How does globalization affect women?

Many critics fear that globalization, in the sense of integration of a country into world society, will exacerbate gender inequality. It may harm women-
especially in the South--in several ways:

 Economically, through discrimination in favor of male workers, marginalization of women in unpaid or informal labor, exploitation of women in
low-wage sweatshop settings, and/or impoverishment though loss of traditional sources of income.
 Politically, through exclusion from the domestic political process and loss of control to global pressures.
 Culturally, through loss of identity and autonomy to a hegemonic global culture.

At the same time, many women's advocates recognize that globalization affects different groups of women in different ways, creates new standards for
the treatment of women, and helps women's groups to mobilize. In situations where women have been historically repressed or discriminated under a
patriarchal division of labor, some features of globalization may have liberating consequences. While in many countries women remain at a significant
disadvantage, the precise role of globalization in causing or perpetuating that condition is in dispute.

Beijing+5 Outcome Document

This report of the 2000 General Assembly special session reviews progress made since the 1995 UN conference on women; it notes that globalization
presents opportunities to some women but causes marginalization of many others; it advocates "mainstreaming" as the way to achieve gender equality.

Gender and Globalization: Female Labor and Women's Mobilization

In this Journal of World-Systems Research article, Valentine Moghadam argues that women play a distinct role in globalization, experience more harmful
effects, and become a constituency for antisystemic movements.

Gender and Poverty

In this UNDP monograph, Lourdes Beneria and Sivitri Bisnath argue that gender influences both the causes and consequences of poverty; to compensate
for women's weaker structural position and the bias in traditional development policy, their needs now demand special attention.

Gender Justice and Economic Justice

Gita Sen and Sonia Onufer Correa argue in this paper prepared for the UNIFEM Beijing+5 review that the clash of free-market globalization and
patriarchal reactions poses new dilemmas for women committed to equality.

Preparing to Understand Feminism in the 21st Century

In this Journal of World-Systems Studies article, Torry Dickinson outlines a feminist perspective on the uneven effects of "selective globalization" on
women.

Toward a Feminist Analytics of the Global Economy

In this Indiana Global Legal Studies Journal article, Saskia Sassen argues for a feminist approach to the study of globalization that shows how the
declining sovereignty of the state, evident in the new role of world cities and the rise of new legal regimes, affects women.

Women's Human Rights

Charlotte Bunch and Samantha Frost chronicle the emergence of the concept of women's human rights and the rise of organizations that support it.

Women's resources

Links to organizations working on the status of women, provided by the Rutgers University Center for Women's Global Leadershi p.

. Does globalization diminish cultural diversity?

There are many reasons to think that globalization might undermine cultural diversity:

 multinational corporations promote a certain kind of consumerist culture, in which standard commodities, promoted by global marketing
campaigns exploiting basic material desires, create similar lifestyles--"Coca-Colanization"
 backed by the power of certain states, Western ideals are falsely established as universal, overrriding local traditions--"cultural imperialism"
 modern institutions have an inherently rationalizing thrust, making all human practices more efficient, controllable, and predictable, as
exemplified by the spread of fast food--"McDonaldization"
  the United States exerts hegemonic influence in promoting its values and habits through popular culture and the news media--
"Americanization"

But there are also good reasons to think that globalization will foster diversity:

 interaction across boundaries leads to the mixing of cultures in particular places and practice--pluralization
 cultural flows occur differently in different spheres and may originate in many places--differentiation
 integration and the spread of ideas and images provoke reactions and resistance--contestation
 global norms or practices are interpreted differently according to local tradition; the universal must take particular forms--glocalization
 diversity has itself become a global value, promoted through international organizations and movements, not to mention nation-states--
institutionalization

To some extent, the issue of diversity is now the subject of global cultural politics, and therefore unlikely to be settled by argument and evidence.
Scholars can offer some cautions:

 whether diversity diminishes depends on what yardstick you use (e.g., linguistic diversity may be more threatened than culinary diversity)
 homogenization and heterogenization may actually operate in tandem or even reinforce each other

