Women Empowerment in the

Globalisation Context

Dr. N.Manimekalai
Director and Head
Department of Women’s Studies
Bharathidasan University
Tiruchirapalli -24
Tamil Nadu
manimekalaidr@yahoo.com
Features of Economic Reforms Policy

Liberalisation
 Privatization
 Globalization
Marketisation
 Tertiarisation
 Feminisation of Employment
 Feminisation of poverty
 Casualiastion
 Informalistion
 Modernization
 Export led growth and productivity
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.
Differential impact

 education,
 race,
 class,
 Caste
 Gender
 religion,
 age,
 nationality
 ethnicity
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.
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)
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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,
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
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.
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
Cont.

 economic literacy trainings for 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 data and need to identify and address gaps in

information, including unpaid work

 Networking of women’s groups across all levels—national, regional, and

global
Cont.

Need to develop a comprehensive, gender-aware

framework for gender-balanced representation
and participation of civil society, including
women’s groups and networks
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
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
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.