Topic 2: Women and Globalized Labour: Comparing Canada
and DW (India and Mexico)
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
Canada
• Neoliberal State
• Affluent society
• Relative poverty (Adult
women below poverty
line (1.22 mil.) 10.2%
(2007)
http://www.womensdirectorate.gov.yk.ca/pdf/womens_pover
ty_2009_townson.pdf
• Capital extracts surplus
from temp/low wage
working women
• Issue: gender inequality
in hiring, pay & job
status
• Feminization of labour
Poverty line: spend 55% on basics
http://www.canadianwomen.org/sites/canadianwomen.org/fil
es/PDF-FactSheet-EndPoverty-Jan2013.pdf
Periphery: DW
• Commodity chain
• Majority in DW are poor
• Absolute (human) poverty
(% Women: India: > 50% *;
Mexico (27 mil.) 28%
• Surplus extraction from
most women (low or no
wages) unpaid work at
home, in agriculture and in
unofficial sector
• Issue: chronic poverty –
want basic needs
• Feminization of poverty
*http://www.infochangeindia.org/analysis150.jsp
Canada
What is ‘Feminization of labour’?
• Women’s high labour force participation and
employment rates
There are now twice as many working women in Canada as
there were thirty years ago. In 2006, almost 60% of all females
over the age of 15 were in the paid work force, compared to the
68% of all male over age 15.
• Women holding greater % of insecure or temp
jobs
70% of part-time workers and 66% of minimum wage earners
are female (2009).
http://www.canadianwomen.org/sites/canadianwomen.org/files/PDF-FactSheetEndPoverty-Jan2013.pdf
Periphery: Feminization of Poverty:
Compared to men, women in DW experience:
• Higher incidence of poverty
• Greater depth/severity of poverty (i.e.,
extreme)
• More persistent/longer-term poverty
• Rising burden of poverty
•. Face more barriers to lifting themselves out of
poverty
• Women-headed households are the ‘poorest of
the poor’.
• Female household headship transmits poverty
to children
Feminization of labour:
Annual growth rate in labour force:
• OECD countries (1983 to 1992): 2.1% for econ.
active women (men 0.8%).
Table 1368. Female Labor Force Participation Rates by Country: 1980 to 2010
[In percent. Female labor force of all ages divided by female population 15–64 years old]
Country 1980 1990 2000 2009 2010 years
Canada 57.3 67.5 69.8 74.3 74.4 percentage
In the US, Canada and the Scandinavian
countries, women now make up nearly half the
active population (women’s activity rates > 70%
in the core age groups).
https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1368.pdf
Canada:
Certain sectors are feminized
• Clothing and textile industries
Women are vulnerable workers:
•Hiring: discrimination
• Work conditions: poor
• Migrant women
- Dependent on a male breadwinner
- Derived rights of settlement
Source: http://www.cdnwomen.org/eng/pdfs/poverty_facts.pdf. accessed Feb 24, 07
Canadian Women in Poverty (Canadian Women's
Foundation, 2004) :
• Of the world's 29 most developed countries,
Canada has the 5th largest wage gap between
women and men full-time workers
• wage gap is due to the presence of children.
Childcare ahead of career advancement
diminish a woman’s financial status
throughout her entire life.
• Women are paid less only in 3 other rich
countries: Korea, Japan and Germany than in
Canada source: http://www.torontosun.com/money/2010/03/08/13155136.html
accessed feb 2014
Canada: Poor women means poor children: 2007
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/01/02/ChildPoverty http://www.povnet.org/
• 37%
of lone mothers on paid employment
raise a family on <$10/hour.
• Children make up 33% of people
dependent on social assistance for survival.
• Low income children are more than twice
as likely to have problems with vision,
hearing, speech, mobility, dexterity,
cognition and emotion.
• The infant mortality rate for the lowest
income group in Canada is double that of
the highest income group.
Statistics Canada's low-income cut-offs i.e, poverty:
Poor spend most income on basic needs:
Single mother & one child in Ontario: per month
Income assistance before deductions:
$957
Expenditure:
Rent
$675
Groceries
$200
Remainder
$82
(to pay for electricity, telephone, heat, laundry,
transportation, school needs for her child, emergencies,
aspirin, medicine)
Statistics Canada, September 14, 2000
Statistics Canada’s Calculation of an after-tax low income cut-off
Low income lines ,2010-2011
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75f0002m/2012002/figure/fig1-eng.htm
accessed feb 2014
Household Work: Gender Differences for Home-Based
Workers (Caragata: 2003)
Work outside
Home-based
Canada
of home
work
Type of Work
Men Women
Child care >15 hrs/wk 16% 25%
Housework >15 hrs/wk 5% 16%
Elder care 5–9 hrs/wk 3% 5%
Men Women
14% 40%
9% 41%
13% 16%
Source: Caragata (2003) based on data from Menzies
(1998).
