Economic Globalization Is Regarded as

Economic globalization is regarded as an economic reform activity in reaction to the deterioration of the Fordist method of bulk production as well as consumption that was initiated during the latter part of the 1960s or during the early part of the 1970s. (Byster; Smith, 1999) at present manufacturing process is extensively spread all over the country as well as across the world, though once it was greatly centralized in the U.S.

(Sassen-Koob, 1983) the garment industry, a significant manufacturing industry is usually considered to be a universal as also a footloose industry. The industry is more than hundred years old and its manufacture process has gone through numerous variations in the products it makes, technology being made use of, the presence of its clients as well as contenders, the regulatory situation within which it works, and the lifestyle of its employees as well as owners.

(Gold, 2004) Actually they were the first production industries to have an international presence and the widely dispersed of all industries in geographic terms across the world. The electronics industry is another major manufacturing industry which promotes the practical variations that is typical of globalization. Technological modifications made it probable to change the production procedures and to organize and manage the wide spread economic functions. (Knutsen; Knutsen, 2003) the electronics industry stimulates this potential force, which is the world's leading and rapidly developing manufacturing area.

(Byster; Smith, 1999) We shall first discuss about the advantages of women from the growth of the garment industry. Across the world, the development of garment manufacture for the purpose of export is a great source of employment and can be witnessed as a constructive step particularly in relation to job opportunities for women. (Corporate Watch, 2005) Dicken assessed that about 80% of the workers in the garment industry throughout the world are women.

(Firth, 2006) in the U.S., there are over 30,000 garment manufacturing units, which have over 800,000 manufacturing workers, of which a greater part are women workers. (Figueroa, 1996) in the garment industry there is a tendency to favor women employees, as they are inexpensive to hire, less interest to enter into unions, and tend to possess increased tolerance for the boring, repetitive job in assembly functions. Therefore women tend to have improved employment facilities with the development and expansion of the garment manufacturing industry.

(Safa, 1993) Flexible working hours are available for several women being employed in the garment manufacturing industry. In the U.S., Chinese women often enter the country legally with their families. The male partners of these women who enter the U.S. get employment in the Chinese restaurants and often work for daily income without any other benefits accrued. Women who find employment in the garment manufacturing industry make money to take care of their families and to attain health insurance benefits for their relevant families.

As the women workers find flexibility with regard to the working time, it allows them time for shopping, leave or takes their kids from school and function the daily house jobs during the daytime. They are in a position to do their job according to their available time, during evenings or weekends as their wages are based on the amount of garments that they manufacture.

These women who work into garment industry tend to join the social network that becomes a type of referral activity for the Chinese employers and this network also prepares and helps the women workers on the shop floor. (Bionaz; Chin, 2005) Views differ among women of various classes on the diverse meanings for their work and these views impact gender duties as well as responsibilities within the home, particularly in the developing countries.

The garment industry employs women from a variety of backgrounds because of the fact that they can be shaped into dedicated workers. Earnings tend to give power to certain single women. Married women require these jobs because the wages received from the garment manufacturing industry is necessary for household needs; even if this income is not sufficient for them to have an authority in their families.

(Ahmed, 2004) We shall now discuss the disadvantages of women from the growth of the garment industry Beneath the showy glittery exterior view of the New York's garment manufacturing industry is an unstable and cruel atmosphere wherein firms large as well as small depend on the immigrant employees, majority being women, working under severe situations to make both clothing as well as their living. It exposes a Dickensian world of uncontrolled capitalism. Its present condition shows an unexpected degree of stability continuing with its earlier types.

(Gold, 2004) as per researcher Mercedes Steedman the practice of gender inequality ordained women to second-rate status and substandard incomes. (Gail, 2000) The several companies operating in the garment manufacturing industry in order to continue to be viable minimize the amount being paid to the employees and women are the worst impacted by these lesser pay since they tend to have lesser pay in comparison to men and could readily be caught in a cycle of poverty as well as to work in unsafe working atmosphere.

