Topic 2: Women and Globalized Labour: Comparing Canada and DW (India and Mexico)

Why & how Canadian women workers are disadvantaged? Canadian neoliberal policies/practices legitimize the extraction of surplus from temps & low waged women workers Canada: Feminization of labour DW: Feminization of Poverty

Canada Neoliberal State Affluent society Relative poverty (Adult women below poverty line (1.22 mil.) 10.2% (2007) ty_2009_townson.pdf Capital extracts surplus from temp/low wage working women Issue: gender inequality in hiring, pay & job status Feminization of labour Poverty line: spend 55% on basics es/PDF-FactSheet-EndPoverty-Jan2013.pdf Periphery: DW Commodity chain Majority in DW are poor Absolute (human) poverty (% Women: India: > 50% *; Mexico (27 mil.) 28% Surplus extraction from most women (low or no wages) unpaid work at home, in agriculture and in unofficial sector Issue: chronic poverty – want basic needs Feminization of poverty *

Canada What is ‘Feminization of labour’? Women’s high labour force participation and employment rates There are now twice as many working women in Canada as there were thirty years ago. In 2006, almost 60% of all females over the age of 15 were in the paid work force, compared to the 68% of all male over age 15. Women holding greater % of insecure or temp jobs 70% of part-time workers and 66% of minimum wage earners are female (2009). EndPoverty-Jan2013.pdf

Periphery: Feminization of Poverty: Compared to men, women in DW experience: Higher incidence of poverty Greater depth/severity of poverty (i.e., extreme) More persistent/longer-term poverty Rising burden of poverty. Face more barriers to lifting themselves out of poverty Women-headed households are the ‘poorest of the poor’. Female household headship transmits poverty to children

Feminization of labour: Annual growth rate in labour force: OECD countries (1983 to 1992): 2.1% for econ. active women (men 0.8%). Table Female Labor Force Participation Rates by Country: 1980 to 2010 [In percent. Female labor force of all ages divided by female population 15–64 years old] Country years Canada percentage In the US, Canada and the Scandinavian countries, women now make up nearly half the active population (women’s activity rates > 70% in the core age groups).

Canada: Certain sectors are feminized Clothing and textile industries Women are vulnerable workers: Hiring: discrimination Work conditions: poor Migrant women -Dependent on a male breadwinner -Derived rights of settlement

Source: accessed Feb 24Source: accessed Feb 24, 07 Canadian Women in Poverty (Canadian Women's Foundation, 2004) : Of the world's 29 most developed countries, Canada has the 5 th largest wage gap between women and men full-time workers wage gap is due to the presence of children. Childcare ahead of career advancement diminish a woman’s financial status throughout her entire life. Women are paid less only in 3 other rich countries: Korea, Japan and Germany than in Canada source: accessed feb 2014http://

Canada: Poor women means poor children: % of lone mothers on paid employment raise a family on <$10/hour. Children make up 33% of people dependent on social assistance for survival. Low income children are more than twice as likely to have problems with vision, hearing, speech, mobility, dexterity, cognition and emotion. The infant mortality rate for the lowest income group in Canada is double that of the highest income group.

Statistics Canada's low-income cut-offs i.e, poverty: Poor spend most income on basic needs: Single mother & one child in Ontario: per month Income assistance before deductions: $957 Expenditure: Rent $675 Groceries $200 Remainder $82 (to pay for electricity, telephone, heat, laundry, transportation, school needs for her child, emergencies, aspirin, medicine) Statistics Canada, September 14, 2000

Statistics Canada’s Calculation of an after-tax low income cut-off Low income lines, accessed feb 2014

Household Work: Gender Differences for Home-Based Workers (Caragata: 2003) Work outside Home-based Canada of home work Type of Work Men Women Men Women Child care >15 hrs/wk 16% 25% 14% 40% Housework >15 hrs/wk 5% 16% 9% 41% Elder care 5–9 hrs/wk 3% 5% 13% 16% Source: Caragata (2003) based on data from Menzies (1998).

The economic crisis 2008 affected men and women differently in terms of unemployment rates in developed economies The difference between male and female unemployment rates in the same countries is calculated by subtracting the female unemployment rate from the male unemployment rate. From : the economic crisis resulted in increasing unemployment rates in all six countries, and the average increase was 1.9 %. In four out of the six countries gender gap in unemployment rate increased (Sept 2008). In particular in Canada and the United States, two countries where men’s unemployment rate rose faster than women’s. trends/documents/publication/wcms_ pdf

ILO (2010) Global Unemployment Trends -emp_elm/---trends/documents/publication/wcms_ pdf

Women in pov min Ending Poverty Starts With Women min Women in pov in Canada min

Periphery: DW A Report (2005): Women And The World Economy: Hope For The Future? < $2 a day: 50% of World Population. < $1 a day: 1.8 bil.of the above population. 70% of them are women. Women live (age) < 40yrs: 340 mil. in the world 35,000 children die/day of preventable causes. accessed 2006 Notes: 1. Microcredit: A Commercial Model for Poverty Reduction. 2. UNICEF. 3. Ibid 4. The World Bank. 5. IDB and CGAP.

Report (cont’d) Poor in DW in the informal sector: 50-60% of the workforce Women comprise the majority of this workforce 96% of India’s working women are in the informal sector. Women’s micro businesses rely on predatory moneylenders because of limited access to formal financial services Notes: 1. Microcredit: A Commercial Model for Poverty Reduction. 2. UNICEF. 3. Ibid 4. The World Bank. 5. IDB and CGAP.

Global women's unpaid work at home, in agriculture and in unofficial sector: unnoticed by statistics, estimated as a third of global GDP

Source: ILO. (2009). Global Employment Trends for Women March Global: Sectors Where Women Work: Change in 10 years

Periphery (DW): Women hired & fired - ‘flexible labour’ temporary and part-time women more ‘suitable’ ‘natural’ talent - dexterity and nimble fingers’ cheaper and manipulable endure monotonous tasks

Women Dominate Employment in Most Export Processing Zones 2007

Table 1. Increase of Female Headed households and Single mothers, and Poverty Rate in Mexico City % Total Female-Headed Households with Children and No Partner Percent below Poverty Female-Headed Households Male-Headed Households Heeju Shin (2006). Working and Living Arrangement of Single Mother Households and Social Support in Mexico. Center for Latin American Social Policy, Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin City, accessed Mar 1,

% Poor Single Woman-headed households: Mexico: 20 % (2002) (UN) (LAm) Ref: SYLVIA CHANT The ‘Feminisation of Poverty’ and the ‘Feminisation’ of Anti-Poverty Programmes: Room for Revision?Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, 165–197, February 2008 See also: Chant, Sylvia (1997) Women-headed households: poorest of the poor? Perspectives from Mexico, Costa Rica and the Philippines. IDS Bulletin, 28 (3). pp ISSN Wmn –mexico :

Latin American countries: female-male wage gap: 2008 Overall gender pay gap The average pay gap in a few countries Brazil 38.5% Mexico 36.1% Argentina 29% Paraguay 11%

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Periphery Women: World workforce 49.1% (2007) World's poor 70 % Women’s share of world household income % Work 60 to 90 hr/wk Provide 75% of healthcare Produce 75% of food (of the food consumed throughout Africa) ( Source: WID, 2000; ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_091102/lang--en/index.htm)

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South Asia (India), East Asia and Africa: Poor people in millions (living on $1.25/day) ( WB 2009 data) poverty/statistics-on-poverty-in-india/