•
•
•
The economic crisis 2008 affected men and women
differently in terms of unemployment rates in developed
economies
The difference between male and female unemployment
rates in the same countries is calculated by subtracting the
female unemployment rate from the male unemployment
rate.
From 2008-2009: the economic crisis resulted in increasing
unemployment rates in all six countries, and the average
increase was 1.9 %. In four out of the six countries gender
gap in unemployment rate increased (Sept 2008). In
particular in Canada and the United States, two countries
where men’s unemployment rate rose faster than women’s.
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_elm/--trends/documents/publication/wcms_120471.pdf
ILO (2010) Global Unemployment Trends http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/--emp_elm/---trends/documents/publication/wcms_120471.pdf
Women in pov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CK4G1WzE0I
2.26min
Ending Poverty Starts With Women 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhBZkWCtwZI 10min
Women in pov in Canada 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaYqNOYHmZ4
9.47 min
Periphery: DW
A Report (2005):
Women And The World Economy: Hope For The Future?
• < $2 a day: 50% of World Population.
• < $1 a day: 1.8 bil.of the above population.
• 70% of them are women.
• Women live (age) < 40yrs: 340 mil. in the world
• 35,000 children die/day of preventable causes.
http://www.tiaw.org/microenterprise.asp accessed 2006
Notes: 1. Microcredit: A Commercial Model for Poverty Reduction. 2. UNICEF. 3. Ibid 4. The
World Bank. 5. IDB and CGAP.
Report (cont’d)
•Poor in DW in the informal sector: 50-60% of the
workforce
• Women comprise the majority of this workforce
• 96% of India’s working women are in the informal
sector.
• Women’s micro businesses rely on predatory
moneylenders because of limited access to formal
financial services
http://www.tiaw.org/microenterprise.asp
Notes: 1. Microcredit: A Commercial Model for Poverty Reduction. 2. UNICEF. 3. Ibid 4.
The World Bank. 5. IDB and CGAP.
Global women's unpaid work at home, in agriculture
and in unofficial sector:
•unnoticed by statistics,
•estimated as a third of global GDP
Global: Sectors Where Women Work: Change in 10 years
Source: ILO. (2009). Global Employment Trends for Women March 2009
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/w
Periphery (DW):
Women hired & fired - ‘flexible labour’
• temporary and part-time
• women more ‘suitable’
• ‘natural’ talent - dexterity and nimble
fingers’
• cheaper and manipulable
• endure monotonous tasks
Women Dominate
Employment in
Most Export
Processing Zones
2007
Table 1. Increase of Female Headed households and Single mothers,
and Poverty Rate in Mexico City
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
% Total Female-Headed Households 13.96 14.69 16.17 17.54 18.33 20.01
with Children and No Partner
11.34 12.28 14.28 15.06 15.61 17.11
Percent below Poverty
Female-Headed Households
13.48 16.34 28.37 26.07 13.24 13.96
Male-Headed Households
17.70 17.29 30.81 27.31 17.59 14.25
Heeju Shin (2006). Working and Living Arrangement of Single Mother Households and Social Support in Mexico.
Center for Latin American Social Policy, Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies , University of Texas at
Austin City, accessed Mar 1, 2010 http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/claspo/fieldreports/shin06.pdf
% Poor Single Woman-headed households:
Mexico: 20 % (2002)
Wmn –mexico : http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/17907/shind94494.pdf?sequence=2
Ref: SYLVIA CHANT The ‘Feminisation of Poverty’ and the ‘Feminisation’ of Anti-Poverty Programmes:
Room for Revision?Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, 165–197, February 2008
See also: Chant, Sylvia (1997) Women-headed households: poorest of the poor? Perspectives from Mexico,
Costa Rica and the Philippines. IDS Bulletin, 28 (3). pp. 26-48. ISSN 0265-5012
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ (UN)
http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata161.htm (LAm)
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pkits/women3.htm
Latin American countries: female-male wage gap: 2008
Overall gender pay gap
The average pay gap in a few countries
Brazil
38.5%
Mexico
36.1%
Argentina
29%
Paraguay
11%
http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/GAP-09_EN.pdf
2003
http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/LAC/L
ACInfoClient.nsf/d29684951174975c8
5256735007fef12/e4bf3b5369a28e62
85256cde0074c903/$FILE/challenges
.pdf
Periphery Women:
World workforce
49.1% (2007)
World's poor
70 %
Women’s share of world
household income
40-60 %
Work
Provide
60 to 90 hr/wk
75% of healthcare
Produce
75% of food
(of the food consumed throughout Africa)
(Source: WID, 2000; http://www.ilo.org/global/about-theilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_091102/lang--en/index.htm)
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_103456.pdf
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_103456.pdf
http://kilm.ilo.org/GET2004/DOWNLOAD/trendsw.pdf
South Asia (India), East Asia and Africa: Poor people in millions (living on
$1.25/day) ( WB 2009 data)
http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-onpoverty/statistics-on-poverty-in-india/