Question

How has neoliberalism impacted women’s lives across the globe? In answering the question, define the concept of neoliberalism and describe important changes that different groups of women face due to neoliberalism in at least three different countries.

Answer 1

How do feminists understand globalization?

1 Answer

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Natalia Ralph, A feminine feminist with a B.A. in Women's and Gender Studies

Answered July 7, 2016·Author has222answers and746.7Kanswer views

First let’s define globalization and its key characteristics. I studied economic globalization for my feminist theory degree in college, so I’m going to focus on economics in particular (though globalization can also refer to the increasing movement of ideas and culture.) Economic globalization is the phenomenon of the changing international economy due to improvements in communication technologies, increasing mobility of capital across geographic borders, and the rise of transnational corporations. Neoliberalism, transnational corporations, and intergovernmental organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund all play an important role in understanding economic globalization and its gendered effects. Neoliberalism is an economic and political philosophy that posits that free-market capitalism, an approach rooted in laissez-faire economics, is the system that will bring the most amount of good to the largest amount of people. It relies on deregulation, privatization, and a limited role of government. These circumstances are optimal for the success of transnational corporations (TNCs), which are companies that conduct business in multiple countries. Organizations that operate globally, and across the governments of nation-states, are called intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The World Bank, which was created after World War II to help in development and now specializes in giving loans to developing countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provides loans and monitors global trade, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), which regulates international trade policies, are central to the facilitation of economic globalization. Now, on to what all this has to do with feminism.

Backed by a neoliberal philosophy rooted in free-markets and deregulation, economic globalization is highly dependent on both the sexual division of and the feminization of labor. As a result women are often forced into jobs associated with domesticity, such as caretaking, garment making, and other types of service [1]. This “sex segregation” of labor provides, unsurprisingly, a way to exploit women. Indeed,