GLOBALISATION AND THE NEO-LIBERAL OFFENSIVE/25paid to men. Some industrialised countries have even fallen way back
in the human development classification. Canada, for example,
dropped from first to ninth place; Luxembourg fell 12 places; Holland
16; Spain 26 (UNDP, 1995). Predominantly female professions are
undervalued (healthcare, teaching). As far as the social safety net is
concerned (unemployment insurance, for example), women were
the first to be excluded by austerity packages as 'live-ins' and long-
term unemployed. They are herded into jobs where wages are much
lower, such as in free market zones. In Mexico's maquiladoras, for
example, women's wages have plunged from 80 per cent to only 5 7
per cent of those of male workers. The fact that women work for a
pittance in such zones and in the informal sector is glorified by free
marketeers, starry-eyed over the absence of 'paralysing' state
regulations.
Official studies in the Chinese countryside carried out in 19 8 8 and
1989 reveal that women earn 20 per cent less than men. Private
firms in the cities pay women on average 5 6 per cent of a man's wage.
Women's right to work is impeded by a multitude of government
measures. Women, of course, have the 'option' of part-time work,
which could be anything from half-time down to a 'zero-hour'
contract in which the worker is at the employer's beck and call to
work from zero up to any number of hours. And this, in spite of the
fact that every opinion poll has shown that a majority of women
workers would like to work full-time. Cutbacks in funding for services
such as nurseries and daycare centres, and the privatisation of other
services like retirement homes dramatically increase the number of
obstacles for women that want to work full-time. 'Equality at work'
has been applied negatively to bring back night-shifts for women.
This is unacceptable as a point of principle and extremely difficult for
women in any case given their family responsibilities.
In the Third World, the World Bank - with the help of a number of
NGOs - finances a host of women's organisations and cooperatives.
It has decided all of a sudden that women are the key to development.
Although the World Bank is clearly trying to boost its public image,
it is only laying the groundwork for future misfortune. Take the
example of women-run tomato cooperatives in Senegal. They worked
very well until the day an Italian multinational decided to take over
the Senegalese market, crushing the defenceless cooperatives with
their competition and lower prices. The NGO concerned packed up