Table of content

1. Globalization: an introduction
2. Meaning and definition of globalization
3. Globalization: Its impacts
4. Empowerment of women and challenges: India
5. Impact on Employment of women
6. Impact on Employment of women: critical analysis
7. Some other negative impacts
8. Conclusion
9. Bibliography

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Globalization: An Introduction
Over the ages, women in India have faced the problems such as patriarchy and social
pressure; caste based discrimination and social restrictions; inadequate access to productive
resources; poverty; insufficient facilities for advancement; powerlessness and exclusion etc.
However, the new circumstances created by globalization are diverse, encompass all women
in the country and cover almost all aspects of their life.

Meaning and definition

Globalization (or globalisation) describes an ongoing process by which regional economies,
societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of
communication and trade.
The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration
of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct
investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. However, globalization
is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological,
sociocultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the transnational
circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation.
Globalization- the growing integration of economies and societies around the world- is
complex process that is variously affecting different regions, countries and areas and their
populations.

 To some, globalization is an inevitable, technologically driven process that is

increasing economic and political relations between people of different countries and
areas. For them, it is seen not only as a natural phenomenon, but also as something
good for the world.
 To others, there is a much deeper concern about the related challenges and possible
risks associated with the globalization process. It is widely perceived that the process
produces both "winners and losers".
In context to India, this implies opening up the economy to foreign direct investment by
providing facilities to foreign companies to invest in different fields of economic activity in
India, removing constraints and obstacles to the entry of MNCs in India, allowing Indian
companies to enter into foreign collaborations and also encouraging them to set up joint
ventures abroad; carrying out massive import liberalisation programs by switching over
from quantitative restrictions to tariffs and import duties, therefore globalization has been
identified with the policy reforms of 1991 in India.

Globalization: it’s Impact

Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as:
1. Industrial: Emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a
range of foreign products for consumers and companies. Particularly movement of
material and goods between and within national boundaries.
2. Financial: emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external
financing for borrowers.

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3. Economic: realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of
exchange of goods and capital, the interconnectedness of these markets, however
meant that an economic collapse in any one given country could not be contained.
Almost all notable worldwide IT companies are now present in India.
4. Health Policy: On the global scale, health becomes a commodity. In developing
nations under the demands of Structural Adjustment Programs, health systems are
fragmented and privatized. Global health policy makers have shifted during the
1990s from United Nations players to financial institutions. The result of this power
transition is an increase in privatization in the health sector. This privatization
fragments health policy by crowding it with many players with many private
interests. These fragmented policy players emphasize partnerships, specific
interventions to combat specific problems (as opposed to comprehensive health
strategies). Influenced by global trade and global economy, health policy is directed
by technological advances and innovative medical trade.
Global priorities, in this situation, are sometimes at odds with national priorities
where increased health infrastructure and basic primary care are of more value to the
public than privatized care for the wealthy
5. Political: some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world government
which regulates the relationships among governments and guarantees the rights
arising from social and economic globalization
6. Informational: increase in information flows between geographically remote
locations. Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of fibre optic
communications, satellites, and increased availability of telephone and Internet.
7. Competition: Survival in the new global business market calls for improved
productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide,
companies in various industries have to upgrade their products and use technology
skilfully in order to face increased competition.
8. Ecological: the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with
international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air
pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many
factories are built in developing countries with less environmental regulation,
globalism and free trade may increase pollution. On the other hand, economic
development historically required a "dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that
developing countries should not, via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their
standard of living. The construction of continental hotels is a major consequence of
globalization process in affiliation with tourism and travel industry, Dariush Grand
Hotel, Kish, Iran.
9. Cultural: growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of
consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to
increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new
technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". Some bemoan the
resulting consumerism and loss of languages.
10. Social: development of the system of non-governmental organisations as main
agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts.
11. Technical: Development of a Global Information System, global
telecommunications infrastructure and greater trans border data flow, using such
technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fibre optic cable,
and wireless telephones.
12. Legal/Ethical: The creation of the international criminal court and international
justice movements. This has led to Crime importation and raising awareness of

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 global crime-fighting efforts and cooperation. The emergence of Global
administrative law is also a positive feature.
13. Religious: The spread and increased interrelations of various religious groups, ideas,
and practices and their ideas of the meanings and values of particular spaces.

Empowerment of women and challenges: India

The experts on gender issues hold that women's advancement involves the process of
empowerment and define it as a process, by which women achieve increased control over
public decision making. The male domination of society and government are often seen for
the purpose of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women
The experts also inform that there are five levels of the women's empowerment framework,
namely-
i. welfare,
ii. access,
iii. conscientisation,
iv. mobilisation and
v. control.

