/reasoning, memory and concentration . …show more content…

They also know that restricting children to having no education and social relationships, forces them to be apart of the production process. There is always going to be a need for workers, and being able to have many people in the factory (despite safety concerns), is a benefit to these supervisors. In some cases, supervisor use sexual abuse, in order to push women to stay in these factories. Raping the women in these sweatshops, means increasing the workers in the future, especially in developing countries. Supervisors understand the psychological and physical they enforce on their workers, and they only see it as a benefit, as they are increasing production. Relating back to the satisficing theory, these supervisors are doing what is right in the present, and is not thinking about what they are really inflicting on the child. They do understand what they are doing to the child, but do they understand how it is going to impact the child for the rest of their life? Understanding that children are vulnerable, and how they are easy to manipulate, people take advantage of that. The topic of the psychological impact on children in sweatshops is important to understand, as it sparks two things in the everyday shopper — to take a little more time to understand where their clothes are made, in order to stop this abuse on children

Show More
Related

  • the trounle with sweatshops

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    The controversial issue of sweatshops is one often over looked by The United States. In the Social Issues Encyclopedia, entry # 167, Matt Zwolinski tackles the issues of sweatshops. In this article Matt raises a question I have not been able to get out of my head since I have begun researching this topic, “ are companies who contract with sweatshops doing anything wrong?” this article goes on to argue that the people who work in the sweatshops willingly choose to work there, despite the poor environment. Many people in third world countries depend on the sweatshops to earn what they can to have any hopes of surviving. If the sweatshops were to shut down many people would lose their jobs, and therefore have no source of income. This may lead people to steal and prostitution as well. this article is suggesting that sweatshops will better the economy by giving people a better job than what they may have had. Due to this the companies contracting with sweatshops are not acting wrong in any way. This was a deductive article it had a lot of good examples to show how sweatshops are beneficial to third world countries. Radly Balko seemed to have the same view point as Matt Zwolinski. Many people believe the richer countries should not support the sweatshops Balko believes if people stopped buying products made in sweatshops the companies will have to shut down and relocate, firing all of the present workers. Rasing the fact that again the worker will have no source of income, the workers need the sweatshop to survive. Balko also uses the argument that the workers willingly work in the current environments.

    Read More

  • Child Labor and Sweatshops are a Current Problem in the Fashion Industry

    1555 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many societies face the much overlooked problem of child labor and sweatshops in the fashion industry. Recently, Americans were stunned to learn that their apple pie sweetheart, Kathie Lee Gifford was associated with the exploitation of underage workers in Honduras. Gifford's story began the resurgence of knowledge of the growing problem of sweatshops in today's society. Contrary to popular belief, sweatshops still exist across the world in both third world countries and super powers such as America. Sweatshops incorporate the inhumane exploitation of workers, many of whom are underage, by providing extremely low wages as well as expecting unrealistic time commitments. In addition, the workers lack benefits and very few sweatshops abide by the required health codes. Sweatshops are obviously a growing problem that will not disappear with out change. Although the United States government has begun to take steps to alleviate the problem, there must be an increase in both awareness and legislation.

    Read More

  • Child Labor in Mexico

    3748 Words  | 8 Pages

    Child labor has become an ongoing global concern for many years. The practice sweatshops in places such as South America and Asia are responsible for much of the manufactured goods people own today. While hundreds of organized unions and corporations look for answers to this unheal...

    Read More

  • Sweat Shops

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    All of my life I have considered myself as a person who loves children. I enjoy playing with them, helping them, and just being around them. So when I first agreed with corporations who use child labor I shocked myself completely. After examining two articles; one “The Case for Sweatshops”, by David R. Henderson, and two “Sweatshops or a Shot at a Better Life”, by Cathy Young, I came to the conclusion that in some cases when young children work under proper conditions it can keep them out of the streets and be helpful to them and their families.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.

    Read More

  • Sweatshops

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    When people think of a sweatshop, images of people assembling items in a hot and crowded factory somewhere in a “Third World” country tend to come to mind. However, the first few sweatshops were located in both New York and England, becoming established in the late 1800’s. The term “sweatshop” originated from the term “sweating”, which described the contractual agreements between workers and designers to produce clothing. In these workshops, there was a “sweater”, an individual who monitored garment making (“Origins Of Sweatshops”, 2017). The term sweatshop is more so currently used to describe the working conditions rather than the type of workplace itself. Even back then, these workplaces were unsanitary, were sources of safety hazards and extremely crowded. Throughout the years, poor people and immigrants filled up the sweatshops in desperate search for work. This eventually spread beyond the United States and U.K., and became a commonplace practice in developing countries ruled by dictators. With this spread quickly came the employment of child workers, especially in places such as Indonesia, and India. Like the adults, they are subject to treatment that violates their human rights. They are left without protection from any other adults, making them more susceptible to abuse. Despite this, major corporations and brands such as Wal-Mart, Adidas, Aldo, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters and so on use sweatshops for affordable labor. One of the more prominent cases is the incident involving Kathy Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart, in which both Gifford and Wal-Mart “suffered as a result of the negative press surrounding the manufacturing of Gifford’s clothing line distributed by Wal-Mart” (Radin & Calkins). Gifford’s clothing was produced in a factory in Honduras, where female workers constantly suffered “cruel and inhumane treatment” (Radin &

