Does the Development Process Simply Reinforce Gender Inequality - Essay Example

? Does the Development Process Simply Reinforce Gender Inequality? Introduction The issues pertaining to gender inequality cangenerally be perceived as being nearly as old as man himself. Various economic and social developments in most of the developing countries can essentially be argued as having exuberated gender inequality. This paper will endeavor to attempt to identify the negative impact that various social and economic developments have had on gender inequality in developing countries. Does the Development Process Simply Reinforce Gender Inequality? What is Gender Inequality? According to Lemel and Noll, 1(2002) Gender inequality is widely regarded as being the unequal access to various material resources, privileges, power and status by women as compared to men. Gender inequality is commonly seen to have a number of various interactions with other inequalities such as age, class and ethnic based inequalities. This is seen to indicated that gender inequality happens to have a number of aspects which may include inequalities such as inequalities in wages and income, inequality as pertaining to there being differential access to a given labor market in addition to the labor market having a segregated structure2. Effects of Gender Inequality According to a recent IMF Global Monitoring report that sought to confront among other things the challenges of gender equality, gender inequality in resources, rights and voice can essentially be seen to surface in three key domains. These are in the household, in the society as well as in the markets and economy3. The report further indicates that while gender equality in the household between both women and men helps in changing the basic allocation of the house hold expenditures a factor that results in more resources being devoted to health and children’s education, gender inequality is seen to widely influence the general distribution of the various household tasks, this often results in a limitation of the women’s ability to not only work outside the homes but it also limits their control over fertility decisions. Gender inequality in the market is often seen to be largely reflected in there being unequal access to a number of resources such as labor markets, land, credit and new production technologies. Gender inequality in society is often expressed by there being a number of restrictions that are seen to actively limit women participation in not only civic but also political life. Globalization and the Reinforcement of Gender Inequality Although globalization in developing countries can arguably be viewed as having opened significantly more opportunities for women and has been key in providing women with paid employment in addition to creating a suitable channel that essentially serves to provide an avenue out of their currently restricted lives, it is the common belief of many that most of the work in the current new global economy is mostly exploitative, and in some instances, it actually tends to make life significantly more difficult as compared to before the surge in globalization was experienced. To further emphasize on this aspect Murray (2008)4 quotes a report from the Emory University that states that most critics happen to fear globalization as pertains to its integration of all countries into a common world society, the critics fear this will inevitably result in an exacerbation of gender inequality that might potentially harm women and especially so those in developing countries. A number of feminist researchers have managed to demonstrate that globalization is essentially not a gender-neutral process5. Globalization is seen to affect women and men differently under varying circumstances. According to Brock-Utne and Garbo, (2009)6, globalization tends to frequently reinforce the currently pre-existing gender inequalities and other inequalities such as race, age, race, sexual, nationality, disability and ethnicity. Globalization is seen to frequently reinforce the common misconception that is seen to view women as well as subordinate men as not only being different but also inferior in nature as compared to the dominant men. It is mainly due to this that under globalization, women are found to often be regarded as fundamentally being more appropriate for low status, tedious, low wage and repetitious work in most of the global support services and factories. Globalization is arguable seen to actively contribute to the restriction of women from employment that is seen to provide higher wages as well as denying them supervisory roles due to the attribution that they are seemingly not “naturally” suited for supervisory positions7. Murray, (2008)8 is seen to further stress on this by indicating that globalization is responsible for the creation of a global climate where most of the low-paid and low-level employment is quickly becoming more feminized. Female labor is considered to be a commodity in some of the more export-oriented economies in Eastern Europe, Asia and Central America. This is because female labor is regarded as being easily controlled, flexible and cheap9. The common trend in developing countries is that increasing numbers of women as opposed to men are now found to be filling the various assembly-line jobs that are seen to be opening in some industries such as the electronics, and textile industries, increasing number of women are also now being found in data processing. There has also been growth in women’s alternatives in jobs such as part-time employees; home based workers as well as temporary workers. This growth is commonly perceived as being tremendous in comparison with the numbers that were seen prior to the actual onset of globalization. Micro-Credit Schemes and Gender Inequality Some initiatives such as micro-credit schemes have widely been credit with helping improve the lives of women in developing countries in addition to helping reducing gender inequalities in general. Masika (2002)10 argues that if continuous progress is made towards attempting to reduce the existing gender inequalities, via the use of positive initiatives such as the creation and promotion of micro-credit schemes for women, then there develops the potential of being able to the relatively unequal vulnerability that is experienced by women as the various climate change hazards progressively increase. However, Zaman, (2004)11 argues that in a survey