[asia-apec 110] Posting from DAWN (part 1 of 2)

[RVerzola]

Excerpted from: "Background paper for AGRA-EAST Workshop on Women and
Globalization of the Economy: Gendered Impact on East/Southeast Asia"
by Josefa S. Francisco. Full text can be obtained from
Oxfam-UKI-Philippines (oxfam-uki at phil.gn.apc.org) or from
DAWN-Southeast Asia (A-Team at phil.gn.apc.org).

Globalization and the global political economy

For DAWN (the south-based network, Development Alternatives with Women
of the New Era), many of the issues and problems in the South that are
now associated with new forms of globalizing forces are but
"continuations from the past - i.e. manifestations of basic flaws in a
global economic process that continues to reproduce great and growing
inequalities of wealth and income within and between countries" (The
DAWN Debates on Alternative Development, 1995)  These are: 

	(1) crisis of basic livelihoods, food and income insecurity
	(2) unemployment
	(3) environmental degradation
	(4) class/caste/racial/and gender violence 
	(5) inadequacy and re-privatization of public services essential to human
reproduction
	(6) increased burdens on women and
	(7) reduced entitlements of resources and legitimacy.

However the manifestations and implications of these age-old problems
are now being felt with increased intensity and in more varied ways,
amidst an intricate web of new features and conditions that have been
spawned by bewildering processes of economic restructuring that had
touching all spheres of life in the current decade. These include:

    (1) The speed and range of the globalization of economy, politics
and culture. New technological revolutions in microelectronics and
biotechnology are changing labor processes, altering relations of
production and distribution, feminizing some sectors of the labor
force, and leading to a hitherto unprecedented globalization of the
production and economic power of TNCs. Female labor is being used more
flexibly and women workers are more mobile than they have ever been
before.

    (2) Transformations in global trade and finance that increased the
flows of global capital many fold and rendered global and national
monetary systems volatile and difficult to manage. This instability
has been used to further justify fiscal stringency and press for
greater exports.

    (3) Uneven processes of globalization are reshaping traditional
economic and political alignments among countries. New trade and
economic zones, and growth poles are emerging. The geographic South,
never a very unified entity, has fragmented; its erstwhile members now
include some of the fastest growing economies as well as some of the
slowest in the world; with consequent divergences in interests and
concerns. Consequently, the conditions women face in different parts
of the South vary widely, so do their needs and concerns.

    (4) The role of the state as an economic agent guiding economic
activity has been considerably undermined by processes of economic
globalization; by the collapse of the Soviet bloc; and by the
relentless ideological assault of the Bretton Woods Institutions
(BWI). However, the repressive capacity of the state in much of the
South has not been weakened; governments have often responded quite
ruthlessly to any opposition to globalization.

    (5) The world armaments industries have increasingly turned their
attention to the South. Further, a growing subterranean economy based
on narcotics, weapons, money-laundering has altered the political
culture of a number of countries; its fingerprints can be seen in many
recent outbreaks of localised wars ad violence. The majority of the
victims (and refugees) of such violence are women and children.

    (6) Of immense concern to women is the resurgence of patriarchal
forces globally and locally, in the guise of religious fundamentalism
and cultural nationalism. 

    (7) its flip-side is the globalization of culture made possible
through new communications technology, and a growing hegemony of
different forms of media, affecting tastes, consumption patterns,
aspirations, and gender relations in far corners of the world. The
objectification of women's bodies and female sexuality is becoming a
universal phenomenon. 

Globalization and the crisis of development in the South

Contrary to the overzealous and premature claims by proponents of
neo-classical liberalism, the global experimentation on free market
economics has not been as successful in reducing unemployment, raising
incomes, and alleviating poverty in the South. The latest UNDP report
on World Human Development (1996) reveals that even among regions of
the South that are experiencing growth, such as South East Asia,
disturbing levels of poverty and serious food, income, habitat,
health, sanitation and nutritional problems, persist.

In describing the South, the concepts of 'winners' and 'losers' are
now part of the standard language of global development. 'Winners"
refer to economies in the geographic South that have emerged/are
emerging as strong competitors in the global market. 'Losers', on the
other hand, are not confined to national economies alone, but include
a broader range of economic sectors, groups of people, or regions
within countries, that have become/remained poor, marginalised or
vulnerable precisely because they have been impacted negatively by
structural and policy shifts related to globalization. Poor southern
women, in particular, have been documented as having generally 'lost
out' in the rapid transformations of communities and sectors brought
about by globalization (see Shiva, 1992; LeQuesne, 1996; Sen,
forthcoming).

'Losers' may be found within and among 'winners', such as in the case
of impoverished sub-region of South Asia which is a member of the
fastest growing, most economically dynamic region in the world; or the
cases of Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines (countries experiencing
impressive to moderate growth), where a significant proportion of the
population still live in poverty.

Another way to look at the impact of globalization on the South is
through the lens of 'costs'. Various documentations reveal that
Southern economies that have been able to achieve/are achieving
'growth' are having to contend with problems made more serious or
newly spawned by structural adjustments and policy shifts in their
macro-economic management, e.g food security, brain-drain and
de-skilling from labor migration, environmental degradation,
trafficking in women, child labor, inflation, increase in the price of
commodities, high interest rates, to name a few. Rather than help ease
poverty, these tend to aggravate what, in the first place, are already
serious and massive problems that make life difficult for the poor.
Many of these issues invariably point to the concern for the long-term
sustainability of current growth-oriented economic management and
restructuring.

