WOMEN, INK. BOOKLINK #41

September 2004
by Alice Quinn

 

Welcome to Women, Ink. Booklink, the monthly e-mail update on what‚s new in the Women, Ink. collection, selected web sites, events of interest, and more… As always, we have additional resources, events of interest and websites related to the topic at hand listed after the book descriptions. We hope that this information supplements your research and adds value to the book information provided. Please visit our newly redesigned and user-friendly website at http://www.womenink.org to place your next order. See ordering information at bottom of page. *********************************************************************** Women, Globalization and Employment Chains of Fortune: Linking Women Producers and Workers with Global Markets Edited by Marilyn Carr Much has been written about the negative impact of globalization on the world‚s poor, and especially on women. But globalization also opens up new economic opportunities if poor women producers and workers are enabled to take advantage of them. This edited volume brings together six case studies which describe how women have been successfully integrated into Global Markets. These include: a cocoa cooperative of 45,000 producers in Ghana who are co-owners of a chocolate company in the UK; family-based cooperatives in Samoa which produce organic virgin coconut oil for export; small enterprises in Mozambique which are helping to regenerate the cashew processing and export industry; thousands of wage workers in global value chains which export deciduous fruits from South Africa; ready made garments from Bangladesh; and newly created call centres in India. Each case study is written by a team of international and national researchers and aims to present decision makers with c! oncrete examples which spread the gains of globlalization to poor working women through shifting the balance of access, power and returns within global value chains. September 2004. 217 pages. ISBN 0-85092-798-6. WE665 US$ 22.50     Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: A handbook for policy-makers and other stakeholders Martha Alter Chen, Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr In this book, the authors highlight the lack of attention to employment, and especially informal employment, in poverty reduction strategies and point to the links between being informally employed, being a woman or a man, and being poor. They do this within the context of major changes related to economic restructuring and liberalization and map out the impacts on different categories of informal producers and workers. The book draws widely on recent data and evidence of the global research policy network called Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) as well as the knowledge and experience of the grassroots organizations in the network. Liberally scattered with practical examples, it provides a convincing case for an increased emphasis on informal employment and gender in poverty reduction strategies, and sets out a strategic framework that offers guidelines for policy makers seeking to follow this approach. September 2004. 250 pages. ISBN 0-85092-797-8. WE666 US$ 24.95     Gender, Development and Trade (Oxfam Focus on Gender Series) Edited by Maree Keating Women all over the world are increasingly joining the bottom rungs of the global supply chain. Whether by picking fruit in Chile, processing cashews in Mozambique, sewing in China's Export Processing Zones, or providing biotech companies with indigenous knowledge in India, women's labor and skill is a crucial element of the scaling-up of globalized production processes. It can be argued that increased opportunities to join the cash economy are a positive development for women, whose additional income has the potential to increase both their status and the well-being of the family. But what are the hidden costs of new trade regimes, and do they outweigh the benefits? What do women stand to lose and how do trade agreements on intellectual property, movement of migrant labour, and agriculture potentially entrench overall poverty and women's over burdened gender role further? Women are finding ways to influence national and international trade policy agendas in developed countries and are linking globally at global forums such as Cancun. Contributors to this volume cover issues in countries including China, Botswana, Mozambique and Mexico and explore some of the many dimensions of gender and trade in local and cross-border enterprise, regional agreements and the WTO. November 2004. 96 pages. ISBN 0-85598-532-1. WE667 US$16.50     Trading Away Our Rights Women Working in Global Supply Chains Kate Raworth Globalization and trade have drawn millions of women in developing countries into paid work. Their labor is contributing to rising global prosperity and to the profits of some of the world‚s most powerful companies. But women workers are systematically being denied their fair share of the benefits from their labor. Failure to address this injustice will perpetuate a model of globalization that is failing poor people. This report reveals the double standards at the heart of the corporate practices that are emerging under globalization. Companies‚ demands for faster, more flexible, and cheaper production in their supply chains are undermining the very labor standards that they claim to be promoting. Women workers ˆ and their families ˆ pay the price. Many face insecure contracts, intense production pressure and intimidation in the workplace. Governments, competing to attract investment and boost exports, have too often exacerbated the problem. Instead of strengthening protection for labor rights, they have simply traded them away. May 2004. 