Their prospects of upward mobility is less and they are employed using the short-term contracts or virtually with no contracts. (Safa, 1993) Oxfam's analysis reveals that less than half of the women in the garment manufacturing and exporting units in Bangladesh have an agreement, and the majority do not have any maternity benefits or health insurance benefits, even though 80% are afraid of being fired if they protest. The study also revealed that about 80 hours of overtime monthly on an overall average of was being worked with absolutely no salary slips.

Only an average of about 60% to 80% of the unpaid income was being obtained. For instance, in Bangladesh though in official records about 98% of women working in the garment manufacturing industry get income above the minimum level of pay, this minimum amount of pay has been fixed at the same level from the year 1994. Due to price hike this was about U.S. $33 in 1994 and only about U.S. $17 in the year 2004. There are also several firms that do not give even this lower pay.

(Corporate Watch, 2005) This has formed a state wherein garment industry women workers could be exactly considered as the working poor. On the basis of the 1996 estimates, a research analysis performed by Father Barr in Fiji reveals that about 46.8% of the full-time workers attained incomes that were less than the poverty line. Out of these about 67.9% were the women workers. Cawthorne has also analyzed that about 80% of the workers were women getting incomes that are less than the poverty line.

(Firth, 2006) Employers would like to employ workers who are not part of any unions, often threatening those who fight for their rights. Frequently combined with low levels of health as well as safety policy and working hours being long with recurring jobs in atmospheres could result in health hazards like stress, burnout, problems of respiration, joint aches, headaches, coughing, fever, vomiting. Workers are frequently made to work overtime without giving their wages due to them. As the work is untrained work, the workers are also in excess.

(Corporate Watch, 2005) Research often shows the inhuman working situations. A company, which has been severely being blamed, is Wal-Mart, which is the biggest retailer in the world. The most awful labor situation in the garment manufacturing industry in Guatemala is in the factories that manufacture garments for Wal-Mart. Also it is the main manufacturer in the area. (Mike, 2005) in the year 2004, the daily figures in Scotland examined the Chi Shing factory situated in Dongguan, China, which made lingerie for Tesco along with others.

It exposed the congested dormitories having refugees from the poor regions of northern China. The houses were the workers did their work were like that of a travel inn. (Corporate Watch, 2005) Another issue facing women workers working in the garment industry relates to accidents which occur at these factories. For example, in Bangladesh, ever since the year 1990 almost 300 employees have died and 2500 sustained injuries in factory fires.

During April 2005, a nine-floor building of Spectrum Shahriar garment factory situated in Palashbari came down at a night shift, with the workers being killed amounting to 61 people as also injuring another 84 workers. Two directors of the company were being rejected bail and were imprisoned during a court hearing which was held on May 8, 2005 wherein it was found that the factory had been built without prior planning consent.

There is yet problem which affects women garment industry workers and it relates to sexual harassment, which is widespread in the garment manufacturing industry. In spite of giving new openings, women's position in the garment industry is prone to misuse, which could lead to a gender hierarchy by means of disparity in salary and working situations. (Corporate Watch, 2005) Let us now move on to the Electronics Industry. We shall start with discussing the advantages of women from the growth of the Electronics Industry.

By means of automation, specialized works that were predominantly done by men in the manufacturing industries situated in the developed nations were diminished. Conversely, non-specialized jobs mainly in the electronic parts manufacturing industries, particularly the microchip, in which unskilled women in a number of developing nations find employment, became bigger. Thus, the electronic parts manufacturers, instead of investing in huge capital-based units, had favored to make use of manual workers based in nations wherein inexpensive, quiet, and for that reason mostly women workers was quickly accessible.

(Mitter; Rowbotham, 1995) Hence, women in Asia could get several jobs from the electronics manufacturing industry. Fresh high school passed out graduates from the tiny villages moved to the cities for jobs available in the semiconductor units. Usually the daughters of those villagers who were high-incomes, these young females, irritated by the absence of clerical as well as semi-skilled employment prospects in their villages, move to semiconductor units in the cities as their choice.

About 90% of the employees in the electronics manufacturing industry in America are females and approximately half of those workers are of Asia as well as Latin America, inclusive of those from Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Mexico and Azorean. And several of these women working in the California units are lone mothers who are their families main support as a result of the salary received from being employed in the electronics industry. (Grossman, 1980) The women almost learned all the various dimensions of the job.

