cairo-globalization and gender eng

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Globalization and

Gender:Employment Effects

Lourdes Benera

Women and the Economy WorkshopCairo, Egypt

4-5 December 2005


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First, a word on the notion of gender

A concept introduced in the 1980s to emphasize:

The social construction of differences between men andwomen: what is considered male and female changes across

countries and regions, and it is influenced by cultural, social

and other factors (and it can change through time).

The relational aspects of power relations and gender

differences: the concept automatically implies something

about both men and women, i.e., gender is not about womenonly.

Joan Scott: gender is everywhere --or the centrality ofgender to understand the economy and development.


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I. The 1970s

---The new internationalization of production: multinational

investment and the transfer of production from high income to

low wage countries affected labor intensive industries in areassuch as South East Asia and in countries such as Ireland and

Mexico (maquiladora industries)

---> first generation countries

---The search for low cost, globally competitive production

resulted in a very significant increase in the employment of

women who became the preferred workers:

---> contrast with Boserups notion of

marginalization of women during the 1950s

and 1960s (ISI period).---Beginning the shift to X-promotion models of development.


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1970s (ction.)

---The initial literature focusing on womens employment in

multinational firms followed a women as victims approach,

emphasizing its negative aspects: low wages, short term

contracts, precarious working conditions, authoritarian andpatriarchal forms of dealing with women workers, etc.

---EPZs spread across countries as a form of attracting multi-national investment, reinforcing the notion that women

were exploited under unregulated labor market conditions.

The share of women in EPZ employment was very high

circa 1980:

75% (Malaysia)

74% (Philippines)

77% (Rep. of Korea)88% (Sri Lanka)


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II. The 1980s: the process of accelerated globalization

---The growth of global markets was accompanied by the

adoption of structural adjustment policies in the global

South including:

Financial deregulation & the new opening to foreigninvestment.

Trade liberalization through global and regional trade

liberalization schemes. The shift to export-led development models in all regions.

The deepening and growth of domestic markets through

deregulation, privatization and deep restructuring.

Labor market informalization and the maquilaization

of production:

--->the shift of investment to second-tier countries

(Central America, Indonesia, North Africa,Turkey, later in India and China, etc.)


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Womens employment in the informal economy: fluidity

and job overlaps (El Alto).

The global office and the transfers of clerical work to low

wage countries (Barbados).

The complexity of employment effects on women

New studies illustrated that the initial analysis of womensemployment in production for global markets was simplistic:

Linda Lims argument (1982): X-oriented employment

raised wages for women workers, with higher rates than

in the case of local capital.

The varieties of female employment: the service sector

The effects of technological change and the processes ofde-feminization of the labor force.


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Money exchange foto


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a) In EPZs:

EPZs employment, selected countries (2000-03)

Country No. EPZs Total % Women

Kenya 6 27,148 60

Mauritius whole 83,609 56

islandKorea, Rep. 2 39,000 70 (77% in 1980)

Sri Lanka 16* 111,033 72.72 (88% in 1980)

Malaysia 14+ 200,000 54 (75% in 1980)

Philipinnes 34 821,000 74 (same %)

Guatemala 20 69,200 70

Nicaragua 1 40,000 90

____*includes ind. parks Source: ILO


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b) In maquiladora industries:

--Mexico: 65-69% women (1970s); just over 50% (1990s)

--Honduras: 76% (1993); 58.3% (2003)

Reasons behind defeminization processes:

The new technologies tend to employ men

Women are less able to upgrade their skills due to theirdomestic responsibilities

Unconventional work schedules tend to be less acceptable

for women The availability of male labor ready to work for womens

wages

Policies and private industry efforts to hire men Investment in K intensive industries


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To sum up: Can we generalize about the effects of

globalization on women?

--Generalizations must be approached with great caution since

studies illustrate different outcomes. Examples:

a. The S.E. Asian experience: high levels of female

employment resulted in higher wages for women, even

though lower than mens. Seguinos findings: the Asianeconomies that grew most rapidly had the widest wage

gaps. Hence, there are gains for women but with

significant wage gender gaps.

b. The US-Mexico border experience: maquiladora wages

have not improved overtime as employment expanded

(Fussell 2000). Differences with the S.E. Asian case:unlimited labor supply and high levels of unemployt.


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Beriks study (2000) of the effects if X-let growth on gender

wage inequality in Taiwan provides another exampleof limited gains for women: economic restructuring and

technological change since the 1980s shifted employment

from wage to salaried workers, with loss of jobs for women,higher wages for men and lower for women.

c. The experience of X-led industrialization in Turkey: a case

of mixed results. Ozlers study (2001), based on a large

plant-level data set on manufacuring, shows that trade

liberalization led to the feminization of the labor force:

Jobs created significantly higher for women than for men

But the volatility of womens jobs also significantly

higher.


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d. The experience of Bangladesh: could international labor

standards be beneficial for workers? Kabeer (3003) hasargued that they could drive investment away, particularly

in the case of women workers.

III. The 1990s (and 2000s)

---The new impact of India in China in global production

---From globalization of production to that of care work and

the increasing feminization of international migration:women often find jobs more easily than men.

---Herrera and Parrenas studies (Ecuador and the Philippines):

the multiple dimensions of women leaving their children

and families behind.


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Reasons behind the feminization of migration:

1. The care crisis in the North has generated demand for

womens labor in the service sector (domestic work, care

of children and the elderly)

2. Womens increasing labor force participation in the South

has generated an untapped labor supply unable to find

jobs due to high levels of unemployment and under-employment.

3. Changes in the social construction of gender roles,

particularly in paid work, have increased womens

autonomy and decision making power.

4. Economic crisis, poverty and job scarcity facilitate thesocial acceptance of women as migrants.


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5. Remittances have become an important source of family

survival and an incentive for those who stay behind to

take up the work left behind by women.

6. Women also migrate for more personal reasons such as

the felt need to leave violent or oppressiverelationships.

Concluding remarks

1. Gender is a central category of analysis to understand the

economy and to provide a basis for policy making.

2. Is there really a gender paradox in MENA? The

complexity of economic and cultural factors as a way of

understanding womens economic participation andpolitical empowerment (MENA Development Report).


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Suggested readings

--Benera, Lourdes, Gender, Development and Globalization;

Economics as if All People Mattered, Routledge 2003.

--Berik, Gunseli, Mature Export-Led Growth and Gender WageInequality,Feminist Economics 6(3) November 2000: 1-26.

--Fussel, M.E., Making labor flexible: the recomposition of

maquiladora female labor force, ibid: 59-80.--Kabeer, Naila, The Power to Chose: Bangladesh Women and

Labor Market Decisions in London and Dhaka, Verso 2000.

--Ozler, Sule, Export led industrialization and gender differences

in job creation and destruction, Department of Economics,

University of California, Los Angeles, 2001.

--Seguino, Stephanie, Accounting for gender in Asian

economic growth: adding gender to the equation,FeministEconomics, 6(3), November 2000: 27-58.


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THANK YOU!!

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