When profits fall and cheaper labor can be found elsewhere, these corporations move on, leaving disorganization and economic destruction in their wake. Studies have shown the connections among subcontracting chains, jobs at home, export increase, and rising profits for corporations. jobs at home -workers worldwide and Third World women in particular have been called upon because of their cheap labor. To the extent that homes in any country can and "should" be used for employment sites, and that women can and "should" contribute to community and state economic development via jobs at home, this leads to the en-gendering of specific activities at the same time that it legitimizes specific forms of surplus value and capital accumulation. This surplus and accumulation can be obtained at the expense of the more fundamental interests of women.

Gender can be a factor in the choice of jobs at home. Subcultural norms, gender conceptions within a particular cultural group, other opportunities for employment, and idiosyncratic or more general values and goals all seem to play a part. More careful analysis of how gender is connected to and constructed through jobs at home in specific occupation types and cultures is required. Some jobs at home occupations are considered more appropriate for men, some more appropriate for women. In the United States, for example, some jobs at home occupations appear to be dominated by men (with 50% or more owned by men--i.e., contractors, mechanics, professional/managerial, shopkeepers, sales representatives, truck drivers) and others are occupations dominated by women (i.e., agricultural sales, beautician, clerical, crafts, food services, human services, income managers, sales agents, service managers, teachers). People who cross these gender conceptions can be perceived as odd by others and be affected by the residuals of this reverse stereotype. For example, a man engaged in jobs at home knitting as an occupation might be considered out of place by others but a business partner by his wife. A woman running a construction business from her jobs at home might be admired or considered unusual.

Overall, although it appears there are some gender-related factors in who participates in jobs at home, why, and for what rewards and at what costs, it does not appear that there is one universal, global relationship. Universal statements of explanation for the relationships between gender and jobs at home might be misleading.