Political Science

Since the last thirty years, women have come a long way. Lives that we live today are very different as compared to lives that were lived thirty to forty years ago. Life in these days is much nobler and much richer as compared to older days. The fact remains however that lives in these days are much more difficult as well, especially in case of contradictions that are faced by modern women have never been more bruising. In every corner of this world, there are endless number of women who silently bear hardships as there is an endless number of losers created for every fewer numbers of winners.

Introduction
This paper asserts the fact that women in modern days are facing much more hardships as compared to older days and main reason of this is globalization. Thereby a question that needs to be analyzed in this paper is that if globalization has been detrimental to women. There is a set of arguments that shall be presented in this paper arguing this fact in two main ways. The first set of arguments deals with endurances that women have to go through in globalised world on the daily basis. First argument shall cover womens rights that they are not allowed to practice. Second argument shall argue in reference to resistances that women have to practice in order to get hold of what they deserve. Third argument shall focus on family breakdown faced by women because of structural adjustment policies in globally renovated economies.

Second set of arguments shall cover the aspects arguing that globalization has changed the meaning of success in womens lives. In this case, it shall be outlined that women have been engines of globalization outlining many facts and examples in relation to women who have been successfully working in many economical zones of many countries.

Rights to freedom of women have undergone highlighting changes in global economies. Being a mother and child bearing is a basic right of any women. Women in many countries are given no freedom to decide if they can be mothers or not. Globalization might have shown positivity and greater anticipated changes in lives of people in industrialized nations but it has been associated with much negativity when it comes to women. Main rights of women that are to be raised in this section as a question under detrimental effects of globalization are rights to sexual freedom and reproductive rights. A women in any corner of the world has a right to choose when she wants to bear children.
Recently it has been seen that many women have joined labor as well as workforces that have caused a great change in attitudes ranging from minds that accept women having relationships outside marriage to countries extremely repressive towards freedom of women in societies. It has to be realized here that women belonging to any religion, any region plays an important role of bearing next generation of laborers and workers. Realization in this aspect is especially needed in case of capitalists who seem unwilling to even provide minimal protection to these women (Scholte 67).
Eurocentric commentators have argued that growth and independence of women should be and is limited to industrialized and developed countries. Opposite findings have been researched in case of many Asian countries where en masse women have entered and joined workforces in order to earn living. These countries include India, Thailand, Korea, as well as Indonesia (Andrew, Keller, and Schwartzman 56).

Many countries follow double standards especially in case of child bearing in women, whether wanted or unwanted. It has been observed in many Export Processing Zones that are inclusive of countries as Central and Latin America, Taiwan and Philippines that before women are hired for employments, they have to undergo pregnancy tests. A doctor working for a multinational Mexican company shared that his responsibilities strictly included checking every women for pregnancies as according to CEOs of certain organizations in Mexico, child bearing or pregnant women prove to be too costly for a company.  In addition, reports have shown that companies in these zones are no less reluctant in terminating women who are pregnant without taking into consideration profits that a company might have made because of skills contributed by her. The story does not end here. It has been observed  that when these companies learn that female employees are pregnant, heavy lifting jobs requiring longer periods of physical labor, as well as obligatory overtime is imposed on these women thus driving these women into resignations, as observe  by Human Rights Watch Report (Horton and  Patapan 56).

Moreover it  has been observed that while employee women are unable to adopt motherhood because of strict rules laid down by Mexican companies , these mothers are unable to go for abortion as well, as abortion has been strictly banned in Mexican regions. Thereby here it is well evident that women are given no choices especially where they hold the rights to be mothers.

Second argument in this set that shall follow below asserts the fact that women belonging to disenfranchised societies and races have been exploited for labor as they demands lesser wage rates and this marks a beginning of globalization and heavy capital earnings in industrialized nations.
There are many countries where woman have been portrayed as easy to manage, but difficult to organize. It has been observed that women under neo liberalism have endured many hardships. Observations yet again have been gathered from Export Processing Zones and countries as Mexico and Latin America. Under neo liberalization, it was observed that these countries were hiring only women for employment and labor work because of lesser wage rates demanded. Globalization caused an increase in industrialization in third world countries and these countries started to rely heavily on women. Specialists have carried out many studies along with social feminists showing that an increased hiring of women for cheap labor marks beginning of globalization in third world countries. Globalization is marked by hiring women for skilled and semi skilled labor being provided with wage rates that are much lower than wage rates being provided to men. As observed, more than 30-40 of industrial labor is composed of women (Kawachi  and Wamala 89).

