The process of globalization has had a dramatic impact on the lives of women in developing countries in the past decade. They have been increasingly drawn into insecure flexible employment working for the world market. The feminisation of the labour market has increased the burdens on women, and the inability of men to access full-time well-remunerated employment has exacerbated the process of male out-migration and has left many families headed by women. At the same time the reduction in state services and welfare has increased the burdens placed on women. Nevertheless the consequences of globalization have been different for different women in different places. In some circumstances it has created opportunities for greater empowerment, whilst in others it has stimulated a reaction and increased the subordination of women. This book explores the experiences of women in diverse local contexts within different cultures and faiths, drawing on case studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America. It draws out the contradictory and fragmented impact of globalization at the local level on the lives of women in the developing world.

Provides a new approach towards understanding the process of globalisation and fragmentation of experiences of women and processes of work and political participationAddresses the difficulties experience by women in these two contexts and offer insights into the daily experience of women in diverse regions faced with similar overall global policies

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction Women, Globalisation and Fragmentation; H. Afshar and S. Barrientos Fractioned States and Negotiated Boundaries: Gender and Law in India; S. Rai Right-Wing Mobilisation of Women in India: Hindutva's Willing Performers; J. Phalkey The Impact of Global and the Reconstruction of Local - Islamic Ideology and Assessment of its Role in Shaping Feminist Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran; H. Afshar The Informal Sector and the Conservative Consensus: A Case of Fragmentation in Egypt; N. El-Mikawy Women-Headed Households: Global Orthodoxies and Grassroots Realities; S. Chant Women, Industrialisation and Environment in Indonesia; I. Smyth Gender and the Global Food Chain: A Comparative Study of Chile and the UK; S. Barrientos and D. Perrons Women's Work in Changing Labour Markets: The Case of Thailand in the 1980s; R. Kurian Health Education for Women as a Liberatory Process? An Example From Tajikstan; C. Harris Why Rural Technologies Fail to Meet the Needs of Nigerian Women: Evidence From a Hausa Women's Group in Kano State; S. Tarfa