that was conducted by Goetz, the results showed that women are offered only either partial, very limited or no control at all over the control of loans. It is also argued that micro-credit institutions tend to play a key role in reinforcing the currently existing gender inequalities and patterns as they mostly tend to concentrate on the promotion of the more traditional income generation activities which are agued to do relatively very little to try and alter the current severely unequal status quo. This position is seen to be further supported by Parpat, Rai and Staudt (2002)12, who argue that although most of the assessment done on micro-credit schemes are often found to fundamentally trumpet their success, the experiences of most women in sub-Saharan Africa have been seen to suggest that micro-credit schemes essentially tend to rarely empower women in a fashion seen to greatly aid in severely threating the entrenched gender inequalities. Parpat, Rai and Staudt (2002)13 further point out that the power that women micro entrepreneurs in developing countries happen to enjoy in the market is often found to be negligible as compared to men. In most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, women empowerment was found to be resisted despite the somewhat unthreatening nature of the term. Multinational Corporations and Gender Inequality Some of the Asian developing countries are often found to have a relatively lower degree of workforce diversity in comparison to that which is found in some countries such as Australia, Europe and the United States, this is found to mainly be due to these Asian countries having more homogenous societies. The influence of multinational corporations in some of these Asian countries has been seen to fundamentally act as a catalyst in the promotion of various interests pertaining to a number of gender equality issues at levels as high as the national level14. Koggel,(379)15, points out that although it can at times be easier to single out globalization as essentially being the primary cause of most inequalities such as gender inequality, it should essentially be pointed out that most multinational corporations, trade organizations as well as financial institutions are not essentially motivated or focused on reducing the inequalities. The usual collectivist nature that is found to often be prevalent in most Asian societies is seen to encourage the general acceptance and conformity to the already established social norms. It therefore stands that various concerted efforts geared towards attempting to redress gender inequalities are usually found to be quite unsuccessful16. Nanda and Warms (2008)17 highlight the fact that as a result of work opportunities that are seen to be provided to women by the industries that have been developed by multinational corporations in some countries such as Africa, Latin America and Asia many occupations are found to increasingly be available to both women and men. However although women are seen to financially benefit from their factory labor, these benefits are seen to often come at a relatively high price. In some areas such as the Mexican/United States border, Asia and a number of other places, women are routinely exploited as cheap labor and often forced to work under conditions that are perceived to be similar to sweat shop conditions in a number of factories that happen to produce goods for the global market18. These conditions were further stressed on by a study that was conducted by Pun Ngai. In the study, Ngai’s studied young women workers at a microchip factory in China that sells the microchips globally. These young women who are commonly referred to as dagongmei spend an average of about 15 hours each day working, a factor that not only leads to extreme boredom, but was seen to result in a number of physical ailments such as anemia and menstrual pain for the women. The women are housed in a number of dormitory-type accommodations referred to as cagehouses, the expense of being housed in these cagehouses is found to be deducted from their wages along with other expenses such as medical care and grossly overpriced consumer goods19. The living condition of these young women is found to be maintained under extremely strict regulations as is evidenced by the fact due to the relatively small number of restrooms available to help service these women, the women are forced to wait their turn to use the restrooms. These workers are also thoroughly searched by electric baton wielding security guards who guard their locked quarters at night. Although residence permits are found to usually be required so as for one to be able to essentially live in a particular city in China, these women are normally denied the residential rights even after living in these cities for periods that sometimes exceed 10 years. These women, who are usually targeted for unemployment, find it relatively very difficult to readapt to living in their rural villages after years of urban living that conditions them to a mainly consumer-oriented global lifestyle. They also tend to receive relatively very little sympathy from their male counterparts who claim that these women take away their jobs20. Illustrations such as serve to highlight the fact that although multinational corporations are usually credited with helping promote gender equality, they also tend to exuberate the existing gender inequality in some communities. Free-Trade Zones and Gender Inequalities The proponents of free-trade zones have been seen to commonly argue that the system of free-trade zones are essentially beneficial for all players ranging from the corporations, the workers as well as the consumers. The arguments that are seen to commonly be put forth by these supporters is that in addition to consumers essentially getting cheaper prices for their products, the laborers inclusive of women are fundamentally provided with a means of lifting themselves from abject poverty. They also argue that Free-trade zones help promote gender equality by helping women in gaining more autonomy in addition to aiding in the creation of an opportunity for women to afford better healthcare21. However, Employment in Free-trade zones in some developing countries such as Sir Lanka are found to essentially not provide a suitable environment that help women achieve long lasting empowerment, they are instead found to notoriously exacerbate gender inequalities. In a study conducted by