Women Empowerment in the Globalisation Context

1. Women Empowerment in the Globalisation Context Dr. N.ManimekalaiDirector and HeadDepartment of Women’s StudiesBharathidasan UniversityTiruchirapalli -24 Tamil Nadu manimekalaidr@yahoo.com

2. Features of Economic Reforms Policy Liberalisation • Privatization • Globalization Marketisation • Tertiarisation • Feminisation of Employment • Feminisation of poverty • Casualiastion • Informalistion • Modernization • Export led growth and productivity

3. Features of neo liberal policies • Reductions in public expenditure, • Devaluation , • Cutting food and fertilizer subsidies, • Dismantling the public distribution system, • Reducing budgets for the social sector, • Promoting capital-intensive and ‘high-tech' production, • Increasing bank rates and insurance charges, • Exit policy.

4. Differential impact • education, • race, • class, • Caste • Gender • religion, • age, • nationality • ethnicity

5. Results of Globalisation • Marketization, • It is the process that enables the state-owned enterprises to act like market-oriented firms. This is achieved through reduction of state subsidies, deregulation, organizational restructuring, decentralization and privatization. • The result of this process is [marketization] • The feminization of unemployment; • The feminization of poverty; • The feminization of hopelessness.

6. Women and Globalisation • Positive correlation between women’s share of employment and export in countries such as Mauritius, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, and Sri Lanka (Nordas, 2003) • Broad trends based on cross-country analysis indicate that export promotion and trade liberalization policies have led to feminization of labour force in developing countries (Wood, 1991; Cagatay and Ozler, 1995) • Support for this overall trend found in large number of country case studies that associate feminization of labour force in developing countries with spread of export-led industrialization (Cagatay and Berik, 1991)

7. Tertiarisation • Changing sectoral share skewed towards service sector • Technology replacing women in Agriculture, industry and other sectors. • Migration of women to factories, construction work without proper security and safety net. • Poor working conditions, informalisation, casualisation and feminisation of labour in the neo liberal market conditions.

8. Cont. • contractual employment -irregular, unstable employment • adverse economic implication on women. • Increase in low and exploitative type of jobs including child labour.. • Curtailment of state provisions in child care, community care and social security. • Beginning in January 1992, subsidies for daycare, milk and other dairy products, and children's clothing were either sharply reduced or eliminated.

9. Increase in Flesh trade women are sold as sex slaves working as domestic workers or in sweatshops under horrible conditions work as bar attendants (all jobs are of lower level with no respect and dignity ). Kampadoo (2001), According to a CIA report in 1999, each year “50,000 of women are brought into the U.S to work in sex industries. With male migration on the increase from the rural to urban sectors, the women have to bear the triple burden of caring, farming and paid employment in the rural sector

10. Cont. • Inflation has pushed the poor into indebtedness-farmers suicides • Women - deal with family subsistence • have to cope up with such changes and • have to work hard and work for a low paid and exploitative jobs for sustaining in life as she is left with no options. • women have almost no control over their work • no chance for upward mobility because of the temporary and repetitive nature of the work • No control over resources

11. Cumulative impact Women get affected • economically, • physically, • mentally, • Ethically, • Totally stressed out, • Play the role of her life ideally, • Multiple role, multi tasking • Responsibilities have reached heights, • Never a decision maker but a bread winner and earner. • Hardly resulted in empowerment

12. Cont. • No scope for traditional skills • [cool drinks instead of butter milk, plastic chairs instead of stone benches, coir based cot] • The micro enterprise activities, home based and value added lost significance

13. Cont. • Improvement in vital statistics for many nations in terms of decreased infant mortality, longer life spans, better nutrition, but also large numbers of people thrown into abject poverty and displaced from subsistence agriculture or forced into • Volatile and very unstable labor markets. • No job security, • Terrible working conditions, • Demise of state welfare systems • great disparities in wages • increased migration flows, • human trafficking, • sex slavery

14. Globalisation and Environment • Declining Forest Cover • MNCs occupying the tribal land, • Converting fertile land into buildings, industries • Polluting industries in rural areas, dislocating rural mass • Introduction of car manufacturing industries questions the ground water table and drinking water shortage for rural mass • Adds drudgery of women • Selling of lands and laws related to reserve forest affect the eco systems, and women are forced to give up minor forest produce sale and other forest products on which the women were depending.

15. Positive Impacts of Globalisation on Women • Increasing employment opportunities and economic independence • Increasing availability and variety of goods and services’ • globalization has given women a power they lacked in the past--the power to end the system that breeds poverty, exploitation and oppression to some extent to the elite group where they chose to management and other professional, IT areas where the crossed the boundaries and proving their potential capabilities. • prospects of higher and quality education -women who can afford them, economically and socially. • Employment in technological and other advanced sectors,

16. Cont. • With changing attitude towards women, -more egalitarian set of gender relationship. • Reduction in gender inequalities- • positive effect on women’s empowerment of women • strengthening of their networks to offer mutual support and resources. • new information and communications technology (ICT) have improved the access of women to micro credit, employment opportunities and information in general

17. Cont. • Attitudinal changes • good education, • benefits of family planning and health care, • child care, good job opportunities etc. • Positive approach to economic and cultural migration will facilitate women to be exposed to better prospects at the international level.

18. Policies and Interventions • More Inclusive policy towards women empowerment • Gender Mainstreaming policies and Gender Budgeting provisions. • Increased awareness and institutionalization of interventions by government • New legal provisions to safeguard the interest of women, including land rights, protection of women from domestic violence, etc. • Separate Ministry on Women and Child Development

19. Cont. • economic literacy trainingsfor women advocates, • Capacity building of Women • Awareness programme on the rights of women and the impact of policies on women • Gender Sensitive policies taking needs, priorities and demands, concers of women. • Encourage women’s participation in decision making committees including political participation. • Gender disaggregated dataand need to identify and address gaps in information, including unpaid work • Networking of women’s groups across all levels—national, regional, and global

20. Cont. Need to develop a comprehensive, gender-aware framework for gender-balanced representation and participation of civil society, including women’s groups and networks

21. Novel Initiatives • Women Entrepreneurs Association of Tamil Nadu • Various skill training with marketing support • Non-Traditional areas including Engineering and Fabrication Areca nut plate Ready Made Garments BPO services Banana Fibre extraction Baniyan Cloth waste processing

22. Cont. • Menstrual Hygiene Management and Sanitary Napkin Production by SHG and Women Micro Entrepreneurs • Jute based utility articles • Training of mentally retarded, visually challenging, physically challenging, prison women, HIV positive women • Counseling programme for women in distress • Awareness programme for women on their rights, support systems etc. • Free training with stipend for youth on sewing operation • Embroidery training, soft toys

23. Cont. • Innovative marketing in college campuses, University campus • Support from Banks for various training and fair. • MDP, EDP for women • Regular Women’s Entrepreneurs Meeting every fortnight and a conference every year • Supportive networking and support of all media., University, Government, NGOs, Industrial Department, Education Department, District Administration, etc.