We are pleased to host the 23nd session of our Political Economy Teach-In Series, “Feminist Perspectives on the Platform Economy: Women Workers and Unionising”, on the 28th of May at 2pm UTC with Kruskaya Hidalgo.
Kruskaya Hidalgo is a researcher, unionist and feminist activist. She is one of the founders of the Observatorio de Plataformas, a collective of artists, researchers, activists and digital platform workers who question working conditions and violations within platform economies, presenting alternatives for ethical work and consumption, so that “the algorithm does not control our humanity.” Through decolonial methodologies and the use of sensitive, poetic and embodied languages, Kruskaya explores the impact of platform economies on the bodies and lives of women, especially migrant and racialised women, constructing life stories and collective knowledge that challenge the coloniality of power-knowing-being.
The restructuring of labour markets, driven by the growth of the platform economy, presents challenges that must be understood through a gendered lens. Automation and the opacity of algorithms in organising work disproportionately affect women, migrants, young people, and LGBTQIA+ communities. These changes threaten fundamental rights such as privacy, data protection, equality, non-discrimination, and occupational health and safety. Digital platform workers, particularly in on-demand delivery and ride-hailing, have been organising for years to demand the recognition of labour relationships. In Latin America, women have been pioneers and leaders in many of these efforts. This session will explore the efforts of platform workers to organise and unionise, with a particular focus on care work in the platform economy.
Reading List
Explore below a curated selection of resources authored by Global South feminists. For a more comprehensive collection on this and other feminist topics, visit the South Feminist Knowledge Hub.
We welcome your contributions! If you know of other resources that should be included in this reading list, please submit them via this form or email us at knowledgehub@southfeministfutures.org.
English
Pandemic Meets Precarity: The Case of Platform Delivery Work in Latin America
Author: Kruskaya Hidalgo
A feminist analysis of the working conditions of platform delivery workers.
The platform’s glitch: Workers, algorithms and resistance
Author: Kruskaya Hidalgo
“This book evokes the possibility that algorithms may also be employed to resist the power of those who programmed them”, the authors invite readers to consider the individual and collective tactics against algorithmic power in the era of platform capitalism.
From Mexico to Geneva, Workers are Pushing for Fair Labour Standards in the Platform Economy
Author: Kruskaya Hidalgo
In December 2024, Mexico’s government passed groundbreaking labour reforms to protect workers in the platform economy, such as those driving for Uber or delivering for Rappi. Overseen by the country’s newly-elected (and first ever female) president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, the reforms recognise platform workers as employees, granting them access to social security benefits and collective bargaining, rights to profits, and other labour protections. This shift challenges the traditional model of gig work, which has often left workers in a legal grey area, without access to basic labour rights.
How Digitally Restructured Value Chains Are Reshaping Labor Futures for Women in the Global South
Authors: Karishma Banga, Becky Faith
The digitalisation of production and digital restructuring of global value chains (GVCs), compounded with development effects of proposed global digital trade rules, are going to have important implications for economic and social futures of women in the Global South. Persistent gaps in digital access and models of use affect women in the Global South differently; retaining policy space to navigate issues on e-commerce can be an important way of safeguarding futures for labor futures of workers in the Global South.
Centering Workers in the Platform Economy
Authors: Natasha Susan Koshy, Ranjitha Kumar, Sonakshi Agarwal
This report aims to provide data-backed, specific recommendations for the development of the SAHI Serve app, recognising the ecosystem in which it is situated and the specific challenges faced by urban informal women workers.
Gendered inequalities of platform work in Africa: Findings from a multi-country analysis
Authors: Batoul Al Mehdar’, Sharon Geeling, Nagla Rizk ID 1, Funda Ustek Spilda, Eisha Afifi, Joseph Budu D 4, Pitso Tsibolane, Richard Boateng, Hilda Mwakatumbula, Mark Graham, Richard Heeks.
Based on a five-country survey of workers on 18 platforms across four sectors (ride-hailing, delivery, professional, microtasks), the research reported here makes the first direct, systematic comparison of men’s and women’s experiences of platform work in multiple African countries.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Women’s Gig Work in Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka
Author: JustJobs Network
The Women, Work, & the Gig Economy consortium brought together experts from Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka to explore various opportunities and costs to women engaging in gig work, how flexibility plays out in the platform economy, and the impact of COVID-19 on women gig workers.
French
Feminist Perspectives on the Digital Economy in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Jihene Abu Zeid
The report examines the impact of digital transformation on women in the MENA region. It highlights the gender inequalities exacerbated by the digital economy and offers recommendations for equitable inclusion.
In India, the Gig Economy Betrays Female Workers
Author: Varsha Torgalkar
The Equal Times article highlights the challenges faced by women in the digital platform economy in India. Although this economy is often presented as offering flexibility and opportunities, it perpetuates gender inequalities and exposes female workers to precarious conditions.
