Topic 2: Women and Globalized Labour: Comparing Canada and DW (India and Mexico)

A comparative thesis on Canadian and DW women:

Globally, most of the poor are in the DW, of which women constitute a considerable majority. In contrast, only a minority of the Canadian women live below the poverty line. While feminization of poverty affects the women in the DW, feminization of labour shapes those in Canada.

A result of NDL, poor women in DW, are tied to the commodity chain that extracts surplus/profit through nominal or no wage work. ( Hidden Face of Globalization 9.49 minhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bhodyt4fmU 2007)

On the other hand, in Canada, neoliberal policies encourage extraction of profits through feminized job market. Low wage, gender inequity and declining social programmes impoverish the women.

Canada low-income rate www.statcan.ca

In 2008, 9.4% of Canadians are in a family whose income is below the after-tax low-income cut-off

% persons living in low-income after tax, by sex of major income earner, select years, 1976 to 2010

Note: Based on after-tax LICOs. Source: Statistics Canada. Persons in low income families, annual (CANSIM Table 202-0802). Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2012. [ Show Data Table ]

Comparative WST framework on Women and development :

WST & Commodity Chain:

• Financial Crisis: Neoliberal deregulation policies (Canadian Women)

• Global Commodity chain (GCC) (Third World Women)

http://becauseiamagirl.ca/page.aspx?pid=3865 31 sec

Why & how Canadian women workers are disadvantaged?Canadian neoliberal policies/practices legitimize the extraction of surplus from temps & low waged women workers

Canada: Feminization of labour

DW: Feminization of Poverty

Maquiladora women - spots from the film MAQUILAPOLIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK2KzIGb44I 4min

Concepts & arguments: CanadaCaragata (2003):

• Gendered and differential benefits• Labour force changes• Marginalization• Retrenching welfare state• Commodification of social roles

Quintero-Ramirez (2002): • Capital mobility• Flexible work & vulnerable for firing• Feminization of labour.

Canadian Women: Neoliberal policies

•Liberalization: Free trade•Austerity: Financial cutbacks•Privatization: For profit services replace public services and dismantling of unions•Deregulation of: Financial procedures and securities of lending, borrowing and insurance; Flow of foreign investment• Globalization of production & expansion of market

Stat Can: Latest release from the Labour Force Survey  Friday, January 6, 2012http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-503-x/2010001/article/11387-eng.htmWomen are more likely to work part time than men

Canada:

1.  7 out of 10 part-time workers in 2009 were women, a proportion that has changed little over the past three decades.

2. In 2009, 2.2 million women worked part time, that is, fewer than 30 hours a week at their main job.

3. The share of women working part time rose from 23.6% in 1976 to 26.9% in 2009.

4. In comparison, the rate for men in 2009 was 11.9%, less than half that of women, although it more than doubled from 1976.

Canada:5. The majority of employed women continue to work

in occupations in which they have been traditionally concentrated, although the proportion has declined slowly over the past two decades.

6. In 2009, 67.0% of employed women worked in teaching, nursing and related health occupations, clerical or other administrative positions, or sales and service occupations. In contrast, 31.0% of employed men worked in these fields.

Stat Can: Latest release from the Labour Force Survey  Friday, January 6, 2012

The Star.com 2012

2012- Macleans.ca

What is Feminization (Canadian Women workers)

• Women’s high labour force participation and employment rates

• Gendered rise of insecure or temp jobs

Capital extracts surplus:

From:

• Canada: lower cost of production

• Mexico: cheap labour - Export Promoting Zones (EPZ) or border industrialization, e.g., maquiladora

Women in the ‘Core’:In Low-Paid Employment (% Labour Force) (Caragata: 2003)Country (year) Total Men Women

Australia (1995) 13.8 11.8 17.7Canada (1994) 23.7 16.1 34.3France (1994) 13.3 10.6 17.4Sweden (N/A) 5.2 3.0 8.4UK (1995) 19.6 12.8 31.2US (1994) 25.0 19.6 32.5

low-wage work for men and women: selected OECD countries, 1995 to 2005 www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/.../---ed.../wcms_157253.pdf accessed jan 2013

Women in OECD (the ‘Core’) countries:1995 to 2005In Low-Paid Employment (% Labour Force)

Canada

Canada: Average total income of women and men, 1976 to 2008

Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 202-0407.

Canada: Employment rates (% of working age pop.)women and men, 1976 to 2011

Source: Statistics Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada www.hrsdc.gc.cahttp://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=13 acc jan 2013

Canada: Percentage of employed women and men with temporary work, by age group, 2009

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey. Date Modified: 2011-07-26

Unemployment rate for women and men in Canada, 1976 to 2011

Source: Statistics Canada, http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/.3ndic.1t.4r@-eng.jsp?iid=16 acc.jan 2013

gender pay gap

Comparing the average hourly wages of women and men, the ratio was 83.3% in 2008 – up from 75.7% in 1988 Sources: Statistics Canada, Labour Market Activity Survey 1988, Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics 1993 and Labour Force Survey, 2003 and 2008. Date Modified: 2011-07-26

Why we should still mind the wage gap Leah Eichler Special to The Globe and MailPublished Friday, Aug. 17 2012, 7:00 PM EDT

the average amount for damages issued at the human rights tribunal level range from $25,000 to $75,000 in Canada. In the United States, damages for the same issue might amount to millions of dollars for individuals.

Canada: women’s problems are not related to basic needs (as in poorer countries)

• 61 percent of single parents cannot afford a computer (1998) source: Caragata (2003)

• among single parents, % women are 90% (1998) 80% (2011) Stat Can (released 2012

sept.)2012: http://www.canada.com/Census+More+single+dads+heading+lone+parent+families/7265375/story.html acc. Jan 2013 - 1.2 million women (2011)

• Single parent mothers in poverty: 21% (2011)http://www.canadianwomen.org/facts-about-poverty (Jan 2013)

Core countries:Indigenous women:

•education and life expectancyworld's lowest rates

•illiteracy, infant and maternal mortality and death from preventable disease

world’s highest rates

Framework on Women and development :

WST & Global Commodity Chain:

• Financial Crisis: Neoliberal deregulation policies

(Canadian Women)

• Global Commodity chain (Third World Women)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUNxj0MOoqk

4.3 min Global Value Chain: Garments and flowers (English subtitles)

Impacts of GCC on female workers in the Periphery

Wilma A. Dunaway (2001). journal of world-systems research, vii, 1, spring 2001, 2-29

Impacts of GCC (contd.)

Wilma A. Dunaway (2001). journal of world-systems research, vii, 1, spring 2001, 2-29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V86DfIwlDmY 2.19 min WDR on wmn 2012

Unpaid work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaCwOdNeA7k 1.20min Think EQUAL

Peripheral countries: GCC explains: Reasons why women are marginalized:

Women are treated as commodities/property by:

1. Traditions (gendercide) 2. Religious fundamentalism 3. Socio-political Status 4. Wars and conflicts 5. Inequality and denial of rights 6. Market (Women in GCC)