How does trade globalization affect women working conditions in South America?

Résumé du document

The international trade agreements have important impact on people living in poverty. But these impacts operate at different levels. In some cases, trade can stimulate the development of these countries, help the economic growth, help employment, give access to local population to variated goods and services, give access to other culture, ... In another dimension, international trade can be a destructive factor for developing countries, helping the increase of poverty and populations inequalities. Rules, political institutions can give another –human-dimension to trade. I am just wondering how this situation leads trade to impact on women workforce and the perfect contrary, how does women workforce affect global trade? The relationship between social exclusion and global production systems depend on time; how national and international policies deal with global exchanges. But also on how international workers live this globalization process, according to their environment (with a special reference to South America). We are going to discuss on how these changes affect the social inclusion or exclusion of these workers (with a special consideration here for women) who most of the time are seniors or new actors in this informal global economy.

Extraits

[...] How does trade globalization affect women working conditions in South America? The international trade agreements have important impact on people living in poverty. But these impacts operate at different levels. In some cases, trade can stimulate the development of these countries, help the economic growth, help employment, give access to local population to variated goods and services, give access to other culture In another dimension, international trade can be a destructive factor for developing countries, helping the increase of poverty and populations inequalities. [...]

[...] For example, a companies' headquarter based in Europe can every morning (thinking in Greenwich Mean Time in order to ease this situation) send instructions to its subsidiaries in Peru and monitor their everyday action. However, if it is a company which provides services they have an on-line demand for conducting surveys for a company based in Guatemala. In that case, women are main actors in that system beyond national boundaries. Thus, women are hired for operating in call centres; almost all multinationals relocate their calling or support centres in South American countries because of the internationalisation of communication. [...]

[...] The task is now to determine if trade policies and profit collection in globalization don't accentuate the between sexes in South America. An aspect of the question is that we just don't have enough data on gender repartition in the different industries in all developing countries in wages, use of services, technology, and work type, to really get a full dimension of that phenomenon . References Allaert B “International Trade and Gender Inequality: A Gender Analysis of the Trade Agreements between the European Union And Latin America.”, WIDE Bakker I The Strategic Silence: Gender and Economic Policy. [...]

[...] However, a fair trade rather than a free trade solution would have been better for the local economy. Again, women are the most affected by these Export Processing Zones. According to the United Nations, they represent 90% of the workforce of that sector. They are working for very low wages, still in a bad working atmosphere and conditions for big international groups. These women could find a home working job type in subcontracting chains, but many home workers just lost their source of income because of the crisis that affected these industries. [...]

[...] This sector is very competitive where incentives are awarded to hard workers. Thus the stress level is higher and the workforce is required to speak perfect English. For women this is a perfect work solution between two stages of their personal life: education and marriage. Thus they are willing to battle and stress themselves in that particular industry without taking care of job evolution, career economic mean, trade globalization has led to winners and losers, according to who you are, where you are and how you make your living”. [...]