Globalization, Export-oriented Employment and Social Policy

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1 Globalization, Export-oriented Employment and Social Policy

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3 Globalization, Export-oriented Employment and Social Policy Gendered Connections Edited by Shahra Razavi UNRISD Ruth Pearson University of Leeds, UK and Caroline Danloy UNRISD

4 Editorial matter and selection Shahra Razavi, Ruth Pearson and Caroline Danloy 2004 Chapter 1 Ruth Pearson and Shahra Razavi 2004 Chapter 7 Gillian Hart 2004 Remaining chapters Palgrave Macmillan 2004 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Globalization, export-oriented employment and social policy : gendered connections / edited by Shahra Razavi, Ruth Pearson and Caroline Danloy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Women Employment Case studies. 2. Foreign trade and employment Case studies. 3. Globalization Economic aspects Case studies. 4. Globalization Social aspects Case studies. I. Pearson, Ruth, 1945 II. Razavi, Shahrashoub. III. Danloy, Caroline. HD6053.G dc

5 Contents Acknowledgements Preface List of Contributors vi vii ix 1 Globalization, Export-oriented Employment and 1 Social Policy: Gendered Connections Shahra Razavi and Ruth Pearson 2 Korea s Miracle and Crisis: What Was in It for Women? 30 Hyoung Cho, Ann Zammit, Jinjoo Chung, Insoon Kang 3 The Impact of Export-oriented Manufacturing on the 67 Welfare Entitlements of Chinese Women Workers Delia Davin 4 Globalization, Export-oriented Employment for Women 91 and Social Policy: A Case Study of India Jayati Ghosh 5 Gendering the Debate on the Welfare State in Mexico: 126 Women s Employment and Welfare Entitlements in the Globalized Economy Viviane Brachet-Márquez and Orlandina de Oliveira 6 Globalization, Export-oriented Employment and 159 Social Policy: The Case of Mauritius Sheila Bunwaree 7 Reworking Apartheid Legacies: Global Competition, 193 Gender and Social Wages in South Africa, Gillian Hart Index 229 v

6 Acknowledgements The editors would like to extend their appreciation to the chapter contributors who responded positively to the numerous rounds of revision requested. We would also like to thank those who contributed to the Workshop that UNRISD organized in Bangkok (October 2000) to initiate the research project on which this volume is based. vi

7 Preface A central preoccupation in both developed and developing countries is the impact of globalization on social policy. Globalization affects social policy both at the normative level and in a more practical way, by setting constraints that social policy must be attentive to. Adhesion to international conventions and responses to an international discourse of social rights permeate domestic politics and affect social policy or at least the thinking about it. At the more practical level, it is often feared that globalization is not only reversing the social gains made in the developed countries in the golden era of capitalism and the welfare state, but that it makes it highly improbable that developing countries will have the policy autonomy to nurture interventions in the labour market without losing international competitiveness and scaring away domestic and foreign investors. Furthermore, the erosion of the fiscal capacity of the state (partly due to exit possibilities for capital) is likely to undermine the domestic capacity to finance social policy. In sharp contrast to this view, is the argument that there is no simple relationship between globalization and social policies. National political arrangements and resolution of social conflicts mediate the pressures of globalization. The frequently cited argument shows that openness to trade has often been associated with increased social expenditure, and that there is no uniform pattern of response among the developed countries to globalization. In other words, generous welfare states have been, and continue to be, compatible with open trading regimes. These questions form the backdrop to the present volume. Women s entry into paid labour not least in the context of global factories and export production has been a subject of long-standing interest. However, much of the analysis to date has focused on women s individual experiences of export employment: the extent to which it represents a positive opportunity or gross exploitation. In spite of the extended discussion of social rights in the global economy, little attention has hitherto been paid to the implications for women s entitlements arising out of their pivotal role in export sectors. Two opposing sets of assumptions have fuelled this neglect: for some, participation in global markets is inherently inimical to the achievement of social rights, while for others, women s presence in key economic sectors will automatically be reflected in the ways in which social policies are formulated. As a result vii

8 viii Preface there has been up to now little empirical and analytical engagement with this question. This volume attempts to fill this gap. The conclusion of the volume, namely that in six of the countries included as case studies, a combination of factors gender segmentation of labour markets as well as the global and local pressures for welfare retrenchment have denied women industrial workers the opportunity to attain welfare entitlements, is sobering. Even in South Korea, a developmental state nurturing globally competitive industries women workers had much less access to the significant welfare entitlements obtained by permanent male workers, particularly those employed by large corporations. Although there are opportunities of combining an orientation towards export markets with an emphasis on social rights as recent developments in Korea seem to indicate the gendered segmentation of labour markets and the architecture of social policies need considerable policy attention before this can become a reality. Financial assistance for the preparation of this manuscript was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and UNRISD s core funders, the governments of Denmark, Finland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Thandika Mkandawire, Director, UNRISD

9 List of Contributors Viviane Brachet-Márquez Colegio de Mexico, Mexico. Centro des Estudios Sociolólogicos, El Sheila Bunwaree Mauritius. Department of Sociology, University of Mauritius, Hyoung Cho Department of Sociology, Ewha Womans University, Sudaemun-gu, Seoul, Korea. Jinjoo Chung Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health, Kuri, Kyunggido, Korea. Delia Davin Professor of Chinese Social Studies, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Caroline Danloy Research Assistant, UNRISD, Geneva, Switzerland. Jayati Ghosh Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Gillian Hart Department of Geography, Chair, Center for African Studies, University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco, USA. Insoon Kang Division of Social Science, University of Kyungnam, Masan-City, Kyungsangnamdo, Korea. Orlandina de Oliveira de Mexico, Mexico. Centro des Estudios Sociolólogicos, El Colegio Ruth Pearson Professor of Development Studies and Director of the Centre for Development Studies, Institute for Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Shahra Razavi Ann Zammit Research Coordinator, UNRISD, Geneva, Switzerland. Independent Consultant, Geneva, Switzerland. ix