Final Essay
Student Lee 
GlobalizationFemIssue.pptxGlobalization & Gender
Globalization
Global integration of national politics, economics and cultures
Facilitated by technological advances in communication and transport
The emergence of supranational governance organizations (e.g., UN system)
Coordination of a global economic market & global economic institutions (WTO, IMF & WB)
These institutions have directed & shaped the global economy since the
Cultural exchange marked by uneven distribution of ideas; disproportionate representation of western cultural norms via mass media
Economic Development Post WWII
Former colonies now emerge as independent nations
As the Cold War heats up, they’re caught between the US and Soviet Union
Colonial rule has left them poor & lacking infrastructure
Bretton Woods institutions prescribe western models of development as a fix
Development aid hinges on aligning with US
Loans are made by international finance to governments for infrastructure
Caught b/w US & Soviet Union: “new countries became the terrain upon which the ideological battles between the United States and the Soviet Union were played out” (Barker & Feiner 99).
Bretton Woods: “the processes of industrialization and modernization that characterized the West embodied inevitable and universal stages that the rest of the world had to pass through to develop” (ibid 103).
Globalization and Inequalities
Global inequalities are a legacy of colonial relations
An international division of labor
Failure of education & infrastructural development
Imposition of victorian patriarchal norms
National growth is not mirrored in household economic growth
Pervasive inequalities threaten long-term growth
When Victorian gender ideology was grafted onto existing traditional, patriar- chal social norms, gender inequalities in colonial societies were exacer- bated, worsening women’s social and economic status (Barker/Feiner 99).
Gender & Economic Development
1970s: Gender is recognized as crucial to development theories & practices
Global institutions provided women with opportunities to call for accountability in global governance
By the 1980s, the (WID) framework dominates policy
Uncritically assumes capitalism is a liberating force for women
Fails to challenge the devalued status of women’s work
The GAD framework challenges the WID framework
Women’s Organizing Within the UN
1946 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1952 Convention on the Political Rights of Women — first international instrument to recognize & protect political rights
1975 First Women’s World Conference — Mexico City
1975 - 85 the International Women’s Decade
1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
1980 Second Women’s World Conference — Copenhagen
1985 Third Women’s World Conference — Nairobi
1995 Fourth Women’s World Conference — Beijing — Platform for Action
What’s Messy About Feminism & Globalization?
The Politics of Location
Power imbalance & inequalities between women from global south & north
Recognition of how Western feminist ideals are appropriated by capitalism
Solidarity requires new ways models of organizing
Rhetoric of Western women as saviors marginalizes / victimizes women from global south
Inclusive activism & theory based in the lives of marginalized women (Mohanty 240)
The politics of possibility opened up by globalization
Globalization is not only dominating force in women’s lives
Transnational feminist links & solidarities have been forged through global institutions (e.g., UN World Conferences)
Feminists in the global north must check & acknowledge privilege — “the privilege of being connected to the most economically and militarily powerful nation in the world” (Okazawa-Rey 374)
“Northern feminists have participated in this kind of ‘universalising’ political discourse, and denied that modernisation shaped by non-western cultures might offer women more dignity, power, and respect. In this, they have made it easier for anti-feminist forces in the Third World to define feminism as a part of the Northern imperial project” (Brenner 27).
“The proper role of feminist organisations in the imperialist core countries is to support this local dialogue respectfully, and with resources” (Brenner 28).
