Gender And Globalization In Latin America

Using a political economy of health, Gender, Globalization, and Health in a Latin American Context demonstrates how the development of health systems in Latin America was closely linked to men's participation in formal labor. This established an inherent male bias that continues to shape health services today. While economic liberalization has created new jobs that have been taken up mainly by women, these jobs fail to offer the same health entitlements. Author Jasmine Gideon explores the resultant tensions and gender inequalities, which have been further exacerbated in the context of health care commercialization.

Drawing from field research in Cameroon, Ghana, Vietnam, and the Amazon forests of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, this book explores the relationship between gender and land, revealing the workings of global capital and of people's responses to it. A central theme is the people's resistance to global forces, frequently through an insistence on the uniqueness of their livelihoods. For instance, in the Amazon, the focus is on the social movements that have emerged in the context of struggles over land rights concerning the extraction of Brazil nuts and babacu kernels in an increasingly globalised market. In Vietnam, the process of 'de-collectivising' rights to land is examined with a view to understand how gender and other social differences are reworked in a market economy. The book addresses a gap in the literature on land tenure and gender in developing countries. It raises new questions about the process of globalisation, particularly about who the actors are (local people, the state, NGOs, multinational companies) and the shifting relations amongst them. The book also challenges the very concepts of gender, land and globalization.

This book presents evidence of the evolution of the gender inequalities in Latin America during the twentieth century, using basic indicators of human development, namely education, health and the labour market. There are very few historical studies that centre on gender as the main analytical category in Latin America, so this book breaks new ground. Using case-studies from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay, the authors show that there is evidence of a correlation between economic growth and the decrease in gender inequality, but this process is also not linear. Although the activity rate of women was high at the beginning of the twentieth century, female participation in the labour market diminished, until the 1970s, when it began to increase dramatically. Since the 1970s, fertility reduction and education improvements and worsening labour market conditions are associated to the steadily increase of women participation in the labour market. By gauging the extent to which gender gaps in the formation of human capital, access to resources, quality of life and opportunities may have operated as a restriction on women’s capabilities and on economic growth in the region, this book demonstrates that Latin America has lagged behind in terms of gender equality.

From advertising to television and film, feminist media scholars have examined the changing nature of media representations form the 1990’s onwards in comparison to the 1950s in the UK and the US. Many debates focus on the current ambiguity surrounding media representations which are inserted within post-feminist texts that tend to equate female empowerment with choice, individualism and consumerism. This has occurred in a context where there have been some achievements in gender equality worldwide, with women occupying more spaces in the marketplace, business and government. In the last decades, Latin America has been through many changes. Inequality levels have been reduced and political trends have resulted in the election of female politicians throughout the continent, corresponding with a revival of gender politics and feminist movements. At the same time, however, countries like Brazil are still home to gender discrimination and inequality, with high levels of domestic violence towards women, low levels of political representation, a culture of machismo, and the enduring predominance of stereotypical gender representations in the media. Globalization, Gender Politics, and the Media looks at the correlation between gender inequality in society with media representations, situating the case of Brazil and Latin America within the global quest for gender justice. It emphasizes the need to equate material and economic concerns with the examination of the reproduction of values and beliefs on gender through cultural and media outlets. Questions that are asked include, how can the media better contribute to assist in gender development and nation-building? How can online platforms make a difference? What can be done within the mainstream media to advance women’s rights? What is understood by the myth of the “Brazilian woman,” and how does this connect to other notions of what the “Third World woman” is? Using a triangulation methodology, this book includes a small selection of interviews with experts from international organizations, politicians in Brazil, and bloggers, as well as a sample of media analysis of ads, commercials, posters, campaign material, and feminist blogs to examine the challenges that gender equality faces in this country and the ways in which the media can make a difference.

Women's Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean brings together a group of interdisciplinary scholars who analyze and document the diversity, vibrancy, and effectiveness of women's experiences and organizing in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past four decades. Most of the expressions of collective agency are analyzed in this book within the context of the neoliberal model of globalization that has seriously affected most Latin American and Caribbean women's lives in multiple ways. Contributors explore the emergence of the area's feminist movement, dictatorships of the 1970s, the Central American uprisings, the urban, grassroots organizing for better living conditions, and finally, the turn toward public policy and formal political involvement and the alternative globalization movement. Geared toward bridging cultural realities, this volume represents women's transformations, challenges, and hopes, while considering the analytical tools needed to dissect the realities, understand the alternatives, and promote gender democracy.

Restructured to offer a more thematic approach Designed to be more student friendly, with new features including chapter summaries, a glossary of Spanish phrases and acronyms All the chapters have been substantially revised and a new chapter on livelihoods and place, as well as a concluding chapter, have been added. All the chapters have been substantially revised and a new chapter on livlihoods and place, as well as a concluding chapter, have been added.