WUNRN
UNRISD - United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development
Gendered Impacts of Globalization:
Employment & Social Protection
Direct Link to Full 101-Page UNRISD
Publication:
Authors:
Camila
Arza, Elissa
Braunstein, Kristine
Goulding, Sarah
Cook, Shahra
Razavi
Programme Area: Gender
and Development
The last three decades have seen remarkable changes in
economic structures and policies both within and across countries, loosely
captured by the term globalization. This paper reviews evidence on how key
aspects of globalization processes have impacted the real economy, in terms of
employment and social conditions of work for women and men across a wide range
of countries.
Globalization
has coincided with a global increase in female labour force participation rates
which has narrowed the gender gap from 32 to 26 percentage points. A number of
factors associated with globalization processes have contributed to this
increase, including the growth of production for export in the developing
world. With labour costs such a crucial part of international competitiveness,
labour-intensive exporters have shown a preference for women workers because
their wages are typically lower than men’s and because women are perceived as
more productive in these types of jobs.
The narrowing of the gender gap
in economic participation rates has not produced commensurate gender equality
in pay and status. In fact, increasing female labour force participation has
coincided with an increase in informal and unprotected forms of work. Jobs in
export-oriented manufacturing firms and capitalist farms producing
horticultural export crops have benefited some women, giving them their first
discretionary income or a greater say in the allocation of household resources.
However, even in the countries where production for export has created new
forms of employment, occupational segregation has been maintained: the wages
and conditions of work remain far from satisfactory for women who continue to
be concentrated in temporary and seasonal jobs, while the few permanent jobs
that are created are reserved for men.
The orthodox policy approach of
tight monetary and fiscal policies, and free trade and capital flows, has not
proved to be conducive for either widespread development or extensive
improvements in well-being and gender equality. There is growing support for
alternative macroeconomic policies that, while aiming for macroeconomic
stability, take more heed of development and social goals. This would have to
include monetary and fiscal policies that are more expansionary, taxation
policies that provide governments with adequate revenues to fund social
expenditures. If economic growth is to be broadly shared, it is necessary to
introduce a set of labour market policies and related interventions that can
affect working conditions in diverse employment situations. These should not
only enhance the capabilities of workers to capture some of the productivity
gains that are now siphoned off into profits, but also rectify gender
imbalances and discriminatory practices. Second, if gender inequalities in
labour markets are to be rectified, society as a whole has to seek specific
means of both progressing toward a better balance between the provision of unpaid
reproductive work and paid labour, and facilitating greater gender equality in
both domains. For many developing countries, attaining gender equality requires
strengthening publicly accountable systems of mutual assurance against
entitlement failure. This means investing in well-functioning and accessible
public health, education and care services that can also become a source of
decent employment; broad-based and redistributive social insurance programmes;
and public provision of a range of complementary goods and services such as
clean water, subsidized food items, sanitation, electricity, transport and
housing.