Women and Globalization
Another aspect of globalization is technological development. This has made the world to be integrated in what is known as a global village. Technology and improvement in transportation has made it possible for people to come together in a global market. Market and business operations are no longer restricted by geographical boundaries. Technological development is the basic vehicle of globalization (Ungar, p.43). This paper seeks to find out whether globalization has been detrimental to women. In doing so the paper examines both sides of the argument i.e. in support of the position that globalization has been detrimental to women and against this position.
The first argument is support of the fact that globalization has been detrimental to women is because it has caused disparities in the labor market. It is clear that globalization is not about to bring uniformity in the market in relation to geographical locations, ethnicity and gender. Globalization has caused disparities in wages paid to men and women. The hierarchical stratification of the global economy provides benefits to certain categories of people at the expense of the others. Like in the North, benefits are provided to a minority of white male workers (Federici, p.12). On the contrary, women workers get to access the undervalued labor market and the lack of political freedom. This is the case mostly for females who work in the fields to cultivate and process food for consumption. The increase in business and the need to have cheaper labor has led the industries to employ young, poor and uneducated women. The businesses prefer such workers out of the perception that they make up a flexible labor. This means that they ca be hired and fired at any time. They are also expected to do menial jobs that cannot be done by men. For example in Mexico, most of the women laborers are young women immigrants from the neighboring regions. These young women receive very low wages, they are taken through compulsory tests for pregnancy and are terminated if found pregnant, they live in very poor conditions and are frequently subjected to rape and even homicide (Ungar, p.32).
Most women have been forced to move into the working environment and enter jobs that were once done by men. During the time when the jobs belonged to men, they were comparatively well paid (Ungar, p. 45). These jobs have since then been lowered in the job hierarchy. This means that their pay is not what it used to be. The wages for those jobs are now lower than the time men held them.
Because many women have moved from home to acquire jobs in the service sector, they have left vacancies in the jobs they used to do for free. Other women are forced to do these jobs at a very small pay. The jobs that women have acquired from men are not only lowly paid, but also proletarianized (Gunter and Hoeven, p.23). This is where the jobs that one person had a lot of authority is been separated into distinct tasks. These tasks are paid far much lower than the original job and have instructions provided on how to do each task. A good example of this is teaching. In the past, teachers used to capture various approaches to teaching the student. Currently, the kind of teaching necessitated by global capitalism is not the kind that opens minds or educates the students to argue about anything. This kind of education is the one that produces flexible workforce and the attitudes needed for the job market. Based on this fact, an authoritarian curriculum is put in place that instructs educators on what should be taught and the ways of teaching it. This gives the educators less freedom on teaching the students anything out of the curriculum (Ungar, p.23).
In the past, banks used to be high-ranking and comparatively well paying jobs. Over the last two decades, banks started hiring young female workers who could receive very low wages compared to what the conventional workers were paid. In the current times, it is mostly women who are recruited in the call-centre department (Hodelin, p. 21). The technological development enabled by globalization is what has enabled women to work in the service sector where traditionally they could never be seen. The same technology has come at a price for all workers especially women. It has made their working environment more demanding and stressful. The technology brought in new methods of monitoring the working rate for all workers. This has necessitated every worker to put in extra efforts to operate at the expected rate (Gunter and Hoeven, p.33).
There is also a problem brought about by competition. Globalization has brought in serious competition in the job market. Due to this, people are overworking themselves to avoid getting fired because replacement is easily available. The job market is flooded, not with people from one nation only but even from other nations around the world. There is also competition from other firms and organizations in the same line of business. This competition has made it necessary for the businesses to operate at a very high rate to have an edge in competition against others. This demand is reflected upon workers who are made to put extra effort. This weighs down more on women who were not used to working under such conditions (Barker and Susan, p. 34).