The uncertainties, complexities and contradictions generated on the
South by new processes and mechanisms of modern-day globalization
challenge us to take stock of the dynamic transformations taking place
- in particular, to understand how poor women and men in various
habitats/ecosystems, ethnicities, occupational categories, and
religious groups, are negatively impacted, as rapid economic
transformations at the community, society, state, regional, and global
levels impinge upon their lives and destinies. 



Globalization and poor women in the South

There are two ways to look at poor women in the South and understand
how their lives are linked to globalization. One is to view them from
the agenda and demands of global trade; the other, from the
perspective of defending women's basic interests and rights. 

A perspective that carries the full agenda of globalization views the
empowerment of poor women in the South primarily and, almost
exclusively, in relation to free markets and economic efficiency and
growth (TWN, 1995). Enhancing women's participation in market-driven
economic activities, through the provision of credit schemes and
skills training, is today a major WB & ADB strategy in promoting
'women's rights' in poor countries (e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia,
Philippines). While this represents a marked shift away from the
previous viewing that tied poor women down to token welfaristic plans
and grand population control programmes, the frame remains limited and
limiting. The concern for women's empowerment in this instance boils
down to an opportunistic means for promoting a free market economy,
rather than ensuring that economic policies are sensitised and made
more responsive to the real empowerment interests of poor Southern
women, their families and their co mmunities.

The second perspective, on the other hand, views with grave concern
the essence, processes and costs of globalization, not only on poor
women but, also, on poor men in the South. To begin with, poor women
and men in the South do not just want economic growth; they want
people-centered sustainable economic growth and equity. 

Poor women and men in the South are concerned about food, health, and
other basic needs for the survival of their persons, families,
communities/habitats, and environment; they do not want destruction of
livelihoods, land conversions, and increased prices of commodities
that have been associated with the further opening of their economies
to global trade and foreign investments. 

Poor women and men in the South want to be able to control their
lives, to have dignity of labor, and participate in the shaping of
societies; they do not wish a continuing life of disempowerment,
vulnerability and subordination in the midst of repressive political
forces and powerful economic interests that remain unaccountable and
non-transparent.

Poor southern women, in particular, who are already caught in the
quagmire of differing traditional axes of inequalities/hierarchies -
i.e. gender, class, caste, ethnicity/culture, and religion - and who
have long been burdened with multiple roles and responsibilities, are
now having to face newer difficulties and vulnerabilities, in the face
of rapid economic transformations. 

For instance, poor southern women provide the 'cheap flexible labor'
for TNCs in many parts of the South, as well as, the 'cheap exportable
labor' for governments and TNCs that are engaged in the international
trading of labor/services. Asian women (Filipinas, Thais, Vietnamese),
together with drugs and weapons, are trafficked as entertainers,
prostitutes, and mail-ordered brides, across continents and between
and within countries, in what DAWN has referred to as the
'subterranean economy' of modern-day globalization. In all of these
vulnerable occupations, women are denied the protection of just labor
laws. Very often, too, they are managed by men who, also, physically
and sexually molest them. Current indications point to the sustained
expansion of 'flexible labor', 'internationally traded services', and,
even of, trafficking.

Changes in the environment and climate - many of which are traceable
to land conversions; appropriation of land and water resources for
'big development projects, such as, dams; pollution and waste discards
of industries and non-traditional agribusinesses, such as prawn
farming; tourism; and lifestyles and consumption of the elites - have
led to the dislocation of entire communities, severely jeopardised
agricultural livelihoods, and made more difficult the reproductive
burdens of rural southern women. The indiscriminate distribution and
marketing in rural areas (and urban centers) of cheap alcoholic
beverages produced by TNCs, together with the intrusion of hegemonized
media that portray women as objectified sex objects and of beauty
products sold through the newest approach to marketing called
"networking", had effected changes in gender and family relations, and
in certain cases, had been cited as factors for the rise in the abuse,
battering and commodification of femal es in poor rural households
everywhere.

The claiming and privatization of the hinterlands (mountains and
forests) and of public or international water resources and marine
life, and their interconnections with the demands of free trade
through the rapid establishment of 'growth corridors' or 'growth
areas' have been most drastic on indigenous peoples, upland farmers,
lowland peasants and the artisanal fisherfolk who for so long have
maintained their environment through local customs and practices.
Further, export-oriented agricultural policies have resulted to the
rapid decline and disappearance of certain 'under-utilised crops' that
were traditional sources of food and medicine for indigenous peoples
and peasants, thereby seriously disrupting the balance of life
sustaining practices that had enabled women to take care of their and
their families' health and survival.

In the last three decades, there had been rapid urbanization going on
in the South. But rather than carefully planned cities and towns, what
have mushroomed are overcrowded enclaves and colonies of slums where
there are inadequate basic services, high unemployment, and depressed
health/sanitation conditions. An initial review of SAPs in selected
countries revealed that the urban poor have been more adversely