Development

Economic Development Policies and Women Workers: Filipina Workers in a Japanese Transplant

Citation:

 Licuanan-Galela, Niza. 2001. “Economic Development Policies and Women Workers: Filipina Workers in a Japanese Transplant.” NWSA Journal 13 (3): 169–80.

Author: Niza Licuanan-Galela

Annotation:

Introduction: Economic globalization has resulted in the integration of economies and workers on a worldwide scale. Export industrialization is one of the key strategies that has made globalization possible; central to the success of export industrialization programs are transnational corporations (TNCs) that engage in off-shore productions. Encouraged by the economic success of export industrialization, many developing countries have anchored their development programs on this economic strategy. To secure investment in their countries, governments offer inducements that often include export processing zones (EPZ) with no-strike policies, cheap but highly- skilled labor, and tax holidays. In return, the host governments expect the TNCs to create employment opportunities, and through their investments, to boost the domestic economy.

Women are the major resources for the cheap but skilled labor force that are found in the EPZs. For example, in the Philippines, women compose more than 80 percent of workers involved in export industrialization, and have formed the backbone of the country's economy (Chant 1996; Chant and Mcllwaine 1995;Hutchinson 1992). Fuentes and Ehrenreich contend that due to both biological and social reasons, women have been heavily recruited to do the labor-intensive jobs found on global assembly lines (1983). Boserup (1970) and others (Beneria and Sen 1981; Buvinic 1976; Ward 1988) contend that economic development strategies, especially those concerned with industrial development, more often led to further marginalization of women's status. Studies on women in global assembly lines indicate that women's work experiences, especially the way they are treated in these factories, have profound effects on their perception of their status (Chant and Mcllwaine 1995;Nash andFernandez-Kelly1983; Ong 1987;Poster 1998; Tiano 1994; Ward1990; Wolf 1992).

This study addresses two questions on women engaged in TNC global assembly line work.' First, what type of labor-management policies are found on global assembly lines in the Philippines? Second, how have these labor managerial policies and practices affected Filipino women workers on the global assembly line? Beyond these questions, the paper also explores the implications of these work experiences on rural women's social position in the Philippines. If global assembly-line work emerges as the most dominant form of industrial work for rural women, would it lead to the enhancement or further marginalization of women workers' status?

This research is based on a case study using in-depth interviews with Filipino women workers in a Japanese automotive, wiring-harness, assembly plant. The date provides insights on how work is engendered on the global assembly lines. It helps us understand the workplace dynamics that underlie the experiences women workers have reported in earlier research (see Chant and Mcllwaine 1995; Eviota 1992; Fuentes and Ehrenreich 1983; Grossman 1980; Ong 1987).This study also offers insights into how national development policies are transformed at the local level into labor- management policies which directly affect women's work experiences.

I argue that the working conditions in the local factories are a product of the interplay between the local culture's gender ideology and the work cultures' gender ideology. The detailed information presented here on how Japanese labor-management systems are transferred and adopted into Southeast Asian global assembly lines broadens our understanding, not only of the degree and form of transference of Japanese labor managerial practices; it also delineates the unique ways in which gender is manipulated in the work place. In global assembly lines not only are investments and technology transferred from the mother corporation to the off-shore production factories, but systems of gendered labor-management are transplanted as well.

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Globalization, Livelihoods, Multi-National Corporations Regions: Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Japan, Philippines

Year: 2001

Recasting our Understanding of Gender and Work During Global Restructuring

Citation:

Pyle, Jean L., and Kathryn B. Ward. 2003. “Recasting Our Understanding of Gender and Work During Global Restructuring.” International Sociology 18 (3): 461–89.

Authors: Jean L. Pyle, Kathryn B. Ward

Abstract:

The authors propose a broad analytic framework for understanding the relationships between globalization, gender and work. They argue that the way researchers, government officials and development practitioners think about globalization's effects on the gendered division of labor is the basis upon which to develop effective strategies to reduce gender inequalities. The authors outline the major trends of the recent period of globalization and their effects on the gendered division of labor, including more macro-effects of trade, production and finance on women's roles. They investigate micro-impacts through four growing gendered production networks: export production, sex work, domestic service and microfinance income generation. They also examine the role of governments and find that, to satisfy demands of international institutions and address some citizens' needs, many governments have been pushed into fostering these types of work. The authors argue that these gendered global production networks have grown substantially as a result of globalization processes and that there are systemic linkages between the global expansion of production, trade and finance and the increase of women in these networks. This broader understanding of the forces that shape women's lives is necessary to develop strategies that counter globalization's adverse impacts.

