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The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank encourage developing countries to use export-led growth to expand their economies. Such globalized economies require a labor force of a size that must include women, but women’s employment varies greatly by region.
For example, as of 2010, 67 percent of women are in the work force in East Asia, the greatest proportion among all regions of the world. The global average is 53 percent.4 Women in this part of the world participate for the longest part of their lives in comparison to other regions.
In the Middle East and North Africa, these numbers are much lower, as of 2010, 36 percent in Qatar,5 15 percent in Saudi Arabia,6 and 14 percent in the United Arab Emirates.7
The vastly different percentages around the world may be attributed to social-cultural factors, such as the belief in many ethnically Arab nations that women do not work, or the tight political control over women in places such as Saudi Arabia.
Similarly, South American women participate in the labor force more as they age, indicating that they must contribute more income as their household grows following marriage, while women in the Middle East and North Africa drop out of the labor force in great numbers when they marry and have children.
What accounts for these differences? In many cases, cultural barriers, especially in the relationship between women and men within households and communities, impede increased economic participation, or undermine the quality of that participation. For example, even women who do work face differential treatment such as wage gaps and segregation into traditionally female industries. Women have historically borne the burden of non-monetized labor, such as child-care and domestic work.
Globalization is changing these norms. The new global developing economies demand women in the monetized as well as non-monetized sectors of work. In fact, globalization has the potential to improve women’s economic achievement. Increased employment opportunities for women in non-traditional sectors might enable them to earn and control income, thus providing a source of empowerment and enhancing women’s capacity to negotiate their role and status within the household and society.
Furthermore, according to the World Bank’s report Enhancing Women’s Participation in Economic Development, women’s economic development will benefit their households and society as a whole: “International experience has proved that support for a stronger role for women in society contributes to economic growth through improved child survival rates, better family health, and reduced fertility rates.”
Journalist Nadina Al Bedair describes the situation of women in Saudi Arabia with the denial of their human rights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK8uo_vvryg
Increased participation in the work force also implies increased hazards for women. Women’s jobs outside the home tend to be the worst compensated, least secure, and most dangerous available in the economy, especially in peiods of recession that plague most developing countries.
The following video shows the conditions of women working in Bangladesh. Although they work in hazardous and strenuous conditions, most of these women are willing to work in such environments in order to make a profit for their families.
The dearth of labor laws, or ignorance and lack of enforcement of the labor codes in practice, allow for the exploitation of women. In Guatemala, women constitute 80 percent of the textile factory sector, and thousands of mostly indigenous women provide services as domestic servants. In both sectors, women have only a precarious claim on the rights to Guatemala’s legally mandated minimum wage, work-week length, leave time, health care under the national social security system, and privacy protections. Often, they are subject to physical and/or sexual abuse, according to Human Rights Watch.
Unfortunately, even the global nature of business does not confer universal rights for these women. Many U.S.-based companies, such as Target, The Limited, Wal-Mart, GEAR for Sports, Liz Claiborne, and Lee Jeans, have contracts with Guatemalan factories and continue to honor them even if the factories break explicit company policy, such as physically examining women to determine if they are pregnant and denying health care to employees. According to Human Rights Watch, strengthening legal protection for women laborers and increasing their access to legal recourse might cement increased participation in the work as a positive development for women.
Still, while globalization may have increased women’s vulnerability and dependency, there is hope that prioritizing women’s issues has yielded progress and will continue to do so. As the UN has stated, “Women have entered the labor force in unprecedented numbers, increasing the potential for their ability to participate in economic decision making at various levels, starting with the household.” Significant changes in the underlying factors threatening to suppress this potential are necessary before serious progress can be made.
4 http://www.financialexpress.com/news/more-women-in-workforce-to-prop-gdp-by-4/588395/
5 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/595741-female-participation-in-qatari-workforce-grows–study
6 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585180-women-make-up-only-15-of-saudi-workforce–study
7 http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/middle-east/2010/03/09/247479/Womens-share.htm
8 http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Resources/Static/Products/Progress2010/MDG_Report_2010_En.pdf