1. Globalization and Gender
The 20th Century ends as the world moves towards a new era characterized by a globally
integrated economy, where decisions regarding production consumption and other aspects of
social relations increasingly include transnational dimensions. Forces of globalization are real
and their influences are felt everywhere. It entails free trade, free mobility of both financial and
real capital, and rapid diffusion of products, technologies, information and consumption patterns.
As indicated in the 1999 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, in the age of
globalization, Governments’ policy choices have shifted in favor of openness of trade and
financial flow. Policies calling for lighter regulation of industry, privatization of state-owned
enterprises and lower public spending have characterized the programs of governments around
the world. Liberalization policies coupled with technological advances in communications
accelerated the impact of economic integration, thus eroding conventional boundaries
particularly that of the national state. In many instances, governments proceeded with
deregulation without the introduction of new forms of regulation to ensure the observance of
social protection and provisioning of needs. This increased the risks of globalization for many
social groups. Recent studies such as UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report (1997) and the
UNDP’s Human Development Reports (1997 and 1999) suggest that economic growth fostered
by recent liberalization policies can be accompanied by increased inequality and a decline in
living standards. As the East Asian crisis has revealed, failures in financial markets can cause
severe dislocations in the real economy around the globe.
The Survey also points out that the cultural, political and social correlate of increasing
international integration has also been profound. Populations around the world are being
familiarized through economic exchanges and exposure to advertising, the media and tele-
communications, to a culture of instant gratification through material consumption. Additionally,
globalization is tied to momentous political changes of the present era such as the rise of identity
politics, transnational civil society, new forms of governance and universalization of human
rights.
