RETHINKING THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR THROUGH THE LENS OF GENDER AND CLASS DIFFERENCES: GARMENT INDUSTRY AND PRISON LABOUR

Abstract

This paper pays attention to the socio-economic aspect of the so-called “new
international division of labour” or “global value chains” from a gender perspective.
It analyses the garment industry and the prison labour known as “prison industrial
complex” as part of the structuring and the division of labour on a global scale. Drawing
from theories and research on global development, neo-marxist feminist theory,
as well as the current events taking place in the economy and labour market, this
work argues that the “new” international division of labour is unsustainable and
harmful for women around the world in particular and for all socially vulnerable categories
of people in general. At the same time, this paper presents the necessity for a
gender sensitive policy-making that takes into account the specific context which
both women and men are situated in, as well as the specific gendered effects emerging
from the socio-economic politics of global development.