Center for World Indigenous Studies

Center focused on disseminating knowledge about and supporting democratic relations among diverse cultures; produces Fourth World Journal and has
link to virtual library on indigenous reosurces

Cultural Survival

Site devoted to disseminating knowledge in support of indigenous people's rights and autonomy; publishes quarterly journal (online)

Culture of Liberty

Article by Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa argues that while some past ways of life will be eclipsed in globalization, the process also liberates people
culturally by undermining the ideological conformity of nationalism

Francophonie

Materials in French on conference held in June 2001 in Benin by ministers from French-speaking countries to counter homogenizing effects of
globalization and assert the value of (cultural, linguistic) difference

Global Monoculture

Turning Point Project coalition of NGO's criticizes rise of monoculture in newspaper advertisement

McSpotlight

Organization opposed to McDonaldization, clearinghouse on issues related to McDonald's

Terralingua

INGO devoted to battling extinction of minority languages and indigenous cultures

The Myths of Cultural Globalization

Paper by Joana Breidenbach and Ina Zukrigl disputes homogenization and clash of civilizations scenarios by showing how ethnographic work points to
diversifying effects of globalization

Webster's World of Cultural Policy

Web resources on cultural policy, several with global dimension, from site promoting cultural democracy

World Culture Reports

 1995 UNESCO world culture report (available online) and 2000 report (overview and statistical tables) chart extent of cultural diversity, promote inclusion
of culture in development policies, and foster respect for all tolerant cultures in "rainbow river"; site also contains other material on UNESCO's work to
preserve cultural heritage and stimulate pluralism

Over the ages, women in India have faced the problems such as patriarchy and social pressure; caste based discrimination and social restrictions; inadequate access to productive
resources; poverty; insufficient facilities for advancement; powerlessness and exclusion etc.
However, the new circumstances created by globalization are diverse, encompass all women in the country and cover almost all aspects of their life. Some of these are as follows:
Contents [hide]
 Positive Impacts
o Changing role in work
o Changing role in Family, Marriage, Caste
o Other Positive Impacts
o Negative Impacts

Positive Impacts
Changing role in work
Globalization has undermined the traditional role of women in homemaking, farming, livestock, animal husbandry, handicrafts, handlooms etc and resulted in a relatively better
environment for women. Women have more jobs, become more active in avenues generally reserved for men, have played a more prominent role in society and not just restricted
to the household. It has affected both the quantity and the quality of work available to the majority of women in India.

Changing role in Family, Marriage, Caste

Globalisation has posed a major challenge to the institution of patriarchy in India. As women take up jobs and achieve social mobility, they have also begun to stand up for their
rights. As nuclear families have become more common, it has become easier for women to assertively claim their rights and ask for equality in an environment not stuck in ancient
mores. Marrying within the same caste has become less important, and women have in many cases reserved the right to marry whoever they choose irrespective of caste. As
countries come closer, and boundaries disappear in the globalised world, women in India are inspired by women the world over to fight for their rights. Of course, there are some
notable exceptions to the above generalisations. But, to a large extent, these changes have received a great push from the new era of globalisation.

Other Positive Impacts

 Prospects of higher and quality education have become feasible for those women who can afford them, economically and socially.

 Employment in technological and other advanced sectors, which have global bearing, has opened up for suitably qualified women.

 With changing attitude towards women, especially in the urban areas, women enjoy more egalitarian set of gender relationship.

 Augmentation of women’s movements through exposures at the international level will help bring about major changes in the economic, social and political lives of women.

 Reduction in gender inequalities will have positive effect on women’s empowerment in the socio-economic context.

 Attitudinal changes towards women’s role in the family due to good education, benefits of family planning and health care, child care, good job opportunities etc. will surely help
in the development of more confident and healthy women.

 Positive approach to economic and cultural migration will facilitate women to be exposed to better prospects at the international level.

