The Contemporary World

Globalization and Gender

John Patrick Habacon
College of Arts and Sciences
Globalization and Gender
• Gender equality - the state of equal ease of
access to resources and opportunities
regardless of gender, including economic
participation and decision-making; and the
state of valuing different behaviors,
aspirations and needs equally, regardless of
gender.
The Global Gender Gap Index 2020 rankings The Global Gender Gap Index 2021 rankings
 Globalization and Gender
Trade openness and ICTs have increased women’s access to economic
opportunities
- The demand for female workers in the export and ICT-enabled sectors
has increased, and as women have filled these new jobs, the gender
distribution of employment across sectors and across countries has
changed.
Globalization and Gender
Trade openness and ICTs have increased
women’s access to economic opportunities
- Growth in export and ICT-enabled
sectors, together with a decline in the
importance of physical strength and a rise
in the importance of cognitive skills, has
increased the demand for female labour.
 Globalization and Gender
Globalisation is shifting gender roles
and norms:
• Increased access to information,
primarily through television and the
Internet, allows countries to learn
about social mores in other places,
which can change perceptions and
promote the adoption of more
egalitarian attitudes.
Globalization and Gender
Globalisation is shifting gender roles and
norms:
• Economic empowerment for women
reinforces this process by promoting
changes in gender roles and allowing
women to influence time allocation,
shift relative power within the
household and exercise agency more
broadly.
 Globalization and Gender
• Feminization of Labor 
- Term that describes emerging gendered
labor relations born out of the rise of
global capitalism. It is feminization of the
workplace, which is a trend towards
greater employment of women.
- Multinationals prefer women in labor force
as women have from long since worked for
lower wages and are less likely to organize.
Feminization of Labor 
- However, gender discrimination,
violence, sweatshops, and sexual
harassment are some of the adverse
results of feminization of labor.
Globalization and Gender
● Glass Ceiling
- An artificial, unseen, and often
unacknowledged discriminatory barrier
that prevents otherwise qualified people,
particularly women and minorities, from
rising to positions of leadership and power,
such as within a corporation.
- ‘invisible barriers through which women
can see elite positions but cannot reach
them’
 Conclusion
- Globalisation has the potential to contribute to greater gender
equality.
- However, in the absence of public policy, globalisation alone
cannot end gender inequality.
- Public action is needed to close gender gaps in endowments,
agency, and access to economic opportunities. Only then will
countries be able to capitalise on the potential of globalisation
as a force for greater gender equality.
 References
Bacchus, N. (2005). The effects of globalization on women in developing nations.
Retrieved from
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=hon
orscollege_theses
Purcell, D., MacArthur, K. R., & Samblanet, S. (2010). Gender and the Glass Ceiling at
Work. Sociology Compass, 4(9), 705–717. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00304.x
World Economic Forum (2021) Global Gender Gap Report 2021 Retrieved from
https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf
World Bank (2011). Globalization's Impact on Gender Equality: What's Happened and
What's Needed. In World development report 2012: Gender equality and
development. The World Bank.