I. Welfare means an improvement in socio-economic status, such as improved

nutritional status, shelter or income, which is the zero level of empowerment, where
women are the passive recipients of benefits that are 'given' from on high.
II. Access to resources and services stands for the first level of empowerment, since
women improve their own status, relative to men, by their own work and
organisation arising from increased access to resources and services.
III. Conscientisation is defined as the process, by which women collectively urge to act
to remove one or more of the discriminatory practices that impede their access to
resources. Here, women form groups to understand the underlying causes of their
problems and to identify strategies for action for gender equity.
IV. Mobilisation is the action level of empowerment by forging links with the larger
women's movement, to learn from the successes of women's similar strategic action
elsewhere and to connect with the wider struggle.
V. Control is the level of empowerment when women have taken action so that there is
gender equality in decisions making over access to resources, so that women achieve
direct control over their access to resources.
But one needs to understand that these five levels of women’s empowerment are not really a
linear progression but helical and circular along with being interconnected. The
empowerment occurs when women achieve increased control and participation in decision
making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-
economic status.
 The Constitution of India grants equality to women in various fields of life. Yet a
large number of women are either ill equipped or not in a position to propel
themselves out of their traditionally unsatisfactory socio-economic conditions. They
are poor, uneducated and insufficiently trained. They are often absorbed in the
struggle to sustain the family physically and emotionally and as a rule are
discouraged from taking interest in affairs outside home. Oppression and atrocities
on women are still rampant. Patriarchy continues to be embedded in the social

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 system in many parts of India, denying a majority of women the choice to decide on
how they live. The over-riding importance of community in a patriarchal sense
ensures that women rarely have an independent say in community issues.
 Female infanticide continues to be common. Statistics show that there is still a very
high preference for a male child in states like UP, MP, Punjab etc. The male to
female ratio is very high in these states. Domestic violence is also widespread and is
also associated with dowry. Leaving a meagre number of urban and sub-urban
women, Indian women are still crying for social justice.
 The discrepancy in the ideology and practice of the empowerment policy of women
in India constitutes its continued social, economic and social backwardness. Women
make up 52% of our country's population. Hence there can be no progress unless
their needs and interests are fully met. Empowerment would not hold any meaning
unless they are made strong, alert and aware of their equal status in the society.
Policies should be framed to bring them into the mainstream of society. It is
important to educate the women. The need of the hour is to improve female literacy
as education holds the key to development.
 Empowerment would become more relevant if women are educated, better informed
and can take rational decisions. It is also necessary to sensitize the other sex towards
women. It is important to usher in changes in societal attitudes and perceptions with
regard to the role of women in different spheres of life. Adjustments have to be made
in traditional gender specific performance of tasks. A woman needs to be physically
healthy so that she is able to take challenges of equality. But it is sadly lacking in a
majority of women especially in the rural areas. They have unequal access to basic
health resources and lack adequate counseling. The result is an increasing risk of
unwanted and early pregnancies, HIV infection and other sexually transmitted
diseases. The greatest challenge is to recognize the obstacles that stand in the way of
their right to good health. To be useful to the family, community and the society,
women must be provided with health care facilities.
 Most of the women work in agricultural sector either as workers, in household farms
or as wageworkers yet it is precisely livelihood in agriculture that has tended to
become more volatile and insecure in recent years and women cultivators have
therefore been negatively affected. The government's policies for alleviating poverty
have failed to produce any desirable results, as women do not receive appropriate
wages for their labour. There is also significant amount of unpaid or non-marketed
labour within the household.
 In recent years there have been explicit moves to increase women's political
participation. The Women's reservation policy bill is however a very successful story
as it has been finally passed by the parliament.
 In the Panchayati Raj system, however, women have been given representation as a
sign of political empowerment. There are many elected women representatives at the
village council level. However their power is restricted as it is the men who wield all
the authority. Their decisions are often over-ruled by the government machinery. It
is crucial to train and give real power to these women leaders so that they can
catalyst change in their villages regarding women. All this shows that the process of
gender equality and women's empowerment still has a long way to go and may even
have become more difficult in the recent years.
The main reason for the contradiction is that, targeted schemes tend to have only limited
impact when the basic thrust of development is not reaching an average woman, making her
life more fragile and vulnerable.