Negative Impacts
Globalization has increased the number of low paid, part time and exploitative jobs for women. Increased prices due to open economy demand more cope up with changes from
women. With increasing nuclear families, the older women’s life has become pitiable, sometimes spending their later days in old age homes and isolation. The feminization of
population has further aggravated this problem. Similarly, male migration from rural areas to urban centres has put the women under triple burden of home making, farming and
job in rural sector. At the same time, migration of women for economic reasons has led to increased exploitation including sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Women and Globalisation—Some Key Issues

(Presentation at the Conference: Strategies of the Thai Women's Movement in the 21st.
Century,Bangkok, March 28-29, 2000)

* Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South, Thailand

Today, there are many ways to define globalisation, all the way from the "cyber"
revolution to a world wide homogenisation of consumer goods and tastes. I would like
to raise a few issues particularly about economic globalisation, i.e., the integration of
local and national economies into an increasingly interlinked world economy—the
global economy;
This world/global economy is one that both serves and promotes free and unregulated
markets as primary arenas of exchange for goods, services and more recently, of
money itself. This market is dominated by economic, financial and political
institutions such as multi- and transnational corporations, financial speculators,
investment firms, and governments of countries such as the United States, Canada,
Great Britain, Australia and Japan, who have long benefited from the opportunities for
political and economic gain that free market capitalism provides and therefore, have
also systematically supported it.

The roots of economic globalisation as we know it today go back many years, to the
period immediately after World War 2. Since then, this integration and inter-linking of
diverse economies into a huge global one has been brought about by a number of
different processes and mechanisms. For example:

 The expanding role of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the

World Bank, IMF, ADB, the WTO, and the imposition of structural adjustment
policies, sectoral reforms, etc.
 The internationalisation (or globalisation) of production
 Increased dependence on export led economic growth
 Formation of regional free trade zones and common markets such AFTA,
NAFTA, etc.
 Formation of transnational entities such as European Union, ASEAN,
Mercosur, etc.
 Growth and expansion of multinational and transnational corporations
 Influence of foreign governments in determining domestic policies in recipient
countries through the use of Official Development Assistance (ODA); this must
be viewed in light of the trend that over the last 10-15 years, financial flows
from richer to developing countries show a decline in ODA with a concurrent
increase in private capital in the form of foreign direct investment and portfolio
investment.
 Neo-liberal economic and political reforms which began with the creation of
the Bretton Woods Institutions, but intensified and gained speed with the
proliferation of regional development banks, regional economic entities such as
ASEAN, APEC, etc.

Economic globalisation intensified at the end of the Cold War, when the collapse of
the centrally planned economies of the Soviet Union and its allies no longer offered a
counterweight to the free market economies of the West.

Two particularly notable characteristics of globalisation are how widespread it is, and
the speed with which it has become the dominant international economic, political and
cultural force. Globalisation is no longer just an economic phenomenon: it is
accompanied by cultural, social and political changes and processes, and it is often
difficult to say whether the economic, or the cultural or the political changes come
first.

Economic globalisation is manifested today through three main neo-liberal policy

prescriptions:

 Deregulation: a general withdrawal of the State from providing control or

oversight over economic and financial transactions, the removal of all
government/public "interventions" that might affect the free functioning of the
market; for e.g., removal of price controls on goods and services, dismantling
of public subsidies, etc.
 Privatisation: increased role of the private sector in providing all types of goods
and services, transfer of ownership and management of public enterprises to
private companies, change in operational aspects of public/state companies
with increased stress on full cost recovery, efficiency, etc.
 Liberalisation: giving up domestic control over essential sectors such as trade
and finance, permitting foreign companies to own key enterprises such as
national banks, easing controls on foreign investment and capital, reducing
trade tariffs, duties, restrictions and barriers, etc.

