Has neoliberalism impacted men and women differently?

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Question: Has neoliberalism impacted men and women differently?

Even though all citizens in most of countries have equality rights on paper, they need to do more much work to make also these equality rights a reality, for all people: men and women.

In this paper, I will try to analyze how the neoliberalism and also globalization affect citizenship and I will try to find answer for question how do neoliberalism affect women and men differently? My intention is to show how the neoliberal economics of globalization impairs citizens’ rights, particularly right of women.

The neoliberalism was the idea of Friedman, a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, from 1976.  Importance of this idea is free markets, increased privatization of the public sector, and deregulation of the labor market, and also fiscal responsibility. In this philosophy the role of the state is limited to guaranteeing private property rights and enforcing contracts between individuals (Starke, 2008: 12-14). Neoliberalism economic philosophy was ushered by Ronald Reagan in the USA and by Margaret Thatcher in the UK.

In general, the neoliberal philosophy can be thus broken down in state-market-employee relationships and the retrenchment of the welfare state, because both of these outcomes have increased household social risk. It is because, the first through the individual and second through the household unit.

 The state-market-employee relationships are no longer secured and protected. Now, the state has opted out of the market by deregulation and privatization of national industries at the same time as the flexibility businesses perceive as necessary to remain competitive in a fast-paced global economy has increased the level of market risk an employee assumes when entering into a labor contracts (Andersen, 1999:33-35).

In a European labor market Burgoon and Dekker (2010:11-15) found that part time and also temporary work increase labor market risk, also subjective employment and income insecurities. In some study Giesecke and Grob (2004 : 16-19) discover the existence of a wage penalty and also barrier to permanent, full-time employment present in temporary and fixed-term contracts.

In addition, for women, this increased risk diminishes the likelihood that she will choose childbearing over the labor market (Gash; 2008:9-11). Moreover, the decrease in wages that accompany the shift from industrial to service labor and also the rapidly expanding labor pool around the world have created higher levels of insecurity and yet inability to financially provide for a child. It is because, the woman has left the workplace, even if only temporarily. As some authors suggest (Gash; 2008:9-12) the mechanism by which the impact of these state-market-employee relationship changes can be measured is the aforementioned increased labor market risk.

It is important to stress, that “operationalizing” the labor market risk mechanism includes the increased risk that accompanies market liberalization, privatization, and deregulation. In addition, those risks occur with high levels of unemployment, part-time employment, contractual and self-employment, insufficient wages as well as the retrenchment of government in dealing with labor security and social insurance issues. It can be say, that countries which adopting and implementing a high degree of neoliberalism will be altering the state's contract with its citizens thereby changing the structure, security, and expectations with which people provide for themselves and their families.

Also it is important, to discuss what are women and men rights in neoliberalism philosophy? It is easy to explain, that the main gap between citizenship rights for men and women arises from disparities in social citizenship rights. Some authors suggest that this is because women benefit disproportionately from the social programs provided by the state, given their initial subordinate position (Trimble 2003: 115). Yet, her work is interesting to note because she is less critical of globalization than others, stating that, in general, economic restructuring has not increased the gap between male and female salaries.

Also, Brodie (1997:231-237) notes how, in some respects, gender can actually be less relevant under globalized neoliberal market citizenship. For instance, the feminization of labor, in which jobs have become more insecure, has made male and female work more similar in the public sphere.  Add, while men’s and women’s salaries have gotten closer, widening gaps have mostly occurred among classes and racial groups, allowing some women to exploit the labor of others. Moreover, as already discussed, neoliberal economic ideology explicitly rejects any relevance of gender. In addition, Brodie says that a neoliberal view like performativity which  provides no space for making citizenship claims on the basis of difference or structural inequality . Often, this point is discussed more thoroughly under political rights.

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A lot of authors say that the neoliberalism does fundamentally revolve around gender. Although it is a contradiction of the economic order’s rejection of the relevance of gender, much of global neoliberalism is founded on the subordination of what society equates with women for instance caregiving and selflessness, to male-centered concepts, like public sphere work and competition.

One of the most important point is to correctly understand what rights citizens have and should have. In this point it can be useful to use the Marshall influential theory (Brodie 1997:12-16). Marshall describes three components in the evolution of liberal-democratic citizenship rights. ...

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