LONG-TERM TRENDS IN THE WORLD-ECONOMY - THE GENDER DIMENSION

This paper considers the implications of long-term trends in the inter national economy for the relative employment and income of men and wom en in developed and developing countries. We find that, given a persis tent gender division of labor, mass unemployment in the North is due t o different forces operating on men and women. The rate of growth of m en's jobs has fallen because of deindustrialization, but men have not withdrawn from the labor force at a comparable rate. Women have been e ntering the labor force in feminized jobs at a faster rate than they h ave been created. In the South, women have largely taken traditionally feminized jobs in the labor-intensive, export-oriented growing manufa cturing sectors; in Latin America, entry has been largely in the servi ce sector. Men have been losing jobs in agriculture and domestic manuf acturing. The paper proposes that the optimal solution to the mass une mployment problem in the North, as well as in the South, and the appar ent competition for jobs between the North and the South and between m en and women lies in achieving a trend increase in the growth rate of OECD and world aggregate demand and output But such a trend rise in th e long-term rate of growth of demand would only be possible if there w ere new cooperative institutional arrangements within and between coun tries. In such arrangements women need to have an important, independe nt role.