CPE Globalization Briefs Center for Popular Economics PO Box 785 Amherst MA 01004 413 545 0743 www PopularEconomics org Female led Industrialization F or many developing countries there is a clear association between global integration usually measured as the value of a country s imports plus exports as a proportion of GDP and women s employment in the manufacturing sector The evidence is especially strong for countries that have pursued the export promotion of light manufactures like Mexico Hong Kong South Korea Taiwan and Singapore See the table below for a recent survey of women s employment in export processing zones The reason for this association is that the labor intensive industries that constitute the early stages of export promotion development strategies such as garments or footwear are industries that have traditionally primarily employed women Also some argue that women constitute a cheaper source of labor for employers in low skill labor intensive industries because female unionization rates tend to be much lower than men s so women cannot organize for better wages and working conditions as effectively partly as a result employers perceive women as more docile and easier to control employers also perceive women as better at the delicate work that these labor intensive industries often demand the so called nimble fingers argument women s low labor market attachment where women are less often the main income earners in their households or must take breaks in employment due to care responsibilities especially with regard to childbearing and consequent high turnover work well for industries where little training is needed and job seniority only brings with it increased costs for employers Why do women take on this type of employment The reasons are of course complex but they can be roughly categorized as pull factors and push factors Pull factors describe aspects of the paid labor market that draw women out of the home to work such as the opportunity to work for an independent wage wages that are often much better than the income a woman could make in the informal sector or working as an unpaid worker on a family farm or in a family business Push factors are those that compel women to seek paid work because of worsening economic conditions say when a husband or father loses a job This has been the case where structural adjustment programs have brought about intense economic hardship while at the same time inducing expansions in a country s export sector often to earn foreign exchange to pay off international debt So to the extent that export growth is a lead in to economic development and export sectors rely primarily on women s labor then it could be argued that industrialization can be female led Despite this general trend in women s employment and manufactured exports in developing countries there is some evidence that it can be reversed as has been found to some extent in the maquiladora industry along the U S Mexico border and in South Korea These reversals have been attributed to the graduate upskilling of export jobs and the reorganization of production especially multitasking of flexible labor involved in high performance production As these jobs become more skilled and highly paid men may increasingly apply for and be hired in these jobs Some of this decline however could also be the result of increases Women s Employment in Selected Export Processing Zones in Developing Economies Country Number of women workers as a percentage of all workers Main industry Bangladesh 1998 69 garments leather shoes electronics Dominican Republic 1998 99 58 garments electronics 80 a garments electronics Fiji 199 80 b garments food Haiti 1998 69c garments Jamaica 1997 90 garments Madagascar 1997 60 garments leather Mauritius 1997 68 garments flowers Nicaragua 1997 72 garments flowers El Salvador 1997 Source van Heerden Auret 1999 EPZs The New Logic of Global Production Geneva ILO as cited in World Investment Report 1999 Table IX 4 p 268 a In maquiladora b In free trade zones c In apparel only in home based production and the informal sector where factory production is being relocated in the continual effort to cut down costs and women s employment disappears from the statistics Some have argued that the link between export promotion women s employment and economic growth is a causal one Because of the international prevalence of the gender wage gap where women s wages are systematically lower than men s export sectors that employ women can sell products more cheaply than if they employed men Thus the gender wage gap can directly contribute to a country s export competitiveness and consequent growth in the market sector of that country Still it must be acknowledged that globalization has created an environment in which many women can gain greater personal autonomy because they have more access to paid work and alternatives to traditional patriarchal gender relations Earning their own income enhances women s bargaining power in the household enabling them to have more power over decisionmaking about everything from who they will marry to how much of the household budget is earmarked for their children s food and clothing But globalization also puts them in a low place in the global hierarchy of economic and institutional power as women become integrated in the global economy in ways that crowd them in highly competitive industries with little potential for advancement Sources S le zler 1999 Globalization Employment and Gender Background Papers for Human Development Report Volume I New York Human Development Report Office United Nations Development Programme United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIFEM 2000 Progress of the World s Women 2000 New York UNIFEM The Center for Popular Economics is a non profit collective of political economists that teaches economic literacy to activists for progressive social change CPE creates and communicates economic theories that challenge systems of oppression based on class race gender and nation Our programs and publications demystify economics and provide alternative to mainstream analyses 2
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