Keywords: Bangladesh, Gender, globalization, microfinance, multinational corporation, sex work, work

Topics: Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Globalization, Governance, Households, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Political Economies

Year: 2003

The Gender Ideological Clash in Globalization: Women, Migration, and the Modernization Building Project of the Philippines

Citation:

Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2007. “The Gender Ideological Clash in Globalization: Women, Migration, and the Modernization Building Project of the Philippines.” Social Thought & Research 28: 37–56.

Author: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

Abstract:

My article interrogates the local impacts of global economic processes on the socio-cultural geography of the Philippines. I argue that the development of an export-oriented Filipino economy incorporates a gender ideological clash resulting from simultaneously encouraging and discouraging female domesticity. This clash emerges from the economic dependency of the Philippines on women's work outside the home on the one hand, and a longstanding gender ideology that continues to locate women's gender responsibilities inside the home on the other hand. The dependence of the Philippines on remittances from women's migrant domestic work magnifies this clash. My article looks closely at this gender ideological clash caused by working women's paradoxical positioning vis-à-vis the home, addresses why this clash occurs, describes its consequences for relations in the family, and, lastly, links it to a larger discussion of the status of women in globalization.

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Globalization, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2007

The ‘Girl Effect’ and martial arts: social entrepreneurship and sport, gender and development in Uganda

Citation:

Hayhurst, Lyndsay M. C. 2014. “The 'Girl Effect’ and Martial Arts: Social Entrepreneurship and Sport, Gender and Development in Uganda.” Gender, Place and Culture 21 (3): 297–315.

Author: Lyndsay M. C. Hayhurst

Abstract:

In recent years, three notable trends have emerged in the gender and development landscape: the increasing use of sport as a tool to achieve gender and development objectives (SGD); the expanding involvement of transnational corporations (TNCs) in creating, funding and implementing development programs; and the girling' of development. The last trend has largely been facilitated by the proliferation of the global Girl Effect' campaign, or the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world' (Girl Effect 2011). This article reports on findings from a global ethnography - involving semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis - that considered how sport-oriented Girl Effect interventions impact the lives of girls they target. Using a Girl Effect-focused partnership among a TNC (based in Western Europe), an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) (based in Western Europe) and a Southern NGO (based in Uganda) as a case study, this article examines how SGD programs for Ugandan girls encourage them to become entrepreneurs of themselves' (Rose 1999) equipped to survive in the current global neoliberal climate using social entrepreneurial tactics such as training to be martial arts instructors combined with activities such as cultivating nuts. Results show how Girl Effect-oriented SGD programs that focus on social entrepreneurship tend to overlook the broader structural inequalities and gender relations that marginalize girls in the first place. I conclude by suggesting that future studies must further explore the socio-economic, cultural and political implications and consequences that social entrepreneurship and economic forms' of SGD interventions hold for girls.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, sport for development, gender and development, neoliberalism, Girl Effect

Annotation:

 

 

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Girls, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Multi-National Corporations, NGOs Regions: Africa, East Africa, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Uganda

Year: 2014

Corporatising Sport, Gender and Development: postcolonial IR feminisms, transnational private governance and global corporate social engagement

Citation:

Hayhurst, Lyndsay. 2011. “Corporatising Sport, Gender and Development: Postcolonial IR Feminisms, Transnational Private Governance and Global Corporate Social Engagement.” Third World Quarterly 32 (3): 531–49.

Author: Lyndsay Hayhurst

Abstract:

The ‘Girl Effect’ is a growing but understudied movement that assumes girls are catalysts capable of bringing social and economic change for their families, communities and countries. The evolving discourse associated with this movement holds profound implications for development programmes that focus on girls and use sport and physical activity to promote gender equality, challenge gender norms, and teach confidence and leadership skills. Increasingly sport, gender and development (SGD) interventions are funded and implemented by multinational corporations (MNCs) as part of the mounting portfolio of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in international development. Drawing on postcolonial feminist IR theory and recent literature on transnational private governance, this article considers how an MNC headquartered in the global North that funds a SGD programme informed by the ‘Girl Eeffect’ movement in the Two-Thirds World is implicated in the postcolonial contexts in which it operates. Qualitative research methods were used, including interviews with MNC CSR staff members. The findings reveal three themes that speak to the colonial residue within corporate-funded SGD interventions: the power of brand authority; the importance of ‘authentic’ subaltern stories; and the politics of the ‘global’ sisterhood enmeshed in saving ‘distant’ others. The implications of these findings for SGD are discussed in terms of postcolonial feminist approaches to studying sport for development and peace more broadly.

