Introduction to 'Women Workers in Industrialising Asia: Costed, Not Valued'

Abstract

This book attempts to break new ground by focusing on issues that have been little documented in studies of women workers in Asia, and provides new information and insights on labour systems associated with labour-intensive export manufactures, and state-labour relations in a comparative context. First, the study examines women's employment in the manufacturing sector within the context of economic globalisation, state industrialisation policies and labour systems associated with the new international division of labour. Second, it considers women's increased participation in the paid workforce within the rapid social and economic development that took and is taking place in Asia. Third, the book approaches the changing participation of women in the labour force from an institutional and structural (non-economic) as well as an economic perspective by focusing on the following: changing economic structures and employment opportunities; demographic change and patterns of marriage and fertility; and changing attitudes toward female education and employment. Fourth, its focus on a wide range of countries at different stages of development and of differential size allows us to use cross-sectional data to illuminate common issues and think systematically about women's employment in industrialising Asia. Fifth, the focus on women in the manufacturing sector provides an operational milieu to undertake an analysis of their wages, and working conditions and health and safety issues affecting them. Sixth, the book aims to contribute to key theoretical debates about labour standards and provide cross-national data and information on labour rights and trade union organisation among women workers.