Globalization is a source of responsibilities and pressures to women, as well as a source of several advantages for women.
Points
consumption patterns
Women can play a vital role in the rationalization of consumption pattern as they are charged with budget and household expenditure.
cultural aspects
Culture affects women’s role in the creative and positive interaction with globalization.
modern Information and communication technology
The growth in transcontinental and international employment opportunities gave opportunities to women
Women who will benefit from this move are those who are educated and belong to high income classes
globalization and economic policy making
How to integrate globalization into social control
Coming up with women-led economic agendas that prioritize social justice and care for people ahead of making money
women and market
Small Credit as a major strategy for the reduction of female poverty
the impact on the industrial sector
Increase in industrial exports in developing nations is accompanied by increased need for female employment
Industrialization in developing countries depend on women
the impact on agricultural sector
Gender influence on trade varies according to the type of the region and type of agriculture
the impact on international investment on women
The economic and social impact of delegating women’s authority in multinational companies and the impact on the role of women in other companies
Women and globalization
Women and globalization is a question that elicits two views. The first is that globalization is a source of responsibilities and pressures on women, while the second views globalization as a source of several advantages for women. The two views are non are very important in reality and this paper tries to expound the two views using relevant examples.
1.0 Consumption Patterns:
Globalization brings contradiction such as spreading the culture of customer entertainment through films, advertisements, television, which serve the big companies and compromise social values and traditions. This culture has helped many women to prove themselves and gives them choices; they look for job opportunities and earn income.
Globalization has many negative effects on countries of the South, and these effects will affect the household budget because of the growing propensity of the unlimited consumption pattern. Unlimited consumption pattern is a problem facing households all over the world including developed countries. The question that arises is how do we rationalize consumption behavior? This is because failure to curb unlimited consumption will deprive next generations of their consumption rights (Lindio-McGovern & Wallimann, 2009).
Therefore, women can play a vital role in the mitigation of consumption as they are charged with budget and household expenditure. Of course women alone cannot accomplish it. This showcases the importance of all the state sectors to assist women rationalize consumption and raise domestic savings to finance economic development.
2.0 cultural aspects
The main issues concerning women and globalization are concentrated here. The first touches on the relationships between the national culture and the international thought, because of the increase in international concern of women’s issues that deal with this relationship and different nationalities. There is a misconception between the two extremes. Some people consider culture and international thought as a kind of alienation; others view cultural identity as a type of self inclusion. This contradiction is one of the broad gaps that need filling (Rajput & Swarup, 1994).
Another issue is on how to encourage the open-minded and moderate elucidation of the religious verses, because for a while, firm elucidation based on medieval thought, especially in the issues concerning women prevailed. It is good to search for progressive incentives and motives for religious interpretation on women issues.
The other point is the relationship the next generation’s perspective on women issues within the framework of globalization and the process of modernization in an understandable way.
Proposed modernization in many developing countries, because of political reasons, suffered from many misinterpretations and failures. There is need to redefine the concept of modernization and link it with women concerns and issues in future; the plan of action contains the group of social, economic, political and cultural policies.
The issue affects women’s role in the creative and positive interaction with globalization.
3.0 modern technologies of information and communication
Modern ICT (Information and Communication Technology), especially the internet, with the downfall of regulations and restrictions, can reform the ways in which the markets work, and which production is structured. In this scenario the problem lingers in the fact that this current technology will only be beneficial to those who have the skills and knowledge.
The growth in transcontinental and international employment opportunities gave opportunities to women. But only women who will benefit from this move are those who are educated and belong to high income classes. Those women who are illiterate or lack good education are marginalized. These women are those who are 35 years old and work in sectors with low demand.
However, this does not imply that women groups should refuse novel technology. They should have strong voices in policy negotiations and dialogues, so that they can pressure to add the accessibility and availability of opportunities for women, and for social protection of women who are negatively affected.