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Development, Feminisms, Gender, Girls, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Multi-National Corporations

Year: 2011

Politics at Work: Transnational Advocacy Networks and the Global Garment Industry

Citation:

Garwood, Shae. 2005. “Politics at Work: Transnational Advocacy Networks and the Global Garment Industry.” Gender and Development 13 (3): 21–33.

Author: Shae Garwood

Abstract:

In the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of women and girls, from El Salvador to Lesotho, have earned their livelihoods by sewing clothes for the global garment industry. With the phasing out of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) at the end of 2004, many of these women face the prospect of unemployment. The use of transnational advocacy networks in two campaigns, the MFA Forum and Play Fair At The Olympics, may provide some lessons for gender and development advocates concerned about the fate of the millions of women working on the global assembly line.

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Girls, Globalization, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, Southern Africa, Americas, Central America Countries: El Salvador, Lesotho

Year: 2005

Lipstick evangelism: Avon trading circles and gender empowerment in South Africa

Citation:

Dolan, Catherine, and Linda Scott. 2009. “Lipstick Evangelism: Avon Trading Circles and Gender Empowerment in South Africa.” Gender and Development 17 (2): 203–18.

Authors: Catherine Dolan, Linda Scott

Abstract:

Increasing numbers of corporations are vying to capture one of the largest untapped consumer markets – the world's poor – in ways that are not only economically profitable but socially responsible. One type of initiative that has gained increased traction is trading partnerships between multinational corporations and women's informal exchange networks, creating micro-enterprise opportunities that not only deliver soap and mobile phones, but financial empowerment for women. This article examines one such initiative – the trade in Avon cosmetics. It aims to determine the extent to which the initiative alleviates poverty, and fosters empowerment, among black women in South Africa. It suggests that as unlikely as cosmetics may seem as a vehicle for development, direct sales of beauty products can offer low risk opportunities for women to become entrepreneurs, and form a potentially promising route to gender-equitable poverty reduction.

Keywords: gender empowerment, poverty reduction, consumer goods, partnerships, markets

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Multi-National Corporations Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2009

Gender and International Migration: Globalization, Development, and Governance

Citation:

Benería, Lourdes, Carmen Diana Deere, and Naila Kabeer. 2012. “Gender and International Migration: Globalization, Development, and Governance.” Feminist Economics 18 (2): 1–33.

Authors: Lourdes Beneria, Carmen Diana Deere, Naila Kabeer

Abstract:

This contribution examines the connections between gender and international migration around three themes: globalization, national economic development, and governance. First, it discusses the connections between globalization and the multiplicity of processes that have contributed to international migration and its feminization, arguing that gender awareness is crucial to understanding these processes. Gender analysis makes visible the increasing commodification of care work on a global scale and highlights how the organization of families is changing. Second, it analyzes the various avenues through which migration may contribute to or hinder economic development, highlighting why remittances, in particular by women, have featured very positively in the migration and development policy discourse. Third, it discusses how issues of citizenship affect the migrant population, showing how gender analysis highlights many challenges with regard to nation-based notions of citizenship, particularly in the receiving countries.

Keywords: Gender, international migration, globalization, development, governance

Topics: Citizenship, Development, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Globalization, Governance, Households

Year: 2012

Gender, Cities, and the Millennium Development Goals in the Global South

Citation:

Chant, Sylvia. 2007. “Gender, Cities, and the Millennium Development Goals in the Global South.” New Working Paper Series 21, London School of Economics, London.

Author: Sylvia Chant

Abstract:

Despite a dedicated Millennium Development Goal for ‘promoting gender equality and empowering women’, and popular rhetoric around the fulfilment of MDG 3 as a prerequisite for achieving all other seven goals, there has been widespread criticism on the part of feminists of their limited scope to address gender inequalities in the Global South. Suggestions have been made by the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality to improve the gender-responsiveness of the MDGs. Drawing on recent research on the ‘feminisation of poverty’ in Africa, Asia and Latin America and on the wider literature on gender in cities, this paper reflects on the potential of selected MDGs and their proposed revisions for reducing inequalities among poor urban women and men in the 21st century.

Topics: Class, Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, NGOs, Political Economies Regions: Africa, Americas, Central America, South America, Asia

Year: 2007

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