Argumentative Essay on Women in the Global Economy

Introduction

Regardless of the tremendous industrialization in the economies, the overall performance and production roles of women have been extremely focused on. For the past years, women have been connected with "traditionally tasks" from private household to a public industrialized aspect of production. Apparently, this is evident from the predominance of women roles in transforming raw materials, preparing food, succoring weaker members and young ones of the community, preparing food and among others. Previous studies have shown that this perception has been going on for a long period of time and in various countries. For instance, in both Europe and North America, women have equally performed the mentioned tasks despite receiving lower salaries and wages for these tasks. However, rapidly improved efforts of transforming the work perceived for women in various developing countries. Essentially, this has been facilitated by different approaches such as phenomena of global economics and government-sponsored expansion plans. This paper focuses on looking at various developments of production plans taking place in the process of economic industrialization. Conversely, the paper also focuses on these development production means in order to examine whether they are linked to changes in women rights in a workplace as well as in the wider community.

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Changes in Women's Right

For several years now, development agencies and governments have given gender issues a top priority in the implementation of policies and planning (v, 2016). All gender matters relating to resource allocation, access to opportunities for both economic and social advancement encompasses a noticeable item on all international conferences agendas. In these meetings, various agencies have investigated on the fundamental link between the aspect of gender equity and sustainable development. Furthermore, a definition of unique objectives and mechanisms necessary for international cooperation (Hopkins, 2016). These changes have also been evident in both eighteenth and nineteenth centuries whereby North American and European women were allowed to secure employment in the industrial sectors such as garment and textile industries.

Development of Production Means and Women Work

The main emphasis of the post-world War II is rapidly export-led development in Third World nations. Visvanathan et al. (199) allude that the developments had insightful impacts towards the working lives of many women. Production and capital focused on internalization. In addition, transnational corporations (TNCs) started subdividing the labor market processes. Numerous studies by (Visvanathan et al. 1997) and (Humphries et al. 2015) shows that in early 1930's, development in production activities had shifted to a more geographically diverse phenomenon. The experienced fall in transportation costs, innovations in telecommunication, changes in materials and tax codes suggested that skilled, sales and design cutting of raw materials remained in the central location. However, piecework such as sewing and assembly of garments were to be relocated to areas characterized by special development and cheaper labor programs. According to (Matos-Rodriguez & Delgado, 2015) the schemes were located in Puerto Rico which aimed at exploiting the US commonwealth status for lower taxes. It also made capital and land available.

In many of the United States textile and garment industries, displaced but skilled women and immigrants. In furtherance, the search for cheap labor continued henceforth. According to (Matos-Rodriguez & Delgado, 2015), this period of history is very important because it helps in tracking and tracing history and facts of the process of industrialization based on the US and England textile and garment industries. As noted earlier, operation Bootstrap played a substantial role in the history of industrialization process. Successful exportation activities proved financially attained success for many mainland firms. As a result, exports processing zones were created in various places of the third World. To ensure smooth flow of goods and services, barriers to trade such as environmental local laws and import duties were suspended. On the other hand, factors favoring the production process such as infrastructure, capital and lands were provided by various governments at relatively low costs.

Activists and social scientists have used the export processing zones established in 1980's as framework of debating whether the jobs offered by the zones were moderately virtuous for women (Humphries et al. 2015). Therefore, a two-dimensional approach facilitate an argument on whether women were liberated from their patriarchal homes to offer them with remunerations or it served as basis of exploitation. Various monographs exploring on the convoluted realities on the lives of women workers have been highly focused on in order to disclose the universal landscape of the global factories. Moreover, the monographs have been used to relate information of the relationship between the work and patriarchal home lives of the factory women. For instance, studies by Ong's focused on Malay women employed by Japanese factories in Malaysia (Matos-Rodriguez & Delgado, 2015). The study reveals compound cultural influences of patriarchy, religion and contemporary capitalism that these women encountered.

