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86 Women in the Economy (MWG-011)
On the one hand regular manufacturing jobs for male workers declined. Along with this, there was
also a decline in welfare state benefits resulting in increasing income insecurity for the families. More
and more women are pushed into the labor market and remained in the labor market because of the
growth of income insecurity. On the other hand, the service sector was developing and it became a
major job provider for women workers. In most developing countries now, service sector is
contributing to about 70% of the share in the GNP. However, the development in service sector were
marked by the job distribution based on gender As Jaya Mehta (1999) explains, ‘On the higher end of
the service sector, well-paying jobs have been created in the knowledge and information intensive
branches of finance, insurance, and business for male and at the other end of the sector, low-paid,
highly feminized jobs are created in the labor intensive and low-skilled areas. These include jobs like
data processing or nursing, services in distributive trade, personal services and occupations like
cleaning, unskilled catering, home-helping and so on.’
Many times, these jobs are created as part-time jobs. Many of the jobs in the state health sector,
education sector, or social service sector have also been converted from full-time to part-time and
subcontracted to private agencies. The part-time jobs are created in large numbers not because
fulltime workers are not available or because the work specifications suit only part-time jobs. In most
cases, the employers prefer to create part-time jobs because the hourly wages offered in part-time jobs
are much lower than what prevails for similar tasks in regular jobs. Sometimes it is as little as 50% of
the wage rate in regular jobs. Moreover, part-time workers can be laid off instantaneously when not
required. These are dead-end jobs: the employers do not have to offer any prospects for career
promotion in the long-term or on-the-job training facilities. Employment-related benefits like paid
leave, sick leave, maternity leave, pension or insurance etc. do not enter into part-time contracts.
Unfortunately, for most women, the labor market offers little else. In many of the OECD countries
(Germany, UK, Japan) part-time employment constitutes as much as 45% of women’s total
employment. In other countries, the percentage is anywhere between 35% to 45%. [World
Employment Report 1998]. It is not just that the part time jobs are exclusively taken up by women.
Along with part time jobs now Home-working is increasingly fashionable. More than 90% of
companies in Germany and Sweden allow flexible working.
The Process of Feminisation in Developing Countries: In the process of Globalization, the
developing countries have been pushed into export-led industrialization to generate foreign exchange.
The traditional exports of the developing world comprising of raw materials with little processing have
been replaced by labor intensive manufactured exports for developed countries. As MNCs are
continuously shifting production to lower wage economies, industrializing countries, try to attract
foreign capital and MNCs, by creating export-processing zones (EPZs). EPZs are areas in a country
that are exempt from taxations as well as workers unions and environmental regulations. It is
therefore profitable for foreign companies to establish plants there and to benefit from a cheap
workforce available. Women constitute 70 to 90% of workers in EPZs, working in industries as diverse
as textile, electronics or pharmaceuticals.
Plant managers and owners deliberately seek out a feminized workforce as women are socialized to be
obedient to males and to work hard. Patriarchal cultures also entitle managers to pay women lower
salaries compared to male workforce. The workforce in these export units consists largely of young
women who are single with no previous work-experience and many have migrated from rural or semi-
urban areas. The work conditions in export processing zones are abysmal by any standards. Women
who come to work in these units accept wages much lower than the male industrial work force in the
lowest rung. Further, the wage structure in the units is designed to increase work intensity to the
maximum. The basic pay is scarce on which workers get allowances related to productivity, overtime,
surrendering paid holidays and so on. Without the allowances the workers cannot survive so they are
forced to increase their working hours and work intensity in order to merely survive.
Gender hierarchies are reproduced in workplaces with male owners, managers, and supervisors, and
women assembly workers. Women complain of having restrictions regarding going to the toilet. There
are many repeated cases of sexual harassment inside and outside the premises. Poor working
conditions and long hours of work lead to occupational diseases which only means loss of job for these
women. No compensation is offered either by the state or by the employer. They cannot unionize and
collectively demand a better bargain. If a woman begins union activity, very often she is not only
thrown out of her present job, she is blacklisted for other units. Further, there is active state
connivance for continuation of these conditions. The reason why women agree to work under such
conditions is that they do not have better choices outside. The turnover in these units is high because
young girls leave or are made to leave when they get married or have children. There is uncertainty in
employment because the employer having invested little capital can shut down the unit anytime, or
the subcontractor’s contract may be terminated as the multinational companies move over to greener
pastures. In agriculture sector trade liberalization has fueled recent agricultural policies that are