Fighting Gender-Based Violence in the Gig Economy
Author: Bama Athreya
The IDRC article highlights the challenges faced by female platform workers, particularly in domestic services and home beauty sectors in South Africa, Kenya, and Thailand. It emphasises that the lack of mechanisms for workers to evaluate their clients makes them vulnerable to sexual harassment, as they fear that negative reviews could jeopardise their employment. The article calls for reforms to empower women on platforms and for better regulation to ensure decent working conditions.
Content Moderation, a Toxic Job Still Poorly Recognised and Largely Unregulated
Author: Ben Wray
The Equal Times article sheds light on the difficult working conditions of content moderators, often employed by subcontractors of large digital platforms. These workers are exposed daily to violent, hateful, or disturbing content, which can lead to severe psychological disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Portuguese
Building workers’ power in digital capitalism – Old and new trade union struggles
Authors: Victoria Basualdo, Hugo Dias, Mirko Herberg, Stefan Schmalz, Melisa Serrano and Kurt Vandaele.
New forms of digital work are restructuring the power relationship between capital and labour, reinforcing the ongoing trends of precariousness, informalisation of work and reduction of labour standards.
Authors: Kruskaya Hidalgo and Sofía Scasserra
This report analyses the working conditions of workers operating on digital platforms, focusing on their insertion into Global Production Chains. It highlights job insecurity, the difficulties of union organisation and the challenges that trade union organisations face in protecting the rights of these workers.
Labour and gender in the platform economy: a theoretical review
Authors: Doris Jamylla Siqueira Lopes Campos and Thiago Adriano Machado
This article presents a literature review centred on gender relations in the platform economy in order to understand how digital technologies impact gender dynamics.
Spanish
Precarisation of labour on digital platforms: a reading from Latin America
Author: Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero and Carolina Salazar Daza
Thinking about platform economies undoubtedly leads us to question the precariousness, flexibilisation and exploitation inherent to these new business models. Thus, digital platforms present major challenges for legal frameworks, national governments, trade union organisations and the sustainability of the labour market.
Feminist reflections on the platform economy or that the algorithm does not control your humanity
Author: Kruskaya Hidalgo
The author addresses the issue of transport and delivery applications by raising feminist reflections on the platform economy from an intersectional perspective.
Authors: Denise Kasparian, Agustina Súnico, Gabriel Fajn, Julia Cófreces, Julieta Grasas, Jonathan Katz and Pablo Vannini
Through this publication, the Gender Space of RUESS and FES Argentina address various dimensions of the intersections between feminist economy and popular, social, and solidarity economy. The articles in this document cover topics such as care work, social security, access to energy, rurality, platform cooperativism, and governance. We aim to continue paving the way to build, think about, and organise transformative, fair, solidaristic, and feminist economic practices.
Teach-in #12 The Digital Economy: a new terrain of struggle
Author: Flora Partenio
The Digital Economy: A New Terrain of Struggle” is the twelfth session of South Feminist Future’s Political Education series. From a feminist perspective of analysis, presents the digital economy as an arena of contestation that requires intervention and assessment from a political economy perspective.
Authors: Flora Partenio and Sofia Scasserra
The present work seeks to investigate the conditions of women workers who have entered the labor market in more precarious jobs as a result of the lack of policies to address co-responsibility for care work. These workers have resorted to remote jobs and work at digital platforms for being overloaded with unpaid care work, what limits their possibilities of entering jobs with extra-domestic working hours.
Technology in the world of work | Interview with Sofia Scasserra
Author: Sofia Scasserra
What are the current challenges for trade unions in relation to technology in the world of work? What gender rights are at stake in the implementation of remote work? Global technology is advancing too fast and it is often difficult to respond in time to changes in the field of work. Trade unions have a fundamental task in the vocational training of workers.
Arabic
Author: Yousra Bilalbi
Women faced a degree of marginalisation when they attempted to carve out a space for women’s demands and rights within mixed spaces such as the labour movement. Women’s rights were not embodied in the structural organization of the Tunisian General Labour Union, and we find no female leaders within it due to hierarchical patterns such as “women’s rights are not among our priorities today” or “women’s rights are reserved for a specific space.”
Navigating the Minefield of Power – Organising the Domestic Workers Union in Lebanon
Author: Farah Qabaisi
“In every meeting we had with the different communities, I wanted to make sure we emphasized the idea of solidarity. Now we no longer say: the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Bangladesh. We say unionists. We are the working women. We don’t mention the communities, we highlight the women working together. That’s how we came up with […] a union. I always take out my union card and hold it up and ask: Who has this? In response, the members wave their cards. I say: You now have this card, and if anyone here looks at you differently, you should say: Hey! I’m one of you! That’s what I always highlight. We are all domestic workers.”
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