Women carry an unequal portion of the burden of the debt within households, because women, increasingly the heads of households, represent a disproportionate share of the world's poor, and of the world's low-wage workers, and must balance wage work with subsistence and domestic production. The various authors of the country studies posit that the effects of and reaction to debt adjustment and economic restructuring on each nation are varied and contingent. Bonacich, Edna et al., eds. Temple University Press, 1994. The apparel industry is in many ways an exemplary global industry.
Globalization is marked by several features, many of which structure the apparel industry.
Although certain places definitely serve as centers within the chain, power is unevenly located within the chain and countries and TNCs attempt to improve their position along the chain. Labor in these countries is also extremely low-waged and vulnerable, often mainly employing young women who are often displaced agricultural workers. In addition, the policies of influential international lending institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF often give the less developed countries no choice but to participate in global capitalist production. These kinds of changes in less developed countries encourage immigration of people who are dislocated by such practices and must emigrate for survival. The apparel industry is a particularly exemplary industry, fitting the profile outlined above.