Capital largely produced by global economies is based on labor exploitation of labor that is in turn based on gender and ethnicity differences. White men are favored  over black men and women are hired  at a higher rate as main advantages that they provide are lower wage rates  along with exploitation of women belonging to disenfranchised societies and ethnicities. Women in many countries are hired, as they are considered easily manageable and docile as compared to men.
Thus women in globalizations era have faced many repressive situations while working. These women by unions, IMF as well as their employers have endured assaults. Women have defended their pays and working condition in case when they work in places other than organizations. To these inhumane dealings, women have shown resistances.  Large street vendors have been organized by women in order to ask for their rights and to make higher authorities learn what conditions they face in the name of raising profits and capitals. As an example, a large street vendor was observed in Philippines Gabriela. There are many countries who have realized an importance of speaking for womens rights as in case of India, an organization known as Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA) organizes many gatherings for women who work in their homes as well as on streets especially in case of Gujarat. Union rights have been organized and won by women in many states of US and these have resulted women in winning better working conditions in California although many of these women have been enlisted as illegal immigrants (Mayo 78).

Third argument here argues that in case where there is a shift in global economies there is a change and adjustments in individual economies as well. These adjustments have caused a change in childcare services as well as health services. Thus, it implies here that there are greater responsibilities to be assumed by women in these specific areas. In many countries, it has been seen that there are cuts in investments being done on educational sectors that has directly affected education of adult class in women as well as that of teenager women.  Distances between schools, colleges and homes have increased and colleges and schools have been shut down in a larger number thereby girls are stuck in homes deemed unable to achieve higher education. In addition, these women have lesser access to money grants, monetary assistances and failing wages as well as increase in inflation has caused these women with lesser powers as food providers in their families thereby these women need to cope with these insufficiencies on a daily basis (Inda  and Rosaldo 49).

Women have faced family breakdowns in globalised economies. Lower wage rates are provided to many women that make them work for longer working hours causing mass influx of women into paid work and this has caused an increase of women in paid work thus causing family breakdowns. Developed countries as well as developing countries are evidence of rising divorce rates and lesser couples getting married (Bhagwati 67).

Children are a responsibility of parents as well as societies as a whole. Extension of market mechanism has been observed in globalised economies. These extensions have been the main reasons of pressures faced by schools, kindergarten schools as well as many educational units in many countries. Situation defined here gets more crucial for children who are facing adversities and children who belong to larger cities in well-developed countries. UNICEF reports that children and youth from the modern time are more worrisome as compared to older days. Youth and children from modern era are unsocial, sorrowful, sad, angry, unhealthy and malnourished. It has been reported that social decline has been noticed in children who belong to urban areas around the world in many developing countries. This situation has been linked to changes in health care services and childcare services that are not being provided in an adequate level by developing countries. Many mothers die in labor, many children die minutes after birth as their mothers are malnourished and have not been receiving proper healthcare during pregnancy. Moreover it has been reported that a high number of children are entering and making their ways into child labor as parents are unemployed and there are no employment chances for them being illiterate thereby these childfree become only hope for any financial incomes in homes (Sociological abstracts 54).

These set of arguments can be concluded by saying that globalization has been detrimental to women in one too many ways. These include lesser opportunities of education and this has directly as well indirectly affected family lives of these women by affecting their children who are unhealthy as well as uneducated. Child labor is an only option for these families. Women in many developed and developing countries have been exploited for labor based on lower wage rates that they demand as compared to men thus causing an increase in capitals raised by these countries on a global level. Women in these countries have no rights especially when it comes to employment and childbearing. Reports have been included to illustrate the policies that are enforced on women in Mexico.
Second set of arguments that follows below will assert the fact that globalization has proven to be advantageous for women and globalization has redefined success and careers for women in many countries.

