Globalisation and gender equations

Poor editing and presentation may make this book a very difficult read but it is a must for people like Congress politico Margaret Alva who declared (to admiring titters) at a discussion at the Indian Women's Press Corps some years back: "Indian women are being squeezed by LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) in the home and LPG (liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) outside."

Pity, since the subject should not be reduced to frivolity, because the so-called negative impact of globalisation on women is one of the more emotive arguments being used against it, notably by the feminist groups.

And, unfortunately, this is one area where the advocates of globalisation have remained largely silent. Lest one think that this is because globalisation is all pain and no gain for women, this volume focuses on the grey area between the black and white extremes of the globalisation debate.

This publication, a joint endeavour of UNIFEM and UNCTAD, looks at the impact of trade liberalisation under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime.

It does so through country papers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, which study the developments in the textile, dairy, marine products, food processing, agriculture and spice sectors.

In the case of Nepal, the tourism and carpet industries have been studied for possible impact when the country joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The task of assessing the impact of trade liberalisation on women is difficult, as the opening essay observes, by the fact that there are few empirical studies on the subject.

Such studies may be further complicated, as the paper by the Centre for Social Research points out, by the lack of gender disaggregated data on quality of life measures like national domestic product, consumption expenditure and poverty rates.

The short point made in the book is that globalisation has seen an increase in women's participation in the economy, especially the export-oriented sectors.

Yes, the casualisation of labour and seasonality of work orders has increased uncertainties, affecting women more since they are often paid less than men and have less bargaining power.

Sure, there has been feminisation of poverty in the case of agriculture. Renana Jhabvala draws attention to the structural changes in the construction sector in the post-liberalisation period which have resulted in the total elimination of women workers.

The paper from Sri Lanka points out that the end of the textile quotas from January 2005 will see several inefficient garment firms surviving only because of quotas sinking.

This is true of Bangladesh as well. In the Indian textile sector, the CSR essay shows, women are employed more in the lower paying and labour intensive jobs, which will be the first to be axed with increasing mechanisation, a point reiterated in the sections on food processing and marine products.

But the essay stops short of concluding from this that women are worse off under globalisation, pointing out that the counterfactual "" what would women have been doing if not employed by an export-oriented sector "" has not been adequately explored.

In any case, it argues, the opportunity cost of their alternative employment is extremely low, and incremental employment can only be beneficial.

Thus, there is no attempt to only highlight the pains of globalisation and gloss over the gains. The point is made that in many cases, women's access to goods and services have also improved with globalisation and that the disempowerment of women is also due to traditional social structures.

The studies also show that the more the integration with the global economy, the higher the chances of benefiting from globalisation. Most essays suggest ways in which the pains of globalisation can be mitigated, and reverting to inward looking policies is definitely not one of them.

On the contrary, some make the pitch for increased domestic liberalisation to strengthen domestic industry, exploring export opportunities and using trade liberalisation to one's own advantage.

Take the example of a Bangladeshi non-government organisation, Karmojibi Nairi, working in the garments sector.

Though it finds women workers being exploited, it completely rejects demands for withdrawal from export markets. Instead, it argues that enhancing market access in developed markets is the only way to improve wages and employment conditions.

The quality of the essays is somewhat patchy and the paper on Bangladesh deals with the women entrepreneurs in a very sketchy manner.

This is surprising since they appear to have been significantly influenced by developments in the global economy.

On the whole, however, this book is a much-needed addition to the discourse on globalisation and gender, especially because of its dispassionately objective approach. One that will please both the globaphiles and the globaphobes.

Trade, Globalisation and Gender, Evidence from South Asia

Edited by Veena Jha
Published by UNIFEM in collaboration with UNCTAD
Pages:401