Papers by Karin A. Siegmann
Minding the gap between activism and academia – or bridging it?
ISS Staff Group 3: Human Resources and Local Development, 2005
The government has realized that textile and clothing sector is one sector that offers good prosp... more The government has realized that textile and clothing sector is one sector that offers good prospects for diversification away from traditional commodity exports, for entry into the area of manufacturers, for absorption of large pools of manpower, for crossing the big divide between the rural and urban sectors, for poverty alleviation, and for gender empowerment (Ministry of Finance, 2003, emphasis added). nder the 1995 Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), the U textile import quotas permitted by the 1974 Multi-fibre Arrangement (MFA) were phased out over a ten-year period. In January 2005, any remaining quotas on imports of textiles and clothing were scrapped, thereby liberalizing global trade in these products. 1 The textile and clothing industry is Pakistan's main export engine, accounting for more than two-thirds of its exports. And the economic implications of the expiry of the quota regime have been explored by a number of researchers. While some expect the Pakistani textile industry to remain a competitive supplier of cotton yarns and fabrics because of its cheap labour supply, access to local raw cotton and favourable business environment (USITC, 2004), others emphasize under-investment in technology and the lack of product diversification (Kazmi, 2002). However, the labour market implications of the ATC-and its effects on gendered access to employment, in particular-have so far been neglected completely. Yet the textile and clothing industry employs a disproportionate share of female labour globally. Women account for more than two-thirds of the industry's global labour force;
European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, May 1, 2006
Th is study assesses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on gendered labour markets in ... more Th is study assesses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on gendered labour markets in rural Indonesia. It focuses on the gender composition of the workforce, female and male workers' employment conditions and gender wage inequality. Th e research strategy of »between-methods triangulation« is chosen, denoting the combination of quantitative and qualitative types of data generation and analysis. Two underlying mechanisms have been identifi ed. A »cost eff ect« associated with transnational corporations' (TNCs') greater orientation towards the world market is the preferential recruitment of, on average, lower paid female workers. In light of global competitive cost considerations, this appears as a rational strategy for TNCs. Conversely, foreign fi rms' advanced technological endowments relative to domestic companies require a well-educated workforce with technical skills. In light of these perspectives, gender gaps in education and, on average, women's weaker labour market attachment disadvantage female workers' employment in TNCs. Both eff ects are mediated by a »reproductive constraint«. Th is refers to the asymmetric distribution of reproductive obligations between female and male household members, whereby female input into the domestic economy is more demanding relative to that of males.
ISS Staff Group 3: Human Resources and Local Development, 2008
A million tonnes of cotton are hand-picked by women and girls every year in Pakistan's 'cotton be... more A million tonnes of cotton are hand-picked by women and girls every year in Pakistan's 'cotton belt'. Despite their evident contribution to the economy, the pickers' fates remain invisible in the daily headlines on cotton production as well as in academic research. The present article tries to address this blind spot while focussing on the working conditions of Pakistani cotton pickers. It investigates the determinants of their work, wages and occupational safety and health, and questions whether the link with the global cotton chain benefits labourers in Pakistan's cotton fields. I. PULLING THE COTTON ROPE: ENABLING EMPOWERMENT? The textile chain from seed cotton to cotton-based textile and clothing (T&C) manufactures has special importance for developing countries. Most of the cotton is produced and manufactured in the global South, with China, India, and Pakistan alone being responsible for almost half of the global cotton production in 2004. Around one billion people, mostly in developing countries, are either directly or indirectly involved in the production and marketing of cotton (Townsend, 2004, quoted in Orden, et al., 2006). The global market for cotton and cotton-based products has been characterised by interventions biased against southern producers, such as the prevalence of huge subsidies for cotton cultivation in the USA and other growing countries (Baffes, 2005), and quantitative export restrictions faced by T&C manufacturers in developing countries. In the global power balance tilted towards industrialised countries, however, pulling the cotton rope has given southern countries some negotiating power. When the World Trade Organisation (WTO) came into being in 1995, the developing countries were able to achieve an agreement on the phaseout of quotas in T&C that had hampered cotton manufacturers' exports, the so-called Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC). Brazil successfully challenged the world's largest economy regarding the trade-distorting support payments for US-American cotton growers in the WTO. The WTO panel decided in June 2004 that the giant USA must stop subsidising their farmers at the expense of growers