Globalization, employment and gender in the open economy of Sri Lanka
Cairo-Globalization and Gender ENG
Transcript of 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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