Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 38.4
Women's share (percentage) of the labour
force in developing regions, 1970-90.
skilled jobs but also face displacement by male
workers as automation increases (Acero 1997;
Roberts 1991: p. 31;Ward and Pyle 1995: p. 42).
In effect, the worldwide increase in female
labour force participation has occurred during a
time in which the conditions of employment have
deteriorated considerably, and in which future
prospects are anything but guaranteed. As
Moghadam (1995: pp. 115-16) notes: 'The global
spread of flexible labour practices and the supply-
side structural adjustment economic package
coincide with a decline in labour standards,
employment insecurity, increased joblessness, and
a rise in atypical or precarious forms of
employment'. Women's tenuous position in the
labour market is not surprisingly reflected in low
earnings, especially in the informal sector.
Evidence from Colombia, for example, suggests
that women's average incomes in the informal
sector are only 74 per cent of men's, compared
with 86 per cent in formal occupations (Tokman
1989: p. 1071). In the Dominican Republic, 62 per
cent of female informal workers earn below the
poverty level compared with only 35 per cent of
male informal workers (Lozano 1997: p. 163,Table
6.4). Gender differentials in informal sector
earnings are usually due to women's paltry start-
up capital, their lower range of formally acquired
skills and job experience, the demands placed on
their time for income-generating activity by
housework and childcare, and their restricted use
of space. Lessinger's (1990) study of market traders
in Madras, India, for example, shows that women
have a much smaller range of spatial operation
than men because venturing into communities
where no one knows them provokes gossip and
social opproprium. Aspersions on the morality of
'mobile' women also prevent them from buying
their fruit and vegetables from the male-
dominated space of the wholesale market. Women
have either to be chaperoned or to buy their goods
from intermediaries. Although slightly different
reasons for gender divisions of labour and profits
apply in other countries, there is ample evidence
to suggest that women are at a decided
disadvantage in the informal sector in many places
(see Box 38.1).
unemployment. The growing proportion of
women responsible for maintaining their
households without male partners is also
important (Chant 1997: pp. 15-18).
On the demand side of the labour market, the
recruitment of female workers in many countries
has persisted during economic restructuring due
to the expansion of export-oriented industrial
production (Chant and McIlwaine 1995; Pearson
1986; Safa 1995a, b). In a climate of increased
competition, firms have frequently resorted to
increasing their female workforce, either directly
by recruitment in industrial plants (especially
common in areas where there are multinational
export-processing zones such as Mexico, Brazil,
Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic
and the Philippines—see Dwyer 1994; Chant and
McIlwaine 1995; Moghadam 1995: p. 122), or on
a subcontracted piecework basis (see Benería and
Roldan 1987; Pineda-Ofreneo 1988). Although
on the one hand this may have increased income-
generating opportunities for women, there are
decidedly more benefits for employers. These
include reduced production costs, savings on social
security contributions, fragmentation of the
workforce, and exploitation of the low 'aspiration
wages' of married women (see Miraftab 1994;
Peña Saint Martin 1996). At the same time, it is
important to recognise that the work offered is
often precarious in the short and longer term. In
industries such as textiles and electronics, for
example, women are not only locked into the least
