Resumen de Gender and migration in China: feminisation trends
Gender and migration in China should be looked at against the background of globalisation processes and women’s work in the Asia-Pacific region. Whereas industrialisation has drawn women from subsistence and low-productivity agriculture into the high productivity labour market (first concentrating in manufacturing, then more and more in the service sector), globalisation is characterised by the advancement of information technology and the emergence of new categories of jobs. As globalisation advances, manufacturing jobs are shifting more and more to less developed parts of the world. In this process, manufacturing declined in significance in Japan, and Korea, and gradually lost its leading position in providing employment for women. In contrast, it rose to the first position in Malaysia, and maintained its position in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and China. Similar to the world-wide pattern, women in the Asia-Pacific region continue to be under-represented in the more prestigious and well-paid occupations, and over-represented in the lower status and less well-paid ones. Flexibility, as a central component of the globalisation process, has thus intensified labour exploitation, but has also been found to lead to women worker’s empowerment and self-enhancement if sufficient training in the new technologies is provided (Cheng, 1999, p. 217).