in poor countries such as the dwarf economies of Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali. Does cotton equally empower those who constitute the first link in the textile chain that ties the developing world to the global North? A million tonnes of cotton are hand-picked by women and girls every year in the cotton-growing belt of Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces. Directly, it accounts for 9 per cent of the value added in agriculture and contributes about 2 per cent to the GDP. Through its use in the T&C industry, it is indirectly responsible for another one-tenth of the GDP and about two-thirds of the total merchandise exports (Finance Division, 2006). Despite such evident contribution to the national economy, the pickers' fates remain invisible in the daily headlines on cotton production and prices. Hardly any research has devoted attention to those whose work lays the foundation of the country's export success. 1
Efectos previsibles del Acuerdo sobre los Textiles en el empleo femenino del Pakistán
Revista Internacional Del Trabajo, Dec 1, 2005
Page 1. Revista Internacional del Trabajo, vol. 124 (2005), núm. 4 Copyright © Organización Inter... more Page 1. Revista Internacional del Trabajo, vol. 124 (2005), núm. 4 Copyright © Organización Internacional del Trabajo 2005 Efectos previsibles del Acuerdo sobre los Textiles en el empleo femenino del Pakistán Karin Astrid SIEGMANN* ...
ISS Staff Group 3: Human Resources and Local Development, Nov 4, 2010
Laboring Practices: Pakistan
ISS Staff Group 3: Human Resources and Local Development, Aug 13, 2009
While Pakistan's National Information Technology (IT) Policy aims at harnessing the potential of ... more While Pakistan's National Information Technology (IT) Policy aims at harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development, especially in the underserved rural areas, it ignores the role of existing gender inequalities on the possible benefits of ICTs. We have investigated aspects of the 'gender digital divide' in rural areas of Pakistan in order to enable an evidence-based gender-sensitive revision of the policy as well as ICT-related interventions from which both females and males gain. The study took place in four of the most marginalized rural districts of the country where this divide is likely to be most pronounced. We found mobile phones to be the ICT that is most commonly available in rural Pakistan. Radios and TV sets are the second most widespread technologies in marginalised rural areas. However, mobile sets at hand are largely owned by women's husbands, fathers and brothers, whose permission to make calls is required by a large share of all female respondents. I, therefore, argue that availability and gendered use of ICTs are two different things altogether. Social norms related to women and girls' access to education as well as regulating their mobility prevent them from using ICTs. These norms have to be taken into account in policies and interventions to ensure women and girls' access to and beneficial use of ICTs.
ISS Staff Group 3: Human Resources and Local Development, 2008
Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This ... more Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This article identifies commonalities such as the significant macroeconomic role of migration and similar main destinations for south Asia's mobile populations. It critiques popular themes in the discourse on migration, like the focus on economic benefits of moving populations and the nation state as a reference point. The article questions the existing views of what it means for people to move from their homes, many times (but not only) across international borders.
Hexagon series on human and environmental security and peace, Jul 31, 2013
This chapter contributes to the emerging literature on men who do 'women's work'. It focuses on t... more This chapter contributes to the emerging literature on men who do 'women's work'. It focuses on the 'feminine' occupation of domestic worker and on how male and female migrant workers balance their gender identities at the intersection of class, race, and immigration status. It addresses the related research gap in the Netherlands by focusing on the situation of migrant domestic workers from the Philippines with irregular status. From the perspective of hegemonic gender identities, male migrant domestic workers, too, are subjected to gender injustices. These injustices are rooted in the devaluation of everything coded as 'feminine', including their occupation. The resulting 'male femininities' are threatening male domestic workers' sense of self-worth and their societal recognition. This misrecognition adds to the exploitative economic circumstances that both female and male migrant domestic workers experience and has negative repercussions on male migrants' access to employment. Ironically, workers themselves contribute to reproducing these symbolic and material injustices and, hence, consolidate them. Redressing these injustices requires changes both in the economic structure and in society's ordering of status. When the demands for respect for domestic workers and for their labour rights are combined, this necessity is reflected in workers' national and international campaigns. They need to be complemented by national regulation that will protect all workers effectively, independent of the location of their work, their gender, their race, or their immigration status. Last but not least, given their crucial role in societal reproduction, domestic workers should be included in the categories of migrant workers who are welcome in European labour markets in redefined and relaxed transnational migration regimes.