    Read More

  • What Are The Causes Of Child Labor Essay

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    We have all at one point seen or read an article of young girls and boys being abducted or simply forced into manual labor. Many reasons have been given as to why child labor occurs in these foreign countries such as: poverty, low pay, and unskilled work. These foreign companies or sweatshops find it easy to simply abduct poor and uneducated children, and force them into slavery for little to no pay and horrible working conditions. This is because there is greater demand for low skilled, and low cost labor that employers prefer to fill with child labor, instead of having to deal with more expensive and less flexible adult employees. Throughout the years there has been an increase in the supply of child labor mainly because of young kids in

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1869 Words  | 4 Pages

    Child Labour In the past few years, a great deal of attention has been drawn to the global problem of child labour. Virtually everyone is guilty of participating in this abusive practice through the purchase of goods made in across the globe, usually in poor, developing nations. This issue has been around for a great length of time but has come to the forefront recently because of reports that link well known American companies like Wal-Mart and Nike to the exploitation of children. Prior to this media attention, many Americans and other people in developed nation were blind to the reality of the oppressive conditions that are reality to many.

    Read More

  • Child Labor Argumentative Essay

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    Think about the cotton in your shirt, the sugar in your coffee, and the shoes on your feet, all of which could be products of child labor. Child labor is a practice that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity and includes over 200 million children worldwide who are involved in the production of goods for companies and industries willing to exploit these kids for profit. Although most countries have laws prohibiting child labor, a lack of funding and manpower means that these laws are rarely enforced on a large scale. However, even for a first-world country like the United States, that has a large number of state and federal law enforcement officers, child labor is still a problem because priority is given to crimes that are more violent or heinous. Child labor must be made a priority issue because it is a global plague whose victims are physically and psychologically scarred, lack a proper education, are impoverished, and whose children are doomed to the same fate if nothing changes.

    Read More

  • Child Labour In The Industrial Revolution

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Many children are employed in horrible conditions in many countries around the world” (Sebastian, 1997). Child labour is a problem that was seen not only in England specifically, but exists in most third-world countries during the early stages of the eighteenth century. Child labour is an important issue because it affects the lives of millions of children around the world who are suffering from severe mental and health problems due to the poor working conditions with which they are forced to work, as well as the mistreatment they receive from those they work for. Child labour dates back to the eighteenth century where children were forced to work in harmful conditions for extremely low wages, from as early as the ages of six or seven. However, it is still a major problem seen in many countries around the world, even today....

    Read More

  • Child Labor Essay

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    Child labor refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely or by requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work (International Labor Organization). Child labor has been a big problem ever since the Victorian Era. Many counties worldwide have used and still to this day use child labor. Though there are many laws that have been implemented against using children to work, many countries tend to ignore them. In my paper I will be discussing countries where child labor is present, push to stop child labor, companies that use child labor, the effects on children, and the reasons for child labor.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    2364 Words  | 5 Pages

    Statistics indicate improvement in child labor issues, but trends can be reversed easily. Some child labor is more service-oriented and not a part that can be challenged by a boycott or legislation. Child labor in some countries involves being a servant who does not produce goods. Before identifying the consequences of child labor, probable causes and possible cures must be identified.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Sweatshops

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight, and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived, and died in cotton fields, and sweatshops.”- Stephen Jay Gould. Sweatshops exploit people, and children. They take advantage of their poverty, and there need, for a better life. Sweatshops are one of the worst things that ever happened to the business world, and poor people around the world. Sweatshops should be stopped, and ended.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Child Labor is not an isolated problem. The phenomenon of child labor is an effect of economic discrimination. In different parts of the world, at different stages of histories, laboring of child has been a part of economic life. More than 200 million children worldwide, some are as young as 4 and 5 years old, are slaves to the production line. These unfortunate children manufacture shoes, matches, clothing, rugs and countless other products that are flooding the American market and driving hard-working Americans out of jobs. These children worked long hours, were frequently beaten, and were paid a pittance. In 1979, a study shows more than 50 million children below the age of 16 were considered child labor (United Nation labors agency data). In 1998, according to the Campaign for Labor rights that is a NGO and United Nation Labor Agency, 250 million children around the world are working in farms, factories, and household. Some human rights experts indicate that there are as many as 400 million children under the age of 15 are performing forced labor either part or full-time under unsafe work environment. Based upon the needs of the situation, there are specific areas of the world where the practice of child labor is taking place. According to the journal written by Basu, Ashagrie gat...

    Read More

  • Child Labour: NOT Always Wrong

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.

    Read More

More about Sweatshops Child Abuse

Open Document