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Essay on Empowering Women through Globalization
Globalization" refers to the free flow of capital and the removal of trade barriers between states, as well as to the accompanying cultural transformations and exchanges. The relationship between the globalization of capital and markets, on the one hand, and the globalization of culture, on the other, varies depending on the context. For present purposes, two generalizations usually hold: the former drives the latter, that is, the globalization of markets and capital fuels the globalization of culture including resistance to this globalization; and both forms of globalization are in constant flux and are, therefore, unpredictable.
Globalization is the "constant revolutionizing of production" and the "endless disturbance of all social conditions." It is "everlasting uncertainty." Everything "fixed and frozen" is "swept away" and "all that is solid melts into air." As these quotations from The Communist Manifesto, written 150 years ago, indicate, globalization is nothing new. In the 1320s, England, then a developing country, defaulted on loans to the Italian city state of Genoa. For most of Western history, capital has flowed freely. The end of the Cold War and developments in finance and technology combined to qualitatively change the game during the past ten years.
The failure of Soviet communism became the triumph of free market democracy, as formerly closed markets opened and capital poured in at a previously unimaginable rate. As a fund manager in Hong Kong observed, " it's no longer the real economy driving the financial markets, but the financial markets driving the real economy." In addition, the election of President Clinton in 1992 put a free market enthusiast in the White House.Globalization processes are shaped by power games under circumstances in which women as well as other subordinated groups have fewer resources and less power......
