Data And Statistics World Development Indicators example essay topic

Women in the Workforce The integration of the world economy, or economic globalization, has been an operating force for centuries. However, in recent times the effects of this phenomenon have become a major cause for debate. Economic globalization is characterized and supported by free trade, the transcending of ideas and business infrastructures across national boundaries, increased capital flows, advanced communication systems, and an increased interdependence of national economies. It is a result of increased access to information, technology, knowledge and opportunities. The debate surrounding globalization however centers on how this increased access manifests itself in different countries, particularly underdeveloped and developing nations. Proponents of globalization argue that it creates expanded channels for employment, promotes broader and more substantial economic growth, allows for higher incomes, and improves quality of life.

Critics say, among other things, that while this may be true for some people, globalization is also functioning to marginalize underdeveloped countries and minority groups around the world. In the context of these two perspectives, I will examine a very important minority group who have, particularly over the past twenty years, become an increasingly important part of the labor force, women. In order to do this, I will first present some statistical data regarding women's participation in the labor force. This data will show that women indeed have been affected significantly by globalization.

In addition I will present a more qualitative look at how globalization has affected the lives of women by concentrating on several specific examples of women's experiences in different countries. This is a statistical overview of women in the workforce. Female participation in the workforce ranges widely from 60% in some industrialized countries to about 10% in North Africa and Western Asia, averaging at about 43% as of 2000. This means that an average of 43% of women in the world work. This level of female participation is significantly higher than it was 20 years ago (Table 1), and is expected to reach an average of 48% by the year 2010. Table 1.

Percentage of women that work Year Percent of women who work 1980 34 1985 36.5 1990 37.2 1995 39.5 2000 43.2 In the overall workforce, made up of approximately 2.5 billion people, approximately 40.6% of the workers are women and the remaining 59.4% are men. This percentage is also significantly higher than it was 20 years ago (Table 2). Table 2. Percentage of women in the workforce. Year Percent of women in workforce 1980 31.1 1985 32.8 1990 34.3 1995 38.7 2000 40.6 total workforce includes men and women As indicated by the figures presented above, women today make up a large portion of the workforce, nearly 41%. However while recent research shows that a small group of women have earnings on par with men, the overwhelming majority of the world's women continue to earn significantly less than men.

Worldwide, women earn an average of 75% of men's pay. In some countries that number can be significantly lower or significantly higher. In Brazil women earn only 54% of what men receive while in Colombia women earn 85%. In Asia, women in Bangladesh earn as little as 42% of what men earn, while in Vietnam it's as high as 92%. What is interesting is that up until about 1970, women's average pay around the world remained stable at about 60% of male pay, and then in a period of only 10 years this figure jumped to 75%. This can be interpreted as a clear indicator that globalization, which began gaining tremendous speed in the mid-70's, played a major role in tightening the wage gap in developing countries.

In addition to women earning less than men on average, they also work significantly more hours than men on average. Women in developing countries work between 60-90 hours a week, while men only work between 45-72 hours. Women's time spent working makes up 2/3 of the world's working hours. Yet they only earn 1/10 of the world's income and own less than 1/10 of the world's property. The discrepancies described above are largely attributable to the kind of work women do. Women are often limited to low-income sectors due to their lack of education and widespread sex-based occupational segregation.

Worldwide, women hold only 14% of administrative and managerial jobs and less than 6% of senior management jobs. Even in highly industrialized nations like Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., over 30% of working women hold low-wage jobs, compared with less than 10% of men. Particularly important has been the emergence of the informal sector of labor, one of the results of globalization. This sector represents a shift from regular, full time wage labor to more diverse forms such as contract labor, part-time labor, petty trading, work from home, small-scale manufacturing and other forms of labor that are beyond the protection of labor laws and as such offer very low wages and no benefits. This type of work subsidizes capitalistic growth by providing infrastructure, tools, equipment and cheap labor to the export oriented markets in developing countries. It allows women to participate in the market economy, however marginally, and still have time to raise their families and take care of their homes.

As economist Martha Chen notes, "80% of workers in low-income countries and more than 40% of workers in middle-income countries operate in informal and rural labor markets, beyond the reach of trade unions and direct government intervention". In every country, more women than men are employed in such markets and their participation in this sector is largely responsible for the increases seen in the female participation in the workforce. Statistically, there is evidence that in the past twenty years women have gained more power in the world, both economically and politically, as a result of globalization. However this gain has been rather minimal. Economically, women have become a larger part of the workforce and are beginning to take on more powerful positions in that workforce, although not in all countries.

