Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some... more Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some of the salient issues raised in that debate by looking more speci®cally at how women's incorporation into the export-oriented manufacturing sector has been interpreted by neo-classical, institutionalist and feminist writers. The neo-classical position, represented by the World Bank, remains strongly prescriptive but relatively weak in its analysis of the dynamics of female employment (i.e. its causes and implications) and the gendered nature of labour markets. There has been a much more constructive dialogue between institutionalist and feminist writers. The latter have emphasized the gendered nature of the labour contract, the signi®cance of looking beyond the boss/ worker dyad (i.e. at the conjugal/familial sphere) and the importance of listening to women workers' subjective assessments of their work and its meanings. At the more practical level, while improving the conditions of work remains an important agenda item, for the labour-surplus developing countries the question of numbers (of jobs) may arguably take priority. It is thus important to avoid strategies which may impose a quantity±quality trade-o. As such it may be useful to explore broad-based social policies and redistributive measures that can ensure a higher standard of living for the workers without jeopardizing their jobs.
Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some... more Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some of the salient issues raised in that debate by looking more speci®cally at how women's incorporation into the export-oriented manufacturing sector has been interpreted by neo-classical, institutionalist and feminist writers. The neo-classical position, represented by the World Bank, remains strongly prescriptive but relatively weak in its analysis of the dynamics of female employment (i.e. its causes and implications) and the gendered nature of labour markets. There has been a much more constructive dialogue between institutionalist and feminist writers. The latter have emphasized the gendered nature of the labour contract, the signi®cance of looking beyond the boss/ worker dyad (i.e. at the conjugal/familial sphere) and the importance of listening to women workers' subjective assessments of their work and its meanings. At the more practical level, while improving the conditions of work remains an important agenda item, for the labour-surplus developing countries the question of numbers (of jobs) may arguably take priority. It is thus important to avoid strategies which may impose a quantity±quality trade-o. As such it may be useful to explore broad-based social policies and redistributive measures that can ensure a higher standard of living for the workers without jeopardizing their jobs.
Over the past thirty odd years, the analysis of agrarian social relations, institutions, and move... more Over the past thirty odd years, the analysis of agrarian social relations, institutions, and movements has benefited from the insights offered by feminist scholars whose intellectual project has been to bring into the political economy of agrarian change the pervasiveness of gender relations and their interconnections with broader processes of social change. The implications of this re-thinking are potentially radical. Gender analysis has interrogated some of the dominant orthodoxies in agrarian studies: in conceptualising households and their connections to broader economic and political structures; in deepening the analysis of rural markets as social and political constructions with highly unequalising tendencies; and in better understanding both the role and the limitations of different institutional arrangements (involving states, markets, and 'communities') for the management of local resources. However, the complexities of this research have been sanitised and distorted by neoclassical economists and powerful development organisations that speak the same language, as well as by some advocates keen to get their messages heard as they push for policy change, or alternatively ignored and sidelined by some of the political economists of agrarian change. In this paper I attempt to show some of the key contributions of feminist scholarship to agrarian studies, the extent to which these have been taken up by mainstream debates -whether neoclassical or political economy -and where there is scope for more empirical and theoretical work.
Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some... more Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some of the salient issues raised in that debate by looking more speci®cally at how women's incorporation into the export-oriented manufacturing sector has been interpreted by neo-classical, institutionalist and feminist writers. The neo-classical position, represented by the World Bank, remains strongly prescriptive but relatively weak in its analysis of the dynamics of female employment (i.e. its causes and implications) and the gendered nature of labour markets. There has been a much more constructive dialogue between institutionalist and feminist writers. The latter have emphasized the gendered nature of the labour contract, the signi®cance of looking beyond the boss/ worker dyad (i.e. at the conjugal/familial sphere) and the importance of listening to women workers' subjective assessments of their work and its meanings. At the more practical level, while improving the conditions of work remains an important agenda item, for the labour-surplus developing countries the question of numbers (of jobs) may arguably take priority. It is thus important to avoid strategies which may impose a quantity±quality trade-o. As such it may be useful to explore broad-based social policies and redistributive measures that can ensure a higher standard of living for the workers without jeopardizing their jobs.
Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some... more Recent discussions on the`social clause' have opened up a pandora's box. This article probes some of the salient issues raised in that debate by looking more speci®cally at how women's incorporation into the export-oriented manufacturing sector has been interpreted by neo-classical, institutionalist and feminist writers. The neo-classical position, represented by the World Bank, remains strongly prescriptive but relatively weak in its analysis of the dynamics of female employment (i.e. its causes and implications) and the gendered nature of labour markets. There has been a much more constructive dialogue between institutionalist and feminist writers. The latter have emphasized the gendered nature of the labour contract, the signi®cance of looking beyond the boss/ worker dyad (i.e. at the conjugal/familial sphere) and the importance of listening to women workers' subjective assessments of their work and its meanings. At the more practical level, while improving the conditions of work remains an important agenda item, for the labour-surplus developing countries the question of numbers (of jobs) may arguably take priority. It is thus important to avoid strategies which may impose a quantity±quality trade-o. As such it may be useful to explore broad-based social policies and redistributive measures that can ensure a higher standard of living for the workers without jeopardizing their jobs.
Over the past thirty odd years, the analysis of agrarian social relations, institutions, and move... more Over the past thirty odd years, the analysis of agrarian social relations, institutions, and movements has benefited from the insights offered by feminist scholars whose intellectual project has been to bring into the political economy of agrarian change the pervasiveness of gender relations and their interconnections with broader processes of social change. The implications of this re-thinking are potentially radical. Gender analysis has interrogated some of the dominant orthodoxies in agrarian studies: in conceptualising households and their connections to broader economic and political structures; in deepening the analysis of rural markets as social and political constructions with highly unequalising tendencies; and in better understanding both the role and the limitations of different institutional arrangements (involving states, markets, and 'communities') for the management of local resources. However, the complexities of this research have been sanitised and distorted by neoclassical economists and powerful development organisations that speak the same language, as well as by some advocates keen to get their messages heard as they push for policy change, or alternatively ignored and sidelined by some of the political economists of agrarian change. In this paper I attempt to show some of the key contributions of feminist scholarship to agrarian studies, the extent to which these have been taken up by mainstream debates -whether neoclassical or political economy -and where there is scope for more empirical and theoretical work.
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