They had become accustomed with men's talents and were able to feel secure that they could also repair a television or even produce a new one. Indeed, the women employed in the electronics manufacturing industry had become more confident of their selves. It was actually the job which had provided them with the assurance that they also competent, and also much better in comparison to the men. They are now confident that they could undertake any new skill or strategies that the company introduces.

They also had the confidence about having a permanent employment: many have got married after entering the job and some also children, but nobody wanted to leave their profession. Also for an easy shift from one commodity or procedures to that of another, the women employees had to work together in joint collaboration with the company.

It means that instead of being monotonous assemblers, the women employees were able to realize a vigorous partnership in the manufacture, and in fact were like a type of artisan, making use of their own abilities as also their ingenuity. (Mitter; Rowbotham, 1995) We shall now discuss the disadvantages of women from the growth of the Electronics Industry. Despite the benefits, women employed in the electronics manufacturing industry also have its own disadvantages.

Women employees in the electronics industry in East Asia as well as America had to face similar situations and troubles, inclusive of job risk, increased manufacturing stress, authoritarian type of discipline as also HR -- Human relations strategies intended to avoid employee coordination and unionism. The transnational semiconductor manufacturing companies in East Asia, huge U.S.

enterprises like National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and Motorola, Fairchild Camera, along with over other 30 firms situated in United States, Europe as also Japan have streamlined their activities into creating a whole set of processes to maneuver and manage the women workers employed in their units. The policies of the companies relating to employees presently involve coercive type of discipline with the most refined human relations methods.

The firms employ many methods to maintain low salary, even though it is estimated that several women employees in the electronics manufacturing industry provide significantly towards their families' earnings. In the Philippines as also Indonesia, the remuneration for women is low in comparison to the minimum salary for a period of 6 months, at which they are treated as trainees. Instead of giving sufficient salaries, firms make use of financial bonuses in order to employ stress on their women employees even when the training duration gets over.

(Grossman, 1980) Electronics industry has the benefit of having a hygienic, free from smokestack having fairly lesser problems relating to environment or that of occupational hazards. but, the modern high-technology production in the electronics industry makes use of several amounts of chemicals and is also considered as one of the really chemical-severe industries ever formed.

As the world competitiveness enhances as also the rate of change with regard to the electronics manufacturing industry rises, there evolve severe environmental hazards and the health of the women employees also gets affected, and the capacity to foresee and avoid issues decreases. The environmental inheritance of the electronics manufacturing industry disproves its clean image. The dim side of modern manufacturing exposes the impure drinking water facilities, defects in child birth, increased miscarriages of the women employees, as also increased cancer problem among women employees at old units.

(Byster; Smith, 1999) In the year 1981, chlorinated solvents let in to a subversive storage tank at the unit of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation located in South San Jose, California, were revealed to have leakages, polluting the groundwater along with the water for drinking. During the same year in 1981, the Los Paseos society witnessed a bunch of birth deficiencies.

It is not generally understood that the ultra-modern electronics manufacturing industry makes use of huge quantities of extremely poisonous items like hazardous gases, bulk gases, deionized water as also other chemicals, in the production of its commodities and greatly affects the natural resources to stimulate its world-wide enhancement and quickly altering commodity lines. Women employees have to make use of several hazardous chemicals and gases such as photoactive chemicals, caustic chlorinated substances, heavy metals, toxic gases, a mixture of acids, plastics, solvents and so on.

Women workers are prone to have health hazards all through the manufacturing process in the production of the chip material through the assembly as also the testing processes. (Byster; Smith, 1999) in Hong Kong, a majority of the electronics manufacturing women workers above the age of 25 years are known as 'Grandma' since they wear spectacles.

A research done by an international church group namely the Urban Industrial Mission in South Korea in the year 1975 concluded that of the women employees, who are employed at the microscopes, connecting super-fine wires to that of the wafer-thin chips, almost half were faced with problems of shortsightedness and another 19% had astigmatism. (Grossman, 1980) Microelectronics is regarded as light manufacturing and creates way for lesser damage when compared to the heavy producing industries.

but, health hazards are found at an increased rate among the electronics manufacturing women employees, predominantly in the semiconductor industry. This high rate of professional sickness in women is due to the extensive usage of toxic chemicals that could have chemical action and synergistic impacts.