Distinguishing features of these neoliberal reforms are: an overall withdrawal of the

state from its roles of sovereign economic decision making, providing essential public
services, developing and implementing policies aimed at promoting equity, and
ensuring adequate public protection for economically, socially and politically
vulnerable populations. These trends are accompanied by an increase in the role and
power of the private sector, and a surrender of most economic transactions to the
market in the belief that free and unfettered markets will somehow lead to the most
efficient allocation of resources and eventually result in economic equality.

Globalisation has not affected all countries or regions in the same way, and a
country’s internal "preparedness" is critical in how it can take advantage of or be
completely overrun by economic globalisation. Because of differing levels of
modernisation, industrialisation and technological capacity, regions, countries and
even areas within the same country have felt the impacts of globalisation quite
differently. For example, in Southeast Asia, the experiences of South Korea, Thailand,
Vietnam and Indonesia in terms of how they have been able to benefit from economic
globalisation and what they have lost in the process are all very different.

Within countries and societies, the economic class, political privilege and other
advantages that a social group may have are significant factors in whether and how
people have been able to benefit from economic globalisation. By and large, those
who are already wealthy, socially and politically privileged and have access to capital,
higher education, productive assets (such as land) and other resources (such as
technical know-how and hardware) are usually able to benefit from the economic
changes brought about by globalisation. But those who are already cash poor, and
socially and politically disadvantaged often face tremendous difficulties, and find
themselves much worse off than before since they are compelled to operate in a more
aggressive competitive economic environment but without the government/public
supports that they once relied on.

In fact the latest Human Development Report shows that over the last ten years,
despite more wealth in the world than ever before, there are many more poor people
than ever before, and also the gap between the rich and poor is wider than ever before.
By the end of the 1990s, the share in global income of the richest fifth of the world's
people was 74 times the share of the poorest fifth of the world's people.

Differential Impacts on Women

The impact of economic globalisation on women needs to be assessed in light of

women’s multiple roles as productive and reproductive labour in their families, as
well as their contributions towards overall community cohesion and welfare, and
maintaining the social fabric. Because of deep-rooted differences in gender roles and
socio-cultural expectations, the impacts of economic globalisation are felt quite
differently by women and men. While economic class, race and culture are also
extremely important factors in determining the nature and extent of impacts, by and
large, the very same policies and trends are likely to have quite different implications
for women and men. I will restrict my observations to Asia.

Research in the 1980s and 1990s showed that structural adjustment policies promoted
by the World Bank and IMF affected women much more deeply than men. The
elimination of public subsidies for health, education and other social services resulted
in a transference of the "welfare" function of the state onto families, and by extension
onto girls and women. This trend became entrenched as governments continued to cut
back on social spending, thus increasing the burden of caring for vulnerable
community members (such as children, the aging, disabled persons or those with
illness) on families. Because of women’s traditional roles in most societies in Asia as
care-givers, this burden has been disproportionately borne by women than men.

In many countries, when public hospitals are privatised or the cost of professional
health care goes up, middle to low income families rely more on informal or
traditional forms of care. This is usually provided by the female members of
households and communities because of women’s traditional roles as service
providers in the home.
If basic education is privatised or if families cannot afford the rising costs of
education, it is more often girls who drop out of school than boys because of beliefs
that boys need formal education more than girls to prepare them for their future social
roles. This has further implications for the type of employment that women are able to
find when they move into the wage labour market. With lower levels of education,
women will tend to be concentrated in the lower rungs of the labour market and in
jobs that require less formal training or education. The replacement of manual labour
with machines and new technology usually displaces more women than men since
women have a larger education gap to cross compared with men (in the same class) in
order to learn how to use new technologies.

Similarly, increases in the prices of food, fuel and essential services such as water and
electricity place extra burdens on females in low income households since women are
usually responsible for managing domestic food and water consumption, as well as
ensuring the overall health of their families. Female children are generally expected to
perform more housework than male children and in poor families, the labour of girls
in cooking, cleaning, child care, and caring for the elderly or sick family members is
essential for household maintenance, and also to free up the time of older women who
need to find wage labour.