Women have proven to be the engines for globalization. Capital development in the world has been because of women when it is realized that a large number of women have entered the workforce and labor since the last twenty years. It has been observed that all organizations, all companies, and all capitalist extracting businesses have relied on women for extracting as much capital as possible. This is because labor demanded by women is cheaper as compared to the labor provided to men at work.

198019851990199519971999Indonesia16,934.622,506.529,422.731,729.033.079.0naIreland346.4332.0371.5482.9539.7643.9Thailand10,657.010,749.114,386,214,795.215,041.314,365.9Korea5,222.05,833.07,376.08,256.08,686.08,303.0Philippines6,070,07,569.08,185.09,505.019,451.011,709.0Source Kofman (2003).

Table shown here is an evidence of the fact that women have increasingly entered into labor since two decades and this has caused an increase in capital development and increase in economical benefits enjoyed by many countries.

In many countries, it is seen that women have been hired in service sectors and ranks that have been achieved by women are almost the same as men. Women these days are being paid to do jobs that remained unpaid when being done from homes. Women have potentially replaced men in job sectors as banking and computers. In addition it has been seen that men in these sectors are in lesser number as compared to women (Croucher 90).

It has been argued that globalization has been linked with partial socialization of household works in many countries. Thereby this socialization has been utilized by women and they seek it as an opportunity to earn outside their homes as amount  earned is almost ten times as they used to make inside their homes two decades earlier. In addition to this , an argument has been given that labor saving devices as washing machines, cookers have been increasingly produced as these helped in saving womens times in their homes thereby they can concentrate more on labor and this time has been in turn utilized by organization who have hired these women on labor for longer periods of time. This concept has been mentioned as feminization of labor and in this case, an example is given of countries as Thailand where almost double the number of women entered the workforce as compared to men after 1980. Because of this there has been an increase in foreign direct investment in Thailand (Lechner and  Boli 56).

Economists have argued that a relationship exists between newer types of economies that are generated because of globalization and an increase in influx of women in labor in developing countries. Globalization has caused a fragmentation of all kinds of economies on a global level causing a breakdown of traditional sectors as well as models of life have been changed. Many changes have been brought about in cultural settings for women and these consequently cause an increase in desire of independence in women.  These desires thereby make women have better paying jobs. In addition, there is an issue of lower wages being provided to women in different countries as highlighted in previous sections.

Another important factor that needs to be highlighted in this case is flexibility at jobs. Globalization is known for great changes in economy that are linked with constant and continuous interactions at a global level. It has been seen that a constant level of interactions exist between global and local markets, companies and businesses.  Part time work, subcontracting, as well as fixed contract work are some forms of informalization of global economies and these are also referred to as flexible production (Blossfeld 90).

Moreover, globalization has changed womens lives in their workplaces and this has changed from one country to another. It is an accepted fact that globalization has caused many third world countries to emerge as developed countries and industrialized nations thereby employment opportunities for women have increased in many countries.  There has been an increase in trade, commerce in many countries reshaping economies of many countries. Economies in these countries are more vital and rapid growth is being observed thereby employment opportunities in a higher number has been created for women that were once earning ten times lesser money in their households (Schaeffer 89).
A record of job creation has been observed in case of countries responsible for producing higher export products for other countries. Thus an argument given here helps draw conclusions that more jobs are created by industrialization of countries and as a result of rapid development of economies in these countries, these jobs are not able to be filled entirely by men thereby a large ratio of these jobs is filled by women. Thereby increasing opportunities are created for women to work in markets along with men improving their financial lives thus achieving their independence.

Conclusion
This paper has argued that globalization has been detrimental to women in one too many ways. Globalization has been the main reason of increases in economical growth of many countries causing an increase in the number of industrialized nations on the map. However, these rapidly developing economies have in turn proven to effect womens lives in a negative way. It has been argued in the first set of arguments that in many Latin American countries along with many Asian countries, organization and business believe that hiring pregnant and childbearing women is detrimental for businesses of organizations thereby female employees are not allowed to be pregnant and if they do, they are terminated. On the other hand, these countries do not allow these women to undergo abortion if they choose to do so. Moreover it has been discussed in the paper that family lives have been adversely effected as a result of lower wage rates and longer working hours that the women endure.