Globalising poverty: The gender dimension to Job Losses, Casualisation and Poverty
Item
- Title
- Globalising poverty: The gender dimension to Job Losses, Casualisation and Poverty
- Creator
- NALEDI
- Date Issued
- Jun-00
- Description
- Despite the massive contribution women make around the world, they still fall into the category of the poorest and the most oppressed. Women have borne the brunt of the social costs of the changes in the world economy such as globalisation, increased international competition, structural adjustment and the deregulation of labour legislation. Massive technological advances have done little to benefit women around the world. In fact, in many instances it has actually increased their hardships. Multinational companies search the globe for areas that offer cheap labour and poor working conditions. Globally, women make up the bulk of the army of so-called “flexibleâ€, cheap workers sought after by employers anxious to increase their profits. It is women who are mostly to be found in sweatshops and who are least likely to be organised. In South Africa, there is already a significant trend of homeworking in the clothing sector and casuahsation in the retail and other sectors. And when they are organised into unions, women struggle to be recognised as leaders in those movements. With massive retrenchments in the South African economy, more and more women are being pushed out of the labour market. Women's unemployment rate is higher than men's world-wide. The spate of retrenchments and job losses in the last few years have been described as a “job loss bloodbathâ€. According to recent statistics 1 million jobs have been lost since 1994 - what does this say about GEAR'S employment record? The mining and construction industries have suffered the largest job losses in the South African economy. While the workforce in these industries is predominantly male, and mostly migrant labour, the impact on women and families in rural areas is high, given the extreme rates of unemployment and poverty and their reliance on remittances. The clothing, textile, leather and footwear industry, which is female-dominated, has also been hard hit by retrenchments - approximately 76 000 jobs have been lost since 1995.
- Format
- Language
- English
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167919
- Archive
- Cory Library for Humanitites Research
- Provenance
- The item is held at the Cory Library for Humanities Research, Rhodes University, on behalf of the Labour Research Service
- Extent
- 31 pages
- Rights
- National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI)
- Rights Holder
- National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI)
- Use/re-use
- The materials are made available explicitly for research and educational purposes. Any use of these materials must be cleared with the Labour Research Service.
- Item sets
- General Materials
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