'DARK SIDE' OF INVESTMENT Globalisation has some negative impact on women By Soh Wen Lin
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/money/story/0,4386,173202,00.html?
LOWERING trade barriers may lead to higher incomes in developing countries such as when multinational companies set up factories and create jobs in South-east Asia.
But there may be a human cost. News archives show a string of stories over the last decade where factory workers - mostly women - in Asian sweatshops such as those in Thailand and China, die from fires because they are locked in the factories, apparently to prevent pilfering.
'These women's incomes increased, but at a very high cost,' said Ms Nancy Spence, director of the social transformation programmes division of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat.
She was presenting her report 'Impact of WTO agreements on women' at a roundtable discussion organised by the Commonwealth Business Women's Network (CBWN). Such tragedies show some of the indirect results of globalisation on women, especially in developing countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
These gender issues, however, are often not reflected in World Trade Organisation (WTO) figures because trade policies are traditionally treated as gender-neutral issues, said Ms Spence.
She also cited the example of government services companies being privatised due to WTO-led market deregulation.
Here, the effect on women can be two-fold since women in developing countries are often targeted for retrenchments before men, and because women would then also have to manage their households needs with a smaller income.
'We're not saying don't carry on with the WTO, but we should find ways to make them more aware of gender implications in trade agreements,' said Ms Spence.
Increasing the representation of women in the WTO process is one way to raise awareness, said Ministry of Trade and Industry negotiator Mary Elizabeth Chelliah in her personal capacity.
She noted that while women accounted for 90 per cent of Singapore's trade negotiating team, which showed progressiveness, the 10 per cent of the team who were men were those in charge.
And perhaps meeting among self-organised groups such as the CBWN might have some effect, said CBWN chairman and local retail doyen Jannie Tay.
Indeed, the meeting left the sole man at the event challenging his past assumptions.
'I tend to think that trade policies need to be gender neutral so that they can pass at the multilateral level at the WTO,' said international trade consultant Julian Arkell. 'But meetings like this give a different perspective.' --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]