page_title: Gender and development
section_title: Gender and Outsourcing
hierarchical_section_title: Gender and development / Neoliberal approaches / Gender and Outsourcing
caption_attribution_description: English: This graph by the ILO shows the wages of third world countries garment workers
context_page_description: Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based upon their location, gender, class background, and other socio-political identities. A strictly economic approach to development views a country's development in quantitative terms such as job creation, inflation control, and high employment – all of which aim to improve the ‘economic wellbeing’ of a country and the subsequent quality of life for its people. In terms of economic development, quality of life is defined as access to necessary rights and resources including but not limited to quality education, medical facilities, affordable housing, clean environments, and low crime rate. Gender and development considers many of these same factors; however, gender and development emphasizes efforts towards understanding how multifaceted these issues are in the entangled context of culture, government, and globalization.
context_section_description: One of the features of development encouraged in neoliberal approaches is outsourcing. Outsourcing is when companies from the western world moves some of their business to another country. The reasons these companies make the decision to move is often because of cheap labor costs. Although outsourcing is about businesses it is directly related to gender because it has greatly affected women. The reason it is related to gender is that women are mainly the people that are being hired for these cheap labor jobs and why they are being hired.
  One example of a popular place for factories to relocate is to China. In China the main people who work in these factories are women, these women move from their home towns to cities far away for the factory jobs. The reasons these women move is to be able to make a wage to take care of not only themselves but their families as well. Oftentimes these women are expected to get these jobs.
  Another example of a country the garment industry outsources work to is Bangladesh, which has one of the lowest costs of labor compared to other third world countries (see the ILO data provided in figure 1).  With low labor costs, there is also poor compliance with labor standards in the factories.  The factory workers in Bangladesh can experience several types of violations of their rights.  These violations include: long working hours with no choice but to work overtime, deductions to wages, as well as dangerous and unsanitary working conditions.
  Although the discussions made around outsourcing do not often involve the effects on women, women daily endure constant results from it. Women in countries and areas that may not have been able to work and make their own income now have the opportunity to provide for themselves and their kids. Gender is brought to attention because unemployment is sometimes a threat to women. The reason for it being a threat is because without jobs and their own income women may fall victim to discrimination or abuse. It is very valuable to many women to be able to obtain their own source of income, outsourcing allows women in countries that may not easily obtain a job the opportunity to obtain jobs. Many times factory owners discuss how many women want the jobs they have to offer.
  With the availability of jobs and the seeming benefits comes a concern for the work conditions in these outsourced jobs. Although some women have acquired a job the work conditions may not be safe or ideal. As mentioned above the jobs are in extreme demand because of how limited opportunities for employment is in certain regions. This leads to the idea of women being disposable at the workplace. As a result of this the workers in these factories do not have room to complain. They also are not able to expect safe working conditions in their work environments. Women have to move far from their hometowns and families to work at these factory jobs. The hours are long and because they are not home they typically also move into dormitories and live at their jobs.
caption: Figure 1
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