Has globalization improved womens political and economic conditions - Essay Example

2. Globalisation is said to have been successful and has been beneficial, but at the same time it has caused harm or damage. There are both winners and losers from globalisation.3 Globalisation has not affected all countries or regions in the same way, so that the processes of change is not the same for all.4 Because of different levels of modernisation and technological capacity, regions and countries have not felt similar effects of globalisation. Southeast Asia’s experience, for example, differs from that of the experiences of Vietnam and South Korea in terms of benefits and losses in the process of economic globalisation.

5 Across regions, socio-economic groups within regions, and between sexes, the process has not been equal.6 Those who benefit from it generally assert that it, too, is beneficial for all. On the other hand, those against it, particularly the intellectuals and street protesters, declare that it is universally evil.7 Hence, there are strongly differing views on globalisation including when it concerns women. Author George Soroos,8 for example, argues that the global financial system is dangerously unstable and must be regulated.

Another one, Clare Short 9 argues that the outcome of globalisation depends upon political choices made. Writing in December 2000 in Making Globalisation Work for the Poor, Short asserts that if and only if the right political choices are made, can the poor benefit. 10 Lene Sjorup11 does not look at globalisation as an arch-enemy. She says women may sometimes be victims of globalisation but can also be benefactors as actors too. Arguing that globalisation if not defined, examined, and discussed, is a very broad category, she says it can become useless as an analytical tool.

For example, she warns that a myopic view of globalisation may depict it as an overwhelming enemy victimizing women, but when integrated with a nation state’s system, globalisation will even strengthen the feminist movement worldwide. To