Development and Gender-Linked Economic Inequality in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relations between development and gender disparities in labor market outcomes in the era of globalization. Within a cross-national comparative framework, the article examines the relations between development and globalization and three aspects of gender-linked disparities (women's labor force participation, gender occupational differentiation, and gender pay gap) at two time points: 1990 and 2015. The data reveal patterns in the relationship between development, globalization, and each dimension of gender inequality. First, development but not globalization tends to increase women's labor force participation. Second, development is likely to reduce gender occupational segregation. But the effect is indirect; it is transmitted via the increased number of economically active women. Third, less gender occupational segregation does not necessarily mean greater occupational equality; high female labor force participation is likely to reduce women's likelihood of employment in high-status professional and managerial occupations. Fourth, gender occupational inequality appears to be one of the sources of a country's gender pay gap; the pay disparity between men and women tends to be greater in countries where gender occupational inequality is high. A model that summarizes the complex relations among development, globalization, and the various dimensions of gender-linked economic activity and inequality is proposed and discussed.