Gender and Work in Global Value Chains
Capturing the Gains?

Explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.

Stephanie Barrientos (Author)

9781108492317, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 May 2019

328 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

'The most remarkable feature of this book is Barrientos' ability to command an extraordinarily rich material of case studies, experiences, analyses, and evidence to compare, and contrast complex development trajectories across the global economy, their gendered outcomes in the world of work, and implications for societal change. … the book shall be widely read by scholars and students of development studies, development economics, and all those interested in gendered political economy and supply chain capitalism.' Alessandra Mezzadri, Journal of Development Studies

This book focuses on the changing gender patterns of work in a global retail environment associated with the rise of contemporary retail and global sourcing. This has affected the working lives of hundreds of millions of workers in high-, middle- and low-income countries. The growth of contemporary retail has been driven by the commercialised production of many goods previously produced unpaid by women within the home. Sourcing is now largely undertaken through global value chains in low- or middle-income economies, using a 'cheap' feminised labour force to produce low-price goods. As women have been drawn into the labour force, households are increasingly dependent on the purchase of food and consumer goods, blurring the boundaries between paid and unpaid work. This book examines how gendered patterns of work have changed and explores the extent to which global retail opens up new channels to leverage more gender-equitable gains in sourcing countries.

List of tables
List of figures
List of abbreviations
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Retail shift and global sourcing
3. Gender patterns of work in global retail value chains
4. Global (re)production network analysis
5. Smallholder (dis)articulations: the cocoa–chocolate value chain
6. Mixed outcomes: downgrading and upgrading in African horticulture
7. Contested terrain: the limits of social compliance in Asian apparel
8. Upgrading strategies: innovation, skills and rights
9. Governance challenges: promoting gender-equitable value chains
10. Concluding reflections: future of work
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Service industries [KNS], Manufacturing industries [KND], Political economy [KCP], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], Labour economics [KCF], Microeconomics [KCC], Economics [KC]