Trade liberalisation has also been shown to have differential impacts on women and
men. An essential aspect of trade liberalisation is export competitiveness and much of
this competitiveness in Asian countries has come from the labour of women. The
development of export processing zones in the 1980s and 1990s in developing
countries eager to industrialise was premised on the availability of cheap, docile,
unskilled labour that would be willing to work at low wages for long hours. Given a
longer history of men’s involvement in industrialised production, union organising
and political negotiations in the labour market, these export processing zones targeted
women as the primary work-force, relying on local cultural and social values as
domesticating forces.

Research shows that no country in Asia has been able to expand its manufacturing
capacity without pulling an increasing proportion of women into industrial waged
employment. In the early 1990s, women accounted for more than 43 percent of the
manufacturing work force in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand. The manufacturing sector in itself accounted for more than 20 percent of
GDP in these countries. In the Thai export sector, women accounted for 90 per cent of
the workforce in the canned seafood industry and 85 percent in the garment and
accessory industry.

In the transition countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam, women’s labour is
considered a significant element of their "comparative advantage" in export oriented
manufacturing, as gvernments invite investors to establish manufacturing bases in
their countries in an order to integrate with regional and global economies. While
export industries offer women opportunities for employment and income, the
unregulated and competitive nature of these trade regimes also means that women’s
labour is often unprotected and dispensable. Few governments have, or are willing to
enforce legislation that ensures women workers in this sector with fair living wages,
benefits, occupational safety and opportunities for upgrading skills.

Another area where women have made significant contributions to local and national
economies is through the informal sector. A significant portion of economic activity
in Asian countries is not fully counted and does not show up in national census or
survey figures, since it is conducted by women in their homes or in small community
level production units. These activities range from the sale of vegetables, locally
processed food and other goods (artificial flowers, accessories, etc.) to piece work for
factories, and the provision of services such as cleaning, cooking, caring for the
elderly, childcare, etc. It is important to note that in many Asian countries (e.g.,
Thailand, Lao PDR, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan), a large portion of
informal sector activities are commercialised or "marketised" versions of women’s
traditional skills of maintaining and reproducing the family and community spheres.

While some of these activities are self-owned or self-regulated (i.e., women have
reasonable control over production conditions), many are under sub-contract
arrangements in which women are at the mercy of brokers who determine production
and compensation rules. This is particularly the case in sub-contracted production for
the manufacturing sector, which is generally organised around contracting agents who
receive production contracts from larger agents and then sub-contract the work to the
women workers. These workers would then perform the work in their homes, or in
small production units set up by the principle contractor. A distinguishing feature of
such work is that for both cultural and economic reasons, workers cannot and do not
organise themselves in unions or associations to protect their rights as workers.
Principle contractors are often people known and respected in the community, and
take on the persona of "patrons" who bestow favours on community members through
economic opportunities, etc. On the other hand, contractors may be from outside the
neigbourhood or community, and will simply go elsewhere if workers decide to
organise and negotiate as a group.

Many researchers argue that there is a growing "informalisation" of labour in the

export manufacturing sector, and that this informalisation taps into women’s needs to
balance their productive and reproductive responsibilities. Economic opportunism and
profits are served by local culture and tradition, which serve as domesticating forces
and ensure a supply of cheap and manageable labour. Further, the expansion of this
type of sub-contracted production has increased with the globalisation of production,
and trade and investment liberalisation. On one hand, the informal sector has provided
women with much needed income, which in some instances also enhances their status
in their families and communities. But at the same time, the inability to organise as a
group in such employment makes it extremely difficult for women to negotiate better
compensation, working conditions and labour protection for themselves.