4.0 globalization and economic policy making
A vigorous debate is taking place on the kind of economic policy required to benefit the poor from globalization, and the kind of global rules required to moderate markets and lead the operations of international economic institutions. The 1999 UNDP report on Human Development gives suggestions on how to integrate globalization into social control and concluded that the debate is too geographically unbalanced, narrowly focused, and driven by financial and economic interests (UNDP, 1999). People, worldwide, need to join hands on this debate and make their concerns and interests clear. Women have been contributing to this debate and are moving toward coming up with women-led economic agendas prioritize social justice and care for people ahead of making money. The challenge is to make sure they reflect economic policy agendas at national and international levels. Not only do women need to discuss economic analysis and policy, but also the terms of discussion need transforming.
5.0 women and market
The most important point that needs concentration in the financial markets is small credit since it is one of the major strategies for the reduction of female poverty. These work plans only target poor women and include other services and also concentrate on savings. They may be non-governmental or governmental.
The Small Credit Summit of 1997 set a goal of granting small loans to poorest one hundred million families in the world, especially women, to help them jumpstart businesses. Donor organizations added their fund and grants for small credit via non-governmental and governmental organizations. They focused on women for reasons of equality and efficiency, women’s rate of paying back their loans that were higher than men’s. The Small Credit program also gave project management training to women, so as to ensure that women use the loans and manage them well.
There are many ways to support women through small credit programs that include registration of assets used as loans guarantee, offering different loan choices, introduction of saving funds forms, and much more.
6.0 The impact on the industrial sector.
Trade theory shows that increase in international economic participation through export expansion creates new employment opportunities. Many nations, especially low income countries, have raised their participation in the international market, by diversification of their exports, and increasing employment in the industrial sector. This has led to a decrease in unemployment rates and vice versa.
The increase in industrial exports in developing nations is accompanied by increased need for female employment, because industrialization under the current international conditions in developing countries highly depended on female labor. Therefore, expansion of industrial export has increased employment opportunities for new women. Women participation in the industrial sector is higher than on the nation level in formal the sectors. Women highly participate in the export department of the industrial sector.
Empirical evidence showed that industrialization in developing countries depend on women, just like export production. It also confirmed that increase in women income is mainly through expansion of trade. The spread of export opportunities is the main reason that led women to enter the market economy. For instance, the number of fabric factories in Bangladesh, raised from 4 factories in 1978 to 2400 in 1995, with 1.2 million employees, 90% of them women under 25 years of age. Many other countries have the same experience such as Indonesia, Tunisia, Taiwan, Dominican, and others (Wichterich, 2000).
7.0 The impact on the agricultural sector
The impact of trade on income and employment opportunities for women is more complicated in sectors outside the industrial sector. Agricultural sector is categorized into two: small scale agriculture for self-sufficiency and consumption and wide scale commercial agriculture. The former is common in low income countries. Gender influence on trade varies according to the type of the region and type of agriculture. For instance, in Latin America, women virtually have no rights in the agricultural system.
At present, there is a growing trend to grow high quality exotic crops. This began in Latin America to serve North America markets, and has spread to Africa and South Asia, mainly India. The shift has gender implications. In small scale farms that grow traditional crops, the demand for women is very high, but their wages are extremely low. Increase in profitability of cash crops in the international markets raises the independence of women in many parts of the world. In the agricultural system of both Latin America and Asia, international trade has not had significant impact because women already worked in family farms without getting paid. Whereas in Africa the gender system is difficult to understand in the way women and men use the labor rights, land, and the income which each of them gets. Farmer’s chance to enter export sector leads to problems with respect to gender, because the earnings are usually biased against women (Salazar, 2001).
8.0 Impact of international investment on women
Globalization is the flow of international technology, labor, capital, information, and increasing international economic relations, in many ways and levels. Foreign direct investment is the biggest contributor to globalization. As direct investments increase the nature and ties between economies, and the impact of the multinational corporations on the economies of host countries become important. It greatly benefits developing countries.
A very important point to consider is the way labor is immobile, and how it can be linked to the mobile production assets such as: technology, capital, practical; practices of organization and management, and marketing skills that the multinational corporations bring to host countries.
When the development is viewed from a gender perspective, the productive role of women emerges. The economic and social impact of delegating women’s authority in multinational companies and the impact on the role of women in other companies, or in the wide economy, or scale of the multinational companies is what is being faced.
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