Gender And The Global Economy_ns

GENDER AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Valentine M. Moghadam

Janine Fischer, Nicole Siebold

AGENDA

Agenda I. Biography

I.

Biography

II. The Global Economy: Economic Restructuring and II. The Global Economy

Globalization III. Restructuring, Women‘s Labor, and Gender Ideology

III. Restructuring,

a. Proletarianization b. Professionalization

Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

c. The Informal Sector d. The Income Gap e. Unemployment IV. Structural Adjustment and the Feminization of Poverty:

IV. Making Gender Visible

Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

Valentine M. Moghadam

• Born 1952 in Teheran • Feminist scholar, activist, and author focusing on development and female employment in the Middle East • Professor of Sociology and Director of the Women’s Studies Program at Purdue University, Indiana • Worked for the United Nations as chief of gender quality and development

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Agenda



II. The Global Economy:  Economic Restructuring and Globalization

I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

Definitions

Gender:

an asymmetrical social relationship

between women and men based on perceived sex differences and on ideology

Global Economy:

increasingly integrated and

interdependent system of capital-labor flows across regions, between states and through transnational corporations and international financial institutions

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

Gained importance, due to advances in: • • • •

Information technologies Transportation technologies Expanded forms of investments The end of protectionist trade regimes

Two dimensions of global economy: • Economic restructuring: changes in the organizations of production • Globalization: outward-oriented and transnational nature of economic activity

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

Focus on developing countries: • from an exclusive concentration on export of raw materials and agricultural production to the production of manufactured goods and growth of the service sector. Newly Industrialized Countries: • Industrialized, proletarianized and upper-middleincome countries • Examples: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore,…

IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

Structural Adjustment Policies:

I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

• Aim: balance budgets and increase competitiveness • Denationalization of state holdings • Privatizing of social services • Invitation of foreign investment • Promoting of exports

IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

III. Restructuring, Women’s labor and Gender Ideology In the past: • Favorization of white male workers • Exploitation of women and of members of disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups Today: • Open economies • New trade regimes and • Competitive export industries • “Feminization of labor”

IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy

III. Restructuring, Women’s labor and Gender Ideology “Feminization of Labor” • Five characteristics:

III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

a. Proletarianization b. Professionalization c. The Informal Sector d. The Income Gap e. Unemployment

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

a. Proletarianization

•

Began in the 1970’s

•

Period of capitalist development and economic growth

•

Developing countries: women in labor-intensive and low-wage industries

•

In 1985: women earned 47% of men’s earnings

•

In 1984: 98% of Bombay’s workers are women

IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

b. Professionalization • Process of feminization continued also in the public service sector • Women’s share rose from 30% to 50% • Increasing participation of women in the labor force and improvements in education • Today: various occupations and professions: • • • • • •

Law Banking Accounting Computing Architecture ..

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography

c. The Informal Sector •

security

II. The Global Economy

• E.g.: unregistered and small-scale urban enterprises, homework, self-employment, commercial and productive

III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

Informal sector: outside purview of state and social

activities

•

Many formal jobs have become “informalized”  increase in employer’s flexibility, labor costs, and production costs

•

Danger: insecurity, low wages, absence of benefits

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

d. The Income Gap

I. Biography •

II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

Social relations of gender account for pervasive income gap (IG) between men and women

•

On average, women earn 75 percent of men’s wages (UNDP 1995) 

•

IG is detrimental to women, but lucrative to employers

IG is found mainly in the private sector, public sector tends to reward women more equitably (e.g. Egypt)

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda I. Biography

e. Unemployment •

(class bias and gender bias)

II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

Unemployment rates of women (URW) are very high

•

Unemployed women are often new entrants to labor force seeking but not finding jobs • E.g.: Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Chile:

•

30%,

10%)

URW also reflect job losses and technical improvements

•

Note: high unemployment represents downside of globalization and econ. restructuring

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

IV. Structural Adjustment and Feminization of Poverty: Making Gender Visible

I. Biography II. The Global Economy

•

into their analyses

III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

Standard texts do not integrate a gender dimension

•

Currently, researchers are theorizing the relationship between gender and macroeconomic processes to map out strategies for transformation

IV. Making Gender Visible V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

IV. Structural Adjustment and Feminization of Poverty: Making Gender Visible

I. Biography II. The Global Economy

•

Structural adjustment policies… • …heighten the risk and vulnerability of women and children in households

III. Restructuring,

• …causes women to bear most of responsibility of coping with

Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology

• …increase economic activity on the part of women and children

IV. Making Gender Visible

increased prices and shrinking incomes

•

Why do economic crises and structural adjustment hurt women more than men? • Social relations of gender • Nature of market reforms • Internal reasons depending on peoples home

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

IV. Structural Adjustment and Feminization of Poverty: Making Gender Visible

I. Biography II. The Global Economy III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

•

Economy effects of gender, globalization, and restructuring on women: • Lower consumption and fewer benefits • Constrained mobility of labor • Higher unemployment rates and labor force participation • Concentration of women in low-wage employment sectors, in the informal sector, and “flexible” labor • …

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Agenda

Women’s involvement in waged and non-waged labor

I. Biography II. The Global Economy

arrangements has been striking • Global accumulation as the driving force of the worldsystem not only hinges on class and regional differences

III. Restructuring, Women’s Labor, and Gender Ideology IV. Making Gender Visible

=> gendered process •

Various forms of deployment of women’s labor reflect asymmetrical gender relations and patriarchal ideologies

•

But involvement of women in global economy and national labor forces has also served to interrogate and modify gender relations and ideologies

V. Conclusion 11.08.09

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Thank you for your attention.