Hewamanne, (2008)22, Free-trade zones are essentially beneficial according to claims by a number of officials in the Sri Lankan government claim that employment in the Free-Trade zones essentially helps rural women to be able to earn their dowry. Although these women show a willingness to essentially continue working after they have been married, employers’ reluctance prevents these married women from gaining any employment in these factories. As such, these women are forced to essentially accept the humble role of village wives23. In one of the interviews that was conducted by Hewamanne, (2008)24 one of the former FTZ workers lamented that as opposed to herself who lost her FTZ job after getting married, her husband maintained his job as a soldier and only looked after his own needs giving the woman only enough money for the bare necessities while frequently complaining that unlike most other men, he happened to have been stupid enough to basically be burdened with an FTZ worker. The prevalent inequality among the FTZ workers was also clearly brought out by one of the other interviewees also claimed that her in-laws would frequently complain insinuating that the reason that most free-trade zone workers happened to frequently bring more material goods and money to their marriages was so as to try and compensate for their alleged besmirched reputations. The postulation that free-trade zones do not promote gender equality is found to further be emphasized on by Lind and Brzuzy (2008)25 who point out that free-trade zones in most developing countries are often seen to employ women at relatively low wages under extremely poor work conditions. The women are mostly employed on the basis that women are more aptly suited to the work found at the free-trade zones that is mostly seen to comprise of assembling computer parts, garments, and a myriad of other small items. Cultural Boundaries and Gender Inequalities Despite developments in modernization that have helped promote gender equality, the restructuring of the Spanish labor market has essentially served to bring about relatively higher unemployment of women, and has subsequently resulted in the recreation of the old gender inequalities that are found to essentially be traditional to Spanish society. The resurgence of the traditional gender inequalities and values has served to promote the gender cultural boundaries that are often seen to severely disempower women in these societies26. Similarly, cultural boundaries are seen to play a significant role in limiting attempts by women to gain gender equality by utilizing tools such as micro-credit schemes in a number of developing countries like Nigeria. As a result of cultural boundaries, the women in Nigeria were seen to generally have little readiness to attempt to challenge, patriarchy, gender inequality and the lack of sufficient control not only the various community resources, but also over their own personal circumstances27. Islam and Gender Inequality In an interview on one of the Danish Islamic leaders, the leader pointed out that although gender equality is essentially a new concept in the western world, Islam has essentially always had gender equality a factor that has been commonly been known for over 1,400 years28. However, gender inequality in Islam in most developing countries is seen to be firmly ingrained due to there being a number of verses in the Qur’an which are essentially seen to reflect a number of patriarchal situations. Ashrof, (2005)29 points out that gender inequality has become the accepted stock tradition and is regarded as essentially being the general rule of Muslim living and life. The inequality that is found to be widely prevalent in across centuries of cultural, intellectual and social history of the Islamic civilization is found to evidently be present in the Islamic cultures of most developing countries30 Ashrof, (2005). Conclusion As highlighted in the paper, although social and economic developments such as the development of micro-finance schemes, free-trading zones and globalization have been credited with greatly aiding in the overall promotion of gender equality in most of the developing countries, at times, these developments have often had the often unintended effect of exuberating gender inequality. It is therefore essential that a more guarded approach be adopted in the introduction of these development into developing countries so as to effectively mitigate these unintentional adverse effect. Bibliography Ashrof Mohamad. Islam and gender justice : questions at the interface. Delhi : Kalpaz Publications, 2005. Brock-Utne Birgit and Garbo Gunnar. Language and power : the implications of language for peace and development. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania : Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2009. Cheater Angela. The Anthropology of Power. Routledge, 1999. Craig Gary, Popple Keith and Shaw Mae. Community development in theory and practice : an international reader. Nottingham : Spokesman, 2008. Hewamanne Sandya and Muse Project. Stitching identities in a free trade zone : gender and politics in Sri Lanka. Philadelphia, Pa. : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. IMF. Global Monitoring Report, 2007: Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States. IMF. 2007. Koggel Christine. Moral issues in global perspective. Peterborough, Ont. : Broadview Press, 2006. Lemel Yannick and Noll Heinz-Herbert. Changing structures of inequality : a comparative perspective. Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002. Lind Amy and Brzuzy Stephanie. Battleground : women, gender, and sexuality. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2008. Masika Rachel. Gender, development, and climate change. Oxford Oxfam, 2002. Murray Anne. From Outrage to Courage. Common Courage Press, 2008. Nanda Serena and Warms Richard. Culture counts : a concise introduction to cultural anthropology. Belmont, CA : Cengage Learning/Wadsworth, 2008. Nieuwkerk Karin. Women Embracing Islam. University of Texas Press, 2006. O?zbilgin Mustafa and Syed Jawad. Managing gender diversity in Asia : a research companion. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar, 2010. Parpart Jane, Rai Shirin and Staudt Kathleen. Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World. Routledge, 2002. Zaman Hassan. The Scaling-up of Microfinance in Bangladesh: Determinants, Impact, and Lessons. World Bank Publications, 2004. Read More