Working Daughters: Malaysian Women in Norwegian Industry

Abstract

Most studies of women working in foreign-owned industries in Southeast Asia have directed their attention to the transnational corporations (TNCs). Here, rather small Norwegian-owned companies are the focus of study, concentrating on one case in Southern Johor. Asking whether the nationality of the company makes any difference to the workers and whether we can trace a Scandinavian tradition of industrial relations, we found that it is rather the rural location and the local adaptation of the company that makes it different from the TNCs. Focus is on the relation between a foreign company and a rural community, thus on the interplay between different development strategies.