Kabeer, Naila 
ORCID: 0000-0001-7769-9540
(2004)
Globalization, labor standards and women's rights: dilemmas of collective (in)action in an interdependent world.
Feminist Economics, 10 (1).
pp. 3-35.
ISSN 1354-5701
Abstract
This paper challenges the idea that a “social clause” to enforce global labor standards through international trade agreements serves the interests of women export workers in poor countries. Drawing on fieldwork in Bangladesh and empirical studies, the author argues that exploitative as these jobs appear to Western reformers, for many women workers in the South they represent genuine opportunities. Clearly, these women would wish to better their working conditions; yet having no social safety net, and knowing that jobs in the informal economy, their only alternative, offer far worse prospects, women cannot fight for better conditions. Moreover, global efforts to enforce labor standards through trade sanctions may lead to declining employment or to the transfer of jobs to the informal economy. Lacking measures that also address the conditions of workers in this informal economy, demands for “the social clause” will reinforce, and may exacerbate, social inequalities in the labor market.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfec20/current |
| Additional Information: | © 2004 Taylor & Francis |
| Divisions: | Gender Studies |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman |
| JEL classification: | I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I30 - General J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J8 - Labor Standards: National and International |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Sep 2013 08:38 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2024 22:49 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/53096 |
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