112 pages. ISBN 0-85598-523-2 WE668 US$7.50 ************************************************************************ For those who are interested in gender, economics, trade, and globalization, we would like to recommend the following: Networks, Organizations, Associations Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global research and policy analysis network linked to the SEWA-inspired international movement of women in the informal economy. A major thrust of WIEGO‚s work is to mobilize credible research and statistics in support of the working poor˜especially women˜in the informal economy. WIEGO‚s work is also premised on the need for women workers to organize at local and international levels in order to respond effectively to the new opportunities˜and negative impacts˜associated with global trade and investment. For details on WIEGO‚s programme and worldwide affiliates, see www.wiego.org   The International Gender and Trade Network brings together gender advocates actively working to promote equitable, social, and sustainable trade using research, advocacy and economic literacy to address specific trade issues of the seven regions. For more information on the network (it has a bulletin and Occasional Paper series) as well as contact information for regional focal points in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, North America and Pacific, see: www.genderandtrade.net       International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), an international organization with some 600 members in 43 countries held its 13th Annual Conference August 5-7 at St. Hilda‚s College, Oxford, England. Themes for the conference included: Poverty and Gender, Engendering the Environment Debate, Gender and the Legacy of Empire. Gender Gaps in Property and Wealth, Governance and Institutions, Gender and Aging and Migration and Gender in the context of Globalization. For details on speakers, papers and panels, see: www.iaffe.org   The 2005 IAFFE conference will be held in Washington, D.C., June 17-19th. Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE) is a European network that monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE‚s 2003 annual meeting focused on Globalizing Women‚s Rights: Confronting unequal development between the UN rights framework and the WTO trade agreements. WIDE also has an active economic literacy programme of publications and training workshops that have the overall objective of empowering women in international policy debate to promote women‚s rights and gender equity (contact WIDE‚S Economic Literacy Project Coordinator Benedicte Allaert at ba.wide@xs4all.be). The section of WIDE‚s website on economic literacy is a rich resource of books, training materials, papers, and information on „who‚s doing what‰ in the field. To access this website, see: www.eurosur.org/wide       Journals, Reports, Curricula and Training Resources Feminist Economics: Journal of the International Association for Feminist Economics, provides an open forum for dialogue and debate about feminist economic perspectives with an aim of opening new areas of economic inquiry, fostering diverse voices and encouraging critical exchanges. An issue of the journal in 2004 is on Lone Mothers, while in 2005 a special issue is planned on Gender and Ageing. See www.iaffe.org Women in the Market: A Manual for Popular Economic Literacy, produced by WIDE, combines gender analysis and gender sensitivity with the essential principles and techniques of popular education training to develop a better understanding of the fundamental working of a market economy. For details and ordering information, see: www.eurosur.org/wide Gender-Specific Curricula and Training Resources on Globalization and Trade is a work in progress compiled by Carol Barton and Mariama Williams. This annotated bibliography drawn from virtually every world region includes hands-on curriculum or popular pamphlets for use in economic literacy training with an explicit gender-focus. This is one of the many excellent resources listed on the WIDE website, (see above). A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All is a 168-page report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, an ILO initiative, that is a systematic attempt to deal with the social dimensions of globalization. Although not gender-specific, gender is a cross-cutting issue appearing throughout. Noting that global unemployment has reached over 185 million people, the highest ever recorded figure, while the „informal economy‰ continues to grow, the report stresses that successful policies to respond to globalization need to start with local communities. The report goes on to emphasize local policies, including defending rights to voice, culture and identity, and building up local production capabilities that can hold their own in the global economy while respecting local aspirations and priorities. To further develop recommendations within the report into operational policies, the report proposes a series of multi-stakeholder Policy Development Dialogues to work on key issues including gender equality as an instrument for a more inclusive globalization. For a full copy of this report, see www.ilo.org/public/english/wcsdg/index.htm   For an excellent 4-page summary, see the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) Roundup #112, April 2004 available online: www.un-ngls.org        ** Women, Ink. empowers women worldwide with knowledge to transform communities**   ** Booklinks are made possible by funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) ** ORDERING INFORMATION All orders need to be prepaid by credit card (MasterCard/Visa), cheque (US dollars drawn on a US bank) or direct deposit into Women, Ink.‚s bank account (Chase Bank, New York #152012761). We don‚t advise e-mailing your credit card number for security reasons; instead, fax it to us at 212-661-2704 or order on-line at http://www.womenink.org.  Special shipping and handling rate for above titles only (please mention Booklink in your order): North America - US$5.00 for the first book, US$2.00 for each additional book; elsewhere - US$6.00 first, $3 each add‚l (surface). Contact us for rates for airmail or courier service. Women, Ink., 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA Yasna Uberoi, Programme Coordinator; Mary Wong, Sales Manager Tel: 212-687-8633 ext. 204, Fax: 212-661-2704, E-mail: wink@womenink.org Web site: http://www.womenink.org Women, Ink. 777 United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: 212-687-8633 ext. 204 Fax: 212-661-2704 E-mail: wink@womenink.org, Web site: http://www.womenink.org