Globalisation and Gender

Structures and Objectives of

the Lecture
Understand how processes of social
and economic change are impacting on
how we define Masculinity and
Femininity
To analyse the changing political
economy of reproduction of
reproduction and production (to link
these processes)
Section One: Construction of Gender
Section Two: Reconstruction of
Reproductive Economy
Section Three: Productive Economy
 Construction of Gender
One is not born a woman, one becomes
one.
The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir

Beauviour argues that throughout history

women constructed as deviant other
 It seems fairly uncontroversial to argue
that idea of being male or female has
little meaning outside social context
Within contemporary capitalism main
institutions shaping meanings market
(consumption), family and the religion
(or its legacies)
 In so far globalisation affects these
institutions it cannot but effect
perceptions of gender
Consumption: From the cradle to grave
patterns of consumption are gendered.
Colours of Children's Clothes: Pink and
Blue
 Young Children's Toys: Guns, Action
Man, Engineering.
Dolls ect

Older Children: Early Teen Magazines,

Fashion
Football, Gadgets, Pornography
 Adults: Friends, Sex in the City, Shoes etc

Cars, Gadgets etc

Through these acts of consumption we affirm

our gender. These acts simultaneously tell us
how to be a good man/ women.

Through these acts of consumption we affirm

our gender. These acts simultaneously tell us
how to be a good man/ women.
 Globalisation is important not because it
creates gendered patterns/norms of
consumption but because it changes
how these patterns and norms are
formed.
Historically different notions of gender
articulated in different milieu
 Global (ised) cultural production sees
concentration of processes of definition
in certain key sites of production.
Global media industries create
globalized norms of femininity and
masculinity.
 My example of what
it means to be male
when I was Frank
White (who also made
a big impression on
Biggie)
 Family: I think important in context of
globalisation is decline in nuclear family
(which I shall return to the second
section)

Religion: Even in post-religious

societies. Moral codes derived from
religions which prosobed gender roles
 Equally significant revival of radical
religion in context of revival of the
politics of being
 The Reproductive Economy
1995: Non-market work value was $15 trillion
($11 trillion womens labour)
Peterson argues that global capitalism can
only function because of subventions from
non-capitalist sector (allegory with world
systems theory)
Constant struggle to define to privatise and
socialise costs and sexual division of labour
within the reproductive economy (university
fees represent a privatisation of costs)
 Globalisation undermining primarily unit
of Fordist reproductive economy. The
Nuclear Family.
 Marriages per annum declined by
roughly 50% between 1972 and 2005
1 in 4 children are in lone parent
families
60% British adults are part of a couple
40% are not.
 Crisis in mode of regulating sexual
relationships and reproductive economy
My argument is love as a regulatory
mechanisms is in crisis
I define love as the idea that possible
to spend life with first person due in part
to emotional commitments.
 Product of a particular set of material
circumstances that no longer exist
(Fordism)
The new regime of accumulation is
incommensurate with permanence (the
image, flexible accumulation, consistent
change). Physical movement!
 Love is a destructive concept
(1) Always been gendered (dark side)
(2) More problematic now because it
retains value as a regulatory ideal but it
is a ideal without material supports
 We in a interregnum. Hopefully, a new
regime of regulation develops that
stresses realism and gender equality.
The crisis of love linked to a crisis in
fertility(1.7 UK). Also contradictory
demands of capital!
 Difficult to generalise regarding the impact of
changes in reproductive economy on gender
division of labour (although rise in one parent
family suggest exploitation of women getting
more intense)
It seems likely functions of reproduction
increasing be put in state/ market sectors
(see next section).
 Also immigrant replaces reproduction in
the core capitalist area!
 Productive Economy
Many key globalising industries are
highly feminised.
Tourism!
Female dominated employment. Also
selling country through images of
national Femininity.
Source of National Competitiveness!
Tourism and also sex industry
 Gender played a key role in global
restructuring
Third World Factory Girl
Construction of Norms of Productive Female
(Combine specific ideas of race, Femininity,
Global capital, Class): Docile, Capable of
Competitive Work, Nimble.
Norms limit progress for key females
 Transformation from Fordism to Post-
Fordism structured by pre-existing
social structures.
Leading to increasing diversity in the
economic experience of gender
Elite women and poor women
 Elite women may enjoy similar experience to
men because capacity to transfer
reproduction costs in poor (often foreign
employees). Transfer of activities from
household to the market
Although professional women tend to be
disproportional affected by state restructuring
(as concentrated in the state sector. USSR
women doctors)
 Poor Women: Skills frequently devalued
as natural. Bottom of the Post-Fordist
pile.
Also disproportionally effected by
informalisation
 Conclusion
Globalisation is effecting how we define
ourselves as Men and Women
It is also reshaping gender division of
labour (although in this it builds upon
existing social understandings)
 Gender constructs are critical to whole
process of restructuring
No real value in arguing globalisation is
good/bad for men/women as this
ignores other social divisions and
diversity of experiences.