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To make a positive change basic infrastructure should be provided in every village and
city. To begin with, providing safe drinking water supply and better sanitation not only
directly improved the lives and health of women but also reduces their workload in terms of
provisioning and ensuring such facilities.
An access to affordable cooking fuel reduces the need to travel long distances in search of
fuel wood. Improved transport connecting villages with each other and with towns can also
directly improve living conditions as well as unpaid labour time spent in transporting
household items. It can also lead to access to a wider range of goods and services plus a
better access to health facilities. Expenditure on food subsidy and better provisions for
public distribution services directly affects the lives of women and girl children in terms of
adequate nutrition. There is a need to have women-friendly economic policies that can
enhance their social and economic position and make them self-reliant.
A clear vision is needed to remove the obstacles to the path of women's emancipation both
from the government and women themselves. Efforts should be directed towards all round
development of each and every section of Indian women by giving them their due share.

Globalization: Impact on Employment of women

The complex and contradictory impacts of globalization are notably marked in the situation
of women:

 In many countries in the ESCAP region, the global pursuit of profit has enhanced
employment opportunities for women, where previously they had not existed.
Employment has facilitated some degree of economic independence for many
women. This, in turn has generated the self-esteem that comes from such
independence.
 The migration of women in search of better employment opportunities has helped to
ease the problem of poverty in many cases and meet the labour needs of a number of
countries. More remittances are generated for the home economy and there is also a
greater possibility of technology transfer and enhanced skills formation.
 Globalization has also contributed to the creation of new associations of women and
the strengthening of their networks to offer mutual support and resources. The global
social movement of human rights, in affirming women's equality, have provided
women’s groups in the region with international standards to rise against adverse
national or local codes
Women have come together in local networks as well as networks of solidarity with
movements across the globe.
Narmada Bachao Andolan brings together women from all walks of life, in India
and outside, to fight against dominant models of development and culture. Women's
movements also mobilize worldwide support on issues of ecology and justice and
create a platform to promote women's shared knowledge and wisdom about
sustainable development.
 In several countries in the region, new information and communications technology
(ICT) have improved the access of women to health, microcredit and employment
opportunities. Access to ICT among rural women in recent years has been enabling
them to participate in economic development through entrepreneurship and small-
scale businesses.

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Globalization: Impact on employment of women-critical Analysis
However, globalization has reinforced many existing gender inequalities:

 The traditional sexual division of labour has been furthered through the addition of
new locations and forms of work (services industry, tourism, work in free trade and
export process zones). What remains constant is the low economic value accorded to
work performed primarily by women in conditions of exploitation, no job security
and violations of human rights.
 The shift to more knowledge intensive production has not uniformly impacted
women. New jobs have been created but women increasingly have to contend with
vulnerable forms of employment.
 One major impact of the recent financial crisis, an unintended impact of
globalization, was the rapid increase in unemployment as hundreds of small and
large firms across the region were forced to close their doors. Women were the first
workers to be laid off - both because the industries in which they predominate (e.g.
garments) were those most affected by the crisis and because women were less
unionized and therefore easier to sack. The unemployment situation was aggravated
by increasing numbers of returning migrant labourers, many of whom were women,
who were being expelled by countries which were experiencing their own
unemployment problems. Moreover, cuts in public social sector expenditure that
came in the aftermath of the crisis, brought even more hardships, especially for
women who have primary responsibility for care of the family.
Perhaps the most critical of the impacts of globalization on women is the worsening
situation of violence against women. One aspect of this deserves urgent attention -- the
trafficking of women and girls.

Some other Negative Impacts:

Globalization has increased the number of low paid, part time and exploitative jobs for
women. Increased prices due to open economy demand more cope up with changes from
women. With increasing nuclear families, the older women’s life has become pitiable,
sometimes spending their later days in old age homes and isolation. The feminization of
population has further aggravated this problem. Similarly, male migration from rural areas
to urban centers has put the women under triple burden of home making, farming and job in
rural sector. At the same time, migration of women for economic reasons has led to
increased exploitation including sexual exploitation and trafficking.

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Conclusion
Globalization offers women unprecedented opportunities, but equally new and unique
challenges. Gender inequality springs from many sources, and it is often difficult to
determine which forms of inequality are being eliminated by the effects of globalization,
and which are exacerbated. Work toward eliminating gender inequality in the framework
provided by the Beijing Platform for Action has created awareness, monitoring, and
alleviation of the externalities that the new global system creates for women.
Progress toward eliminating gender inequality in the future depends on finding and
embracing the occasions, mostly in the political and legal realm, where the global approach
strengthens women’s security and welfare, and fighting the issues, mostly in the economic
realm, where women are made worse off by the new global system

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Bibliography
 Websites referred
1. Women and Globalization
http://www.globalization101.org
Visited on 07/07/21
2. Effects of globalization on women in india
Effects of globalization on women in India - GKToday
Visited on 07/07/21
3. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190947
705.001.0001/oso-9780190947705-chapter-4
 Books referred
1. Social problems in India
By Ram Ahuja

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