The second argument is based on the effect of globalization on the convectional family. In joining the workforce, family life has been affected. The society has set people to believe that the responsibility for taking care of the family, especially children should be left to the women. The moment women get jobs they miss out on the opportunity to take care of their families. For many women, global workforce has denied them the chance to become mothers. The work has become a lot, increasing the working hours. This makes it impossible to think about giving birth and raising children. Many women have been forced to neglect the very children they are struggling hard to provide for. There are situations where women are forced to work far from home. In this case, some leave very young children under the care of other people (Hodelin, p.26). There is a lot of psychological stress in this situation. The psychological torture is there both in taking and failure to take those opportunities. Taking the jobs will make mothers to be far away from the family. On the other hand, if they fail to take them, they end up regretting missing out their chances to earn their own living and not depend on men. Due to globalization, many countries have become 24 hour economies. This means that people work a round the clock. This situation has created a problem for women when they are required to work in night shifts. This has jeopardized their family lives (Ungar, p.25).
Global forces towards smaller and transparent governments and financial validation have affected women especially in the South and the East. The reconstruction of the welfare states in the West done in the name of promoting global competition has made the gains that were achieved by women to be lost. This is in terms of child welfare, social security, education, health care, and reproductive rights. For example, the right to abortion has been subjected to assault in the US and in most of the other nations. Many nations around the world have used conventional ideologies as a reason to weaken the welfare state. This has also been supported by the argument to promote political liberalization that boosts freedom and democracy. What these aspects have achieved is excluding women from participating fully in these democracies. In many countries that have taken this move, women participation in public affairs has either gone down or remained constant. They have also experienced unemployment and underemployment (Surez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, p.32).
The reduction in government support and social welfare programs in an effort to promote the democracies has decreased the community-based projects that were traditionally run by women. These organizations were so important because they helped the women to meet the societal needs and empower them in the society. Lack of funding for these organizations has thus dealt a blow to the welfare of women in the society (Barker and Susan, p.64).
The coming up the tendency of globalization is altering the uniformity of flow of labor. This means that industries and businesses are concentrated in some regions while others have none. In this case, labor migration has been on the increase with detrimental consequences on women. A problem that faces women in this era of globalization is the migration of their husbands to the cities. In most of the developing countries, men move to the urban areas in search of employment in industries and multinational businesses (Federici, p. 34). They leave their families behind with women carrying the burden of taking care of them. In some cases, men stay away from home for so long without even sending financial support. In this case, it is the responsibility of the woman to find the means of providing for the family. The migrations are also weakening the social ties that existed in the conventional society, creating a state of insecurity. This state is born by the women as men are out of the villages. This state has led to increase in divorce and separation, rape, and family violence (Barker and Susan, p.24).
The third argument in support of the fact that globalization is detrimental to women is the refusal to support women based on the perception of their responsibility in society. For a long time women have been seen as home makers. Even with the increase in globalization, this perception has not changed at all. Due to this perception, gender differences have been experienced in many parts of the world for a long time. It has been believed that due to enlightenment and struggle for freedom and human rights, this perception could be dealt with. The reality is that globalization has made it impossible for this to be achieved. Due to the pre-existing discrimination based on gender, the negative effects of globalization are felt more by females than men (Ungar, p.56).
International funding organizations like the World Bank are meant to support women in participating in the global economy. They are meant to put efforts in promoting projects organized by poor women to improve their economic status. These projects are supposed to be well funded to encourage the women to participate fully in the global economy. Many researches have revealed that these organizations funding has continued to be gender biased as a result of the perception that females are homemakers and that their work is taking care of the family (Hodelin, p.27). They have not considered the fact that currently many women are participating in formal and informal economic divisions. In cases where such help comes, it is in small amounts. Projects carried out by women are provided small funds and loans. This is because their projects are viewed as small-scale. They are considered supplementary and associated with domestic requirements (Barker and Susan, p.46).
Projects that are considered to be women based are like health-related, food and nutrition, raising farm animals, and cultivating. Major projects that require agricultural technical support and provision of loans are considered to be mens. Projects that are organized by men are the ones that attract more funding. This is despite the fact that women are the ones who organize more projects than men. They are the most innovative and are the ones who are better positioned to form social groups. The money that is meant for community and social development should be channeled to womens projects, but this has not been the case (Surez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, p.23).