Joseph LaDou, who is the director of the occupational and environmental medicine situated at San Francisco State University, and his friend the industrial hygiene specialist Timothy Rohm, have found that in California, contact with toxic materials is double the reason for professional sickness in electronics manufacturing women employees compared to other production industries. LaDou has also found that complete poisoning due to being exposed to toxic chemicals is 3-4 times more possible to prevail in electronics manufacturing women employees in comparison to women employees in other production industries.

(Byster; Smith, 1999) In the study of the probable reproductive impacts of the women's job in the electronics manufacturing industry, it can be observed that there are many prejudices which may arise due to the complex communication between women's work position, salary etc. (Michael, 2001) in the U.S., in a semiconductor-producing unit, women employees who are in the child-producing age group have faced high levels of miscarriages and are at present showing a shocking amount of reproductive cancers.

Two of the epidemiological studies carried out at units managed by IBM along with another chip producer, Digital Equipment Corporation, connected the miscarriages to employee contact to chemicals made use of in manufacturing, particularly ethylene-based glycol ethers. Similarly a third industry wide study supported by the Semiconductor Industry Association has found a connection among contact to ethylene-based glycol ether chemicals as also the increased levels of miscarriage. All over the world, similar problems are arising at ultra-modern centers.

For instance, a latest story in the Wall Street Journal revealed a cancer cluster across women automated workers at the National Semiconductor's plant situated in Silicon Glen, Scotland. (Byster; Smith, 1999) In the study of the probable reproductive impacts of women's job, it is essential to consider the several prejudices, that could prevail occur due to the complex relations between a woman's duty of taking care of a child, work position, salary and other features of her daily life.

Ultra-modern production has an unrecorded, but generally accepted, policy of employing an economical and passive workforce. Their conventional employing mantra has been small, female as well as foreign. In the Silicon Valley as also on other areas of the U.S. this has transformed into an increasingly stratified labor force having white men in ranks of authority and high levels of salaries and women and individuals of color having low status jobs and low skilled manufacturing jobs.

(Byster; Smith, 1999) Finally we shall now discuss the kinds of strategies to improve the situation of woman workers in global manufacturing. Some years back, several employers in the U.S. gave their female workers PPE that was intended to suit small men in order to enhance the condition of women employers in production industries.

The NIOSH analysts carried out discussions with 475 tradeswomen all over the country and inquired regarding their personal protective equipment - PPE and one women commented that they gave her gloves which were so huge, which prevented her from collecting anything. Women are not small men. Their body structure and arrangements are different. Though there is an enormous improvement in the accessibility of PPE produced to suit women, it does not mean that all workplace issues confronted by women are resolved.

Problems like low indoor air quality, exposure to chemical hazards along with disorders of the muscular-skeleton continue to be problems for women employees. (Smith, 2004) When women employers get a chance they could provide stress on management to abide by the labor regulations. When the customers refuse to purchase goods manufactured in unjust and gruesome situations, it injects stress on firms to enhance situations at their units. (Mike, 2005) the governments must allocate assets to improve the present labor regulations, especially concerning occupational protection.

It must raise the amount of labor inspectors and the number of uninformed inspections and increase inducements for inspectors as also women workers. Also, it should implement penalty for defiance with labor regulations. Funds must be allocated for reforming the present legislation and create new legislations where required. (Paul-Majumder; Begum, 2000) The poorly educated and the fresh women employees in the garment industry are not aware of the labor laws.

For instance the study of 1990 shows that several employers do not grant maternity leave, as women workers in the garment industry does not pose a requirement for it. It is necessary to carry out educational programs for the women employees in the garment industry so that laws can be imposed by means of standard demand. In the garment industry there must be technical improvement. But the results depict that female workers are fired out of the garment industry when technical development takes place.

Educating women employees can successfully resolve this issue. Also setting up training opportunities out of the unit could efficiently increase the educational foundation of the women garment workers' as currently only those women with less education enter the garment manufacturing industry. By giving secure stable, and low-cost services the gender inequality against.