In Japan for example, only 0.1% of the board members of publicly listed companies were women. In the U.S., more than half of U.S. Fortune 500 companies have at least one female board member, although only 3% of top executives at such companies were women - 51 women, compared with 1,677 men. In developing and underdeveloped countries their presence in management and / or executive positions is virtually non-existent. Progress is being made, but very slowly. Politically, women have taken on a more significant role around the world as evidenced by their presence in influential positions. Women such Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton and many more represent women of great importance in around the world.

Their presence in politics indicates that women have made progress in the political arena. However as the World Bank Group notes, "women are vastly underrepresented in decision-making positions in government" despite evidence of recent improvement. The only positions of power and influence in which women have gained tremendous ground in a number of countries are judgeships. In terms of formal education, women are still way behind men in the race.

While in most developed countries women have in recent years had access to schooling of all levels, women in developing and underdeveloped countries are still struggling. Globalization has allowed for higher incomes in many countries, however the extra money is spent on sending the male children to school, as reflected by lower female enrollment and higher female illiteracy. Illiteracy for females averages at 31.6% in developing countries and at 30.3% in the world, as compared to 17.7% and 17.0%, respectively, for men. Despite their lack of formal education, women around the world have been exposed to schools of thought through the flow of ideas and advances in communication that globalization has allowed for.

More and more women's right groups have formed around the world over the past 20 years, fighting to stop the oppression of women in various countries and for recognition as being equal to men. The Guide to International Women's Human Rights Movement lists 177 women's organizations from around the world that have been initiated since 1995 that are devoted to this purpose. There are hundreds more that have been operating for decades. The importance of this is that it shows that women in various countries, particularly in the Muslim world, are becoming aware that they have the right to all of the opportunities that men enjoy. This is largely due to globalization and the way in which it fosters the spread of ideas. Some argue that such ideas are Western in nature and are being imposed upon the traditional cultures of the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

They argue that these cultures should change at their own pace and for their own reasons, not because of ideas and values that are being infiltrated into their nations via the global economy. This is a sensitive political and social issue, and those who argue against the impositions of cultural values have a valid anthropological point. However, I believe that no matter what country a woman lives in, she deserves to be educated about her options. Globalization has allowed for this. In making an assessment of the effect of globalization on women, it is essential to look at the objective facts described above to track progr ess.

In 1998, for the first time since the Census Bureau started recording fertility information, families with children in which both spouses worked became the majority (51 percent) of all married-couple families, compared with 33 percent in 1976. In 1998, data showed that of the 3.7 million women with infants, 36 percent were working full-time, 17 percent were working part-time and 6 percent were actively seeking employment. This data shows that women were able to more easily balance going to work and raising a family at the same time. In 1998, Lori-Ann Williamston left her three-year old and eight-month old daughters in a stroller in a playground in Central Park, NY City.

The stroller was packed with cereal, baby formula, clothing and toys. She told them she would be right back, but she never returned. She was arrested later that week at an apartment where she paid $100 a month to live in a corner of the living room with her children. She explained to police that she was fired from her job, nobody would hire her, and she could no longer take care of her children because of it. Hopefully cases like this never happen again. A new employment opportunity for women in Japan created by a changed regulatory environment is one factor behind the growing number of women pursuing post-high school degrees and as such, the increased number of female workers with a higher education.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which took effect in April 1986, called for equal opportunity and equal treatment in the job market for members of both sexes, starting with recruitment and hiring and continuing for the duration of employment until departure or retirement. Before passage of this law, women college graduates were often denied the job opportunities available to their male colleagues and, instead, offered the secretarial positions typically filled by high school graduates. The number of women employees expanded from 15.8 million in 1986, the year the law became effective, to 21.3 million in 1997. Although still in the minority, women have been moving into management positions as well. Few have achieved the position of department head, a much-sought-after job in corporate Japan, perhaps because it requires significant tenure in the company. In the decade after implementation however, the number of female team leaders almost doubled to 7.3 percent.

Hundreds of thousands of women around the world live in conditions similar to slavery. They are locked up and sexually exploited. Without money, a passport or knowledge of the language or the country they are in, they live illegally and invisibly, totally dependent on the people for whom they are forced to work. The women who are the victims of this trafficking have absolutely no protection. As they are staying illegally in the country in which they end up, they are often invisible to the authorities and aid organizations. Because of this, researching this topic is very difficult.

However the results of such a phenomenon are not hard to predict. A study from Nepal shows that a dramatic number of girls involved in prostitution have been infected with HIV. In 1996, 1997 and 1998,300 blood tests were carried out on girls involved in prostitution. The number of infected girls was 8 in the first year, 26 in the second and 48 in the third, representing an increase from 2.7% to 16% over the three years. A project in Nigeria describes the problems of teenage girls around the country's oil installations. Many of them are part of a kind of sexual network that accompanies the men as they move between oil installations in search of work.