The liberalisation of the agriculture sector has also affected women in a variety of
ways, from losing access to local markets for their products to dislocation from
traditional forms of livelihood, outward migration and re-settlement. Under trade
liberalisation agreements (such as in the WTO) developing countries are bound to
import a percentage of agriculture and food products for domestic consumption. The
developing countries of Asia are primarily rural economies where at least 50 percent
of agriculture and food production is done by women. Local and national food
security is dependant on domestic production, which in turn ensures livelihood
security for rural families. Obligatory imports of agricultural (especially food)
products, accompanied by reduction in tariffs on imported goods and the removal of
price controls creates pressure on making local goods "competitive" with imported
goods (which are often subsidised in their countries of origin). This has negative
impacts on food and livelihood security for domestic producers, leading to increased
economic hardship for rural families and a gradual weakening of rural, self-reliant
economic structures. Again, because of women’s dual roles as productive and
reproductive labour, this burden is borne more heavily by women than men.

Another crucial area that is affected by trade liberalisation and privatisation regimes is
natural resources, particularly in relation to bio-diversity and traditional knowledge. A
huge proportion of rural communities in Asia are subsistence producers who live off
common lands and resources, and rely on traditional knowledge of local forests,
plants, animals and fish for food and income. In these communities, women are
usually responsible for meeting the family’s daily food and livelihood needs, and are
veritable storehouses of knowledge about local bio-diversity and traditional extraction
practices. But with commercial harvesting of natural resources for value added
production, increase in plantation and mono-cropping for export markets, and
transference of land, water and resource rights to private companies, both bio-
diversity and environmental quality are seriously threatened, and local communities
are alienated from the resource base they depend upon..

The loss of local plant and animal species is a serious blow to women since they rely
on seasonal diversity and variation to ensure food, income and health for their
families. When communities are displaced or relocated from traditional lands to make
way for commercial enterprises, women are particularly disempowered since their
sphere of activity is usually limited to local forests, rivers and common lands.
Reduced access to these lands and resources, and reduced availability of local foods
increases women’s work-load of family maintenance. The introduction of new
resource tenure systems often marginalises women from access to and control over all
types of resources—natural, economic and political.

Bio-piracy and the patenting of women’ traditional knowledge of biodiversity and

production processes by private corporations also disempowers women in very
particular ways. Not only are women’s intellectual contributions to science,
technology and modern know-how not recognised, but also, they are compelled to pay
for the very resources that they have nurtured and protected for generations as these
resources enter markets in the form of medicines and processed foods.

While women in such situations face the danger of losing ownership and control over
their indigenous resources through trade liberalisation, they do not necessarily gain
access to new resources. Patents on products derived from local bio-diversity do not
involve royalty payments to women and their communities who have stewarded and
built a store of knowledge about these resources. Nor are women compensated for the
"opportunity" costs of losing access to their primary sources of food and livelihood.
The introduction of new, valued adding production technologies does not necessarily
benefit rural women since they usually have neither the required capital nor the base
of education and skills required to take advantage of these changes. Unless
accompanied by deliberate measures to transfer new technologies and know how to
women, the introduction of new technologies often displaces them from traditional
areas of autonomy and control

The above are just some examples of how women are affected by economic
globalisation. The range of impacts is both vast and complex, and these impacts vary
across countries, social and economic status, culture, and also across time. What were
considered opportunities ten years ago may be considered threats today, as in the case
of some types of export processing zones, commercial agricultural production
practices, etc. Further, it can be argued that the forces of economic globalisation
impact women at two broad levels. First, at the immediate experiential level such as
lowered wages, reduced access to land and resources, less food, greater workload, etc.
And second, at a more "structural" or strategic level, where impacts are not
necessarily visible today, but which lead to a longer-term disempowerment of women.

Gaps in Knowledge

One of the biggest challenges of tracing and fully understanding the ways in which
globalisation affects women is the absence of sex-disaggregated indicators and data in
key sectors such as agricultural production and employment, services, and the
informal sector. While independent researchers and institutions such as UNIFEM are
gathering information and showing how women are affected by current economic
trends, many of the indicators and methods used to monitor these trends are in and of
themselves not gender sensitive. For example, internationally accepted indicators of
income-related poverty do not provide information on the particular incidence of
poverty among women (what is called the "feminisation of poverty"). While
household surveys on consumption or spending can provide sex-disaggregated data,
they cannot measure or take into consideration gender inequality within households,
which is usually a significant factor in the manner and the degree to which women are
affected by new opportunities and trends.