Key Arguments

Having looked at early monographs providing literature relating to women involvements in the internationalization of labor, there are various contributions originating from the approaches of production used in the various period of history. To start, the mechanization and industrialization of agriculture experienced in third countries have resulted from immigration, underemployment and unemployment. Due to the fact of vulnerability to unemployment, many women in cities and countryside have shifted to creating self-employment free standing the formal sector (Matos-Rodriguez & Delgado, 2015). Consequently, the ability to provide an adequate number of well-paid, secure and stable job has been inhibited. This is one indicator that the development of the production means in informal jobs is failing to favor the changes in women's right in both the society and workplace. To capture a broad understanding between formal and informal work, studies by (Visvanathan et al. 1997) in distinguishes formality jobs from informality work by holding that only formal sector employment provides jobs characterized by pensions, benefits and regulated jobs.

Studies by (MP & Sassen, 1995) reveals that in an informal economy, women are placed primarily in specific interrelated areas such as home production and subcontracting. In understanding the aspect of domestic workers, (Visvanathan et al. 1997) resumes that the work performed by domestic works is extremely undervalued. In continuance, (Coleman, 2011) points out that domestic workers were mainly enrolled often among indigenous and poor women with least education achievement. Routinely, these women were considered inferior in terms of race, dress, language and culture which forced them to work in isolation. It is evident that the production means in informal sectors tends to discriminate women based on equality and education.

Besides, industrial home work is also another form of a job whose production means fails to uphold and defend women rights in the society and workplace. In this type of work, women produce manufacturing goods in lesser workshops or at home. In efforts of expanding their firms and increasing sales, large formal division tends to subcontract rations of its production process into smaller workshops or smaller firms operating in the outskirts of states (Visvanathan et al. 1997). For instance, in Mexico City, a far-reaching network of a workshop and non-traditional home task is revealed by TNCs using the vulnerability of women workers as an advantage of production means of increasing profits (Visvanathan et al. 1997). Previous studies by (Sharpe, 2016) emphasizes that women working in sweatshops and factories should have more independence and choice than if they opted to remain home. Therefore, production means in this is not linked to women rights in the workplace.

Conclusion

To summarize, it is important that to understand the fact that economies will continue to industrialize. Accordingly, the production means used by various sectors in order to sustain the economy will also continue to change in various dimensions. However, the changes in production process should not continue exploiting the work for women. As discussed, industrialization process during World War II, transformations taking place in the production process have failed to support the progress of women works in terms of equality. The vulnerability of women workers due to unemployment, discrimination of the type of work and low wages are some of the negative aspects that have failed to facilitate the rights of women in the development of production process. As states continue to experience economic industrialization, they should focus on the millennium goals as a fundamental framework for implementing their production means. With equal rights and empowerment, women can be agents of change in both the workplace and society in ensuring sustainable social-economic development.

References

Baylis, J., Smith, S. and Owens, P. eds., 2017. The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.Coleman, I., 2011. Women in the Global Economy. Yale J. Int'l Aff., 6, p.25.

Hopkins, E., 2016. Working-Class Self-Help in Nineteenth-Century England: Responses to Industrialization. Routledge.Humphries, Jane, and Jacob Weisdorf. "The wages of women in England, 1260-1850." The Journal of Economic History 75, no. 2 (2015): 405-447.

Matos-Rodriguez, F. and Delgado, L., 2015. Puerto Rican Women's History: New Perspectives. Routledge.MP, F.K. and Sassen, S., 1995. Recasting women in the global economy. Internationalization and changing definitions of gender.

Sharpe, P., 2016. Adapting to capitalism: Working women in the English economy, 1700-1850. Springer.

Visvanathan, N., Duggan, L., Nisonoff, L. and Wiegersma, N. eds., 1997. The women, gender, and development reader. New Africa Books.Ward, K.B. ed., 1990. Women workers and global restructuring (No. 17). Cornell University Press.