As women are working hard in the labor market, their domestic responsibilities remain. Due to the low wages that are paid to women, most of them are not in a position to hire domestic help. They are therefore forced to work in the factory where they are earning very little and at the same time working for very long hours, and back at home they go back to their domestic responsibilities. When job opportunities are available far from home, those who are considered liable for such are men. This is because the society expects women to be closer to the families, taking care of the home and the children. In most cases, this situation has brought about psychological effects as women are forced to stay at home as they are considered homemakers (Federici, p.17).
Despite the fact that globalization has had detrimental effects on women, it has worked positively to empower them. The first argument in opposition to the fact that globalization has been detrimental to women is that it has brought about great economic freedom to women. In the tradition society, women used to be responsible for taking care of the family and depend on men for financial provision (Carr and Chen, p.36). During that time, women had very limited freedom over their own lives. The relationship between men and women back then used to be master-slave in many countries. The coming up of globalization made it possible for women to be incorporated in the workforce. This brought with it some sort of power that was unavailable to them before. This allowed them power to make decisions. Women have been allowed the freedom to operate away from home, meaning that their husbands have less control over them (Barker and Susan, p.35).
The view of projects by men as the ones that are supposed to access technical support and funds has led women to be even more empowered. This has caused them to organize themselves in groups and seek funds by all means to prove to the society that they can also make it. The competition between men and women in the economy has made it possible for them to be in the vehicle that is moving towards global economic development. This has made it possible for women to organize usually challenged conventional gender responsibilities by interrupting domestic habits and separations of roles giving them the chance to bargain more flexible responsibilities with men both domestically and internationally (Gunter and Hoeven, p.15). This has made it possible for people to view women in another light altogether. It has made it possible for women to challenge men by participating in duties and responsibilities that were considered primarily for men. Women have entered all the spheres and their bargaining power has become as strong as mens. In the past, positions especially in politics were taken solely by men. Today, they are competing with women for them. Although women have not been in a position to gain equal grounds with men, they have really done a lot to be able to do so. It seems that if this kind of trend continues, women will be able to compete in almost similar grounds with men. They have gained knowledge of the democratic rights in the society (Surez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, p.37).
The other argument in opposition is that women have become more enlightened. Globalization has brought with it increased communication and social networks. Technology has enabled better communication between individuals, organizations and nations worldwide. This has made it possible for local efforts by women to be recognized internationally. This is made possible by connections with international women organizations. These efforts are connected with international organizations like the UN, voluntary organizations and NGOs (Gunter and Hoeven, p.35). The regular and efficient flow of information has allowed local women to gather knowledge on the events taking place around the world. Being a global village in information era, information is not restricted.
Women are allowed to participate, share information and network with others all over the world. This has allowed for the development of international women movements while at the same time enlightening the local women. They have been made to open up their possibilities even in societies where they are not considered as vehicles of change. They have also been made to unleash their potential by thinking globally (Carr and Chen, p.23). The predicaments brought about to women by the pressures of globalization have encouraged them to form organizations and step in where governments help and support is no longer in place. This has also brought up women group protests in reaction to the issues brought about by economic and political changes. They have come out in support for their rights like the right to abortion, education, provision of social welfare and employment (Ungar, p.56).
Global media has also played a key part in education women on their rights and informing them on whatever is happening in various parts of the world. Women have also been establishing organizations and action groups to boost their participation in political affairs. This has boosted their participation, promoted civic education, and developed women in leadership. Women all over the world are developing resistance to the exploitation and unfair treatment towards them. They are reacting to this kind of treatment in creative way that works out for their benefit. They have been made to promote their livelihood by exploiting alternatives that could not be exploited if everything worked out normally (Barker and Susan, p.57).
Conclusion
The objective of this essay was to prove that Globalization has been detrimental to women. Looking at both sides of the arguments, it is clear that globalization has not been favorable towards women. The arguments in support of the position are very convincing leading to the conclusion that globalization has been detrimental to women. It is also evident that this is not likely to change in the near future.
Globalization is a process that is in the upward trend and the plight of women and the marginalized is not likely to change anytime soon. It is thus important for women to take the initiative of establishing policies and implement them for their own benefit and that of the society. They should continue to seek alternative solutions to their plight. Women should exploit all the means possible to participate and contribute to the global economy. Women should also carry out more research to identify unexploited grounds that can be beneficial in handling their problems. It is a fact that their problems will be best resolved by them.
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