The above gaps in information also have serious consequences for the development of
women-friendly national and global economic and social policies, and in transforming
the forces of economic globalisation to be beneficial rather than hostile to women.
While there is plenty of "evidence" that liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation
have disproportionately affected women negatively (particularly in lower income
groups), this evidence is not accepted as valid by policy makers since it does not fit
into their accepted frameworks and analytical practices. At the same time, the
knowledge base that informs national and global policy making is blind not only to
gender differences, but also to the political disadvantages that result from differences
in race, class, culture and ethnicity.

The full measure of impacts of economic globalisation on women, and the

development of progressive policy measures to counter these measures will not
receive the attention it deserves until this dominant knowledge base is challenged and
reconstructed.

The Role of Women in Globalization!

While globalization has brought an explosion in the jobs market, the benefits for women have been mixed. It has
brought one major benefit to most women—more paid work. Since 1980 the growth in the labour force of women has
been substantially higher than that of men in every region of the world except Africa.

In India too, the number of female workers was 7.2 crore in 2001, which is attributed to women’s increasing
participation in activities outside home. Prof. Sand Choudury (Trent University, Canada) notes, ‘The economic
independence that these jobs provide has for the first time given Third World women the ability to contribute to their
families financially; the opportunity to delay marriages and child-bearing; even the means to end oppressive marital
relationships.’ But, while more women may be working, they are still paid less than men. Even in the US, which is a
highly developed country, women get less than men for the same work.

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In 2000, on an average, women earned 73 per cent of men’s wages. Black and minority women fared even worse. In
India, women labour earns about 50 per cent of the wages paid to their counterpart. Not only this, generally women
are assigned to the worst paid, shortest contract, most monotonous jobs. They are the first to be dismissed from work
in any economic crisis. While in developed countries, there are many part-time jobs for women in India such jobs are
negligible.

Moreover, such jobs are also vulnerable and have little security. Although globalization has resulted in some women
gaining employment in IT, service and manufacturing sector, the majority of Indian (Asian) women are still in the
informal economy, rural farming and in the subsistence economic activities.

The World Bank’s 2000 report ‘Gender in Transition’ highlights differences between men and women by commenting
that globalization has increased gender inequality, hampering socio-economic progress. In many Third world
countries, including India, the average working woman earns just over half the income of the average man.

Girls are more malnourished than boys. Less than half as many girls as boys are enrolled in higher education. Nearly
half the pregnant women do not receive any form of prenatal care, resulting in very high infant mortality rates.

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Globalization has also increased migration across borders and this has provided women with new opportunities,
financial independence and higher status in their home country. Many women are moving to other countries either
for higher studies or in search of jobs.

There are regions, like Kerala from where women are working abroad in abundance. Women migrants often send
remittance back home. At the same time, globalization has contributed to worldwide growth in the numbers of
women and girls being trafficked for forced sexual services.

Globalization has changed the face of the world, making us all into global consumers and giving us access to instant
information. This has deeply affected women’s lives. Women have become products for sale in the form of
advertisements.

Women’s bodies are used to sell from men’s underwear, perfumes, and motorbikes to cars. Their bodies have become
simply objects now as other objects. The ways that women have been marketed at, and used for marketing, have
changed considerably in the last decade.

Trafficking has become one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the global economy. Widespread poverty in
some regions of India forced parents to sell their young daughters (wife buying) to the men of foreign countries,
particularly Middle East, where they are forced to work as prostitutes or concubines.

Young girls are lured by the promise of a good job or for marriage in another country. Traffickers exploit women’s
desire to make a better life for themselves with promises of jobs as waitresses, dancers, models, maids and nannies.