ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses economic development, women’s work, and gender inequalities, with illustrations from China and Cambodia. Using a feminist economics lens, attention is given to both paid and unpaid domestic and care work and gender inequalities in work are analysed in terms of gender structures which privilege people with a male identity. Economic development is associated with increased women’s labourforce participation; however, gender inequality in participation and treatment persists for many women, undermining opportunities for economic empowerment. Women’s greater burden of unpaid work, made more visible through time use survey data, endures and accentuates gender inequalities in paid work. Structural change, globalisation, neoliberal development strategies, and now climate change underpin migration patterns and trends which are strongly gendered in motivation, participation, and treatment. Achieving gender equality at work and more generally, improvements in the well-being for women and marginalised groups requires the enforcement of human rights principles in paid work and a shift from market-oriented growth strategies toward greater attention to unpaid work and the caring economy.
