S.U.N.Y. Global Workforce Project
Gender and Globalization
Gender, Power and Globalization
Dr. Carl Davila
The College at Brockport
Gender Violence Worldwide
Some numbers:
One in every three women in the
world has experienced sexual,
physical, emotional or other abuse in
her lifetime.
Source: Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF)
Around the world, 10-69% of women stated that they
had been physically assaulted by an intimate
partner at some point in their lives.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
UNICEF reports that between a quarter and one half of women
around the world have suffered violence at the hands of an
intimate partner.
Source: The Intolerable Status Quo: Violence Against Women and Girls, The Progress of Nations, UNICEF, 1997
Gender Violence Worldwide
Some numbers:
22% of all women in the U.S. have experienced some form of
assault by an intimate partner.
Each year, 4.5 million physical assaults are committed against
women by intimate partners.
Source: Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, U.S. Department of Justice 2000.
Research on domestic violence in Europe indicates that every
day, one woman in five is a victim of domestic abuse.
Q: How has this affected someone in your family
or someone you know?
Gender, Power and Globalization
Benería (Chapter 3): Markets are gendered …
The marketplace is a social
construct.
… and therefore gendered,
like culture itself
… and thus patriarchal
… a kind of gender system
Two aspects: global and local
A Global Gender System
Connell: the “world gender order”:
The mechanisms of economic globalization are all masculine
They are largely created, defined and dominated by men
And they operate in a stereotypically masculine fashion:
A Global Gender System
Connell: the “world gender order”:
Aggression and competition for
individual gain
A “zero-sum” mentality
Accumulation of wealth,
regardless of the human or
environmental cost
Violence as a legitimate
means of achieving goals
Characteristic of colonialism,
capitalism and the neo-liberal
approach to globalization
A Global Gender System
The (global) take-away:
Globalization is every
bit as patriarchal as the
individual societies
that have created it.
It operates in a
stereotypically masculine
fashion that emphasizes
economic and political
gain…
at the expense of other, possibly less exploitative
values.
Gender, Power and Globalization
Gender violence has local economic dimensions:
Poverty and disruption of traditional gender
systems put strains on domestic relationships
In strongly patriarchal
societies …
men’s work is a matter of
identity, pride and self-esteem
economic changes can
challenge traditional views
when women’s labor is needed to support the family
Gender, Power and Globalization
Gender violence has local economic dimensions: A
case in point — Morocco
Median age: 25
unemployment ages 15-30 = 40%
Generations-long economic crisis
from globalized economic changes
So: women moving out of the home and
into the workplace, displacing men
Network of women’s crisis centers sees
increase in victims of domestic
violence
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/geography-of-morocco0.gif
Gender, Power and Globalization
Substance abuse can aggravate the situation
When men — and
women — use alcohol
to cope
Alcohol is strongly
associated with domestic
violence
Not just in the
developing world!
Gender, Power and Globalization
The take-away at the local level:
Economic globalization is gendered:
It operates in an aggressive, masculine mode …
That in turn transforms local economies …
Which turns gender systems around by
bringing women into the labor force …
And one result: increasing domestic violence as both
men and women struggle to find new identities
within the new economic order.