The extremely high levels of sexual activity mean that men and women alike are becoming infected with HIV, yet the social consequences are, in most cases, much worse for the women than for the men. An abstract from India describes what happens when agriculture no longer offers people a living, forcing them to move to the cities, where they still find it difficult to support themselves, resulting in small girls being sold to keep the rest of the family going. Has globalization helped any of these women and girls? Globalization, by definition, is the increasingly free flow of capital throughout the world. However it is not just money that is exchanging hands, but also ideas. The globalization of markets has fueled the globalization of culture and vice versa.

Due to its relentless nature, globalization is nearly impossible to avoid, no culture is impenetrable. Nations and their customs are being exposed like never before to Western culture and are also being challenged on their basic principles and ways of life, not only from the outside but now also from within. So how has this entire affected woman? More specifically, has globalization improved women's situation or made it worse? It is evident from the statistics and information presented above that globalization has created an increasing demand for female labor and has helped generate a worldwide movement for women's equality. Over the past 20 years, women's participation in the workforce has increased steadily and is expected to be almost equal to that of men's by 2010.

Women's salaries have jumped from 60% of men's to 75%. They have become more active politically and have been exposed to ideas from around the world regarding their social status and responsibilities. I think it is clear that women's situation in general is better than it was 20-40 years ago. However, also evident in the statistics and information presented above are the disparities between men and women across the board.

Men still represent a larger portion of the workforce, they make more money then women, work less hours, are more educated, have a higher literacy rate and hold more political positions. It is clear that women still have much work to do before these gaps are closed, particularly in newly industrializing and developing countries. The difference in remuneration is especially noticeable in such countries, as they have labor-intensive export-processing and manufacturing industries that mainly employ women and profit from abundant low-cost labor. In addition, due to the expansion of the informal sector and new forms of work organization in these nations, women are often not protected by labor laws related to wages, hours and benefits. While women in Indonesia suffer from wages of 31 cents an hour and sweatshop conditions, women in Japan are enjoying more educational opportunities and managerial positions. While some American women can manage working full-time and having kids, some are forced to abandon their children in parks.

Some young girls are forced to sell themselves to strangers so they can survive, while other girls attend high school. There is no clear-cut answer to the question of whether globalization is good or bad for women. It depends on which women we are talking about and what is being measured. Some women, if given the right political, economic and social climates, can reap the benefits of globalization, while others cannot.

Based on what I have found while researching this paper, there are several things that I think women need to do in order to overcome the inequalities still plaguing them. First, there needs to be a determined effort to create some kind of international labor organization that will protect the employment rights of women in every country and in every sector of labor. While this may seem weird, it is really the only way that women can protect themselves from being exploited. Efforts must also be made to not only protect women, but to educate them with regards to what their rights are in the workplace. Ideally, women should also have access to education and training, including higher learning, so that they can acquire the qualifications likely to improve their employment and earning opportunities. Government policies and intervention programs designed specifically to promote women's equality and education are needed to allow for this.

SOURCES 1. United Nations' Worlds Women: Trends and Statistics 2000.2. International Labor Organization database Estimates and Projections of the Economically Active Population, 1950-2010.3. The World Bank Group. Data and Statistics - World Development Indicators 2002. (web - Gender topic indicators). 4.

International Labor Organization database Estimates and Projections of the Economically Active Population, 1950-2010.5. Horton, Susan. Marginalization Revisited: Women's Market Work and Pay, and Economic Development. 1999.27 World Development: p 571. Also see, Mehr a, Rekha and Sarah Gamma ge. Trends, Countertrends, and Gaps in Women's Employment Trends, Countertrends, and Gaps in Women's Employment.

1999. World Development, 27: p 533.6. Aman, Alfred C. Introduction: Feminism and Globalization: The Impact of the Global Economy on Women and Feminist Theory, 1999.4 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 1, 4.7. Martha Chen et al. Counting the Invisible Workforce: The Case of Homebased Workers.

1999. World Development, 27: p 603.8. The World Bank Group. Data and Statistics - World Development Indicators. 2002.

(See web - Women in Development - About the Data). 9. Ministry of Labor. Data available at MOL's Website (See: web).

10. Rape for Profit: Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women to India's Brothels. Human Rights Watch. October 2000, Vol. 12, No. 5 (A).

11. Over 60 million women fallen victim to sex discrimination. Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay, Ltd.) July 24, 1997.