International Labour Review, Dec 1, 2005
The government has realized that textile and clothing sector is one sector that offers good prosp... more The government has realized that textile and clothing sector is one sector that offers good prospects for diversification away from traditional commodity exports, for entry into the area of manufacturers, for absorption of large pools of manpower, for crossing the big divide between the rural and urban sectors, for poverty alleviation, and for gender empowerment (Ministry of Finance, 2003, emphasis added). nder the 1995 Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), the U textile import quotas permitted by the 1974 Multi-fibre Arrangement (MFA) were phased out over a ten-year period. In January 2005, any remaining quotas on imports of textiles and clothing were scrapped, thereby liberalizing global trade in these products. 1 The textile and clothing industry is Pakistan's main export engine, accounting for more than two-thirds of its exports. And the economic implications of the expiry of the quota regime have been explored by a number of researchers. While some expect the Pakistani textile industry to remain a competitive supplier of cotton yarns and fabrics because of its cheap labour supply, access to local raw cotton and favourable business environment (USITC, 2004), others emphasize under-investment in technology and the lack of product diversification (Kazmi, 2002). However, the labour market implications of the ATC-and its effects on gendered access to employment, in particular-have so far been neglected completely. Yet the textile and clothing industry employs a disproportionate share of female labour globally. Women account for more than two-thirds of the industry's global labour force;
Understanding the globalizing precariat: From informal sector to precarious work
Progress in Development Studies, Jan 28, 2016
Given ongoing changes in the world of work that affect both developing and industrialized countri... more Given ongoing changes in the world of work that affect both developing and industrialized countries, we argue that it is time to bring the notions of informal and precarious work together. Work-related insecurities offer a conceptual umbrella for the conditions that a large number of workers in the global North and South experience. They emerge in the context of neoliberal globalization, intersecting with social and political marginalizations. This offers starting points for intervention. For instance, for precarious workers’ struggles to be successful, organizational strength needs to be combined with the forging of coalitions that transcend class identities.
3 1 Financial support for the research underlying this article from the Robert-Bosch-Foundation a... more 3 1 Financial support for the research underlying this article from the Robert-Bosch-Foundation and the University of Manchester is gratefully acknowledged. Comments by Stephanie Seguino and Haroon Akram-Lodhi helped to improve its argument. All remaining errors are solely our own.
Strengthening whom?
Progress in Development Studies, Sep 10, 2010
This article investigates the role of international labour migration from Pakistan’s Northwest fo... more This article investigates the role of international labour migration from Pakistan’s Northwest for the sending communities’ social resilience. It focuses on the implications of male out‐migration for the women who stay behind. This article refers to Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to shed light on the gendered nature of vulnerability and resilience. Contradictions identified between heightened vulnerability at the level of individual women and strengthened resilience of the household underline the social construction of scale in the analysis of resilience. With his emphasis on material as well as symbolic resources determining opportunities and well‐being, Bourdieu provides an analytical key for the identification of such ‘uncomfortable layers of resilience’.
L'Accord sur les textiles et les vêtements: effets potentiels sur I'emploi des femmes au Pakistan
Revue Internationale Du Travail, Dec 1, 2005
Le gouvernement a realise que le secteur du textile et de l'habillement est de ceux qui offre... more Le gouvernement a realise que le secteur du textile et de l'habillement est de ceux qui offrent de bonnes perspectives de diversification des exportations, par rapport aux traditionnels produits de base, pour entrer dans l'industrialisation, absorber une main-d'œuvre nombreuse, combler le fosse qui existe entre le secteur rural et le secteur urbain, attenuer la pauvrete et renforcer l'autonomisation des femmes (ministere des Finances, 2003, c'est nous qui soulignons).
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, May 25, 2022
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare and exacerbates the existing insecurities of sex... more Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare and exacerbates the existing insecurities of sex workers. This paper asks: What are sex workers' everyday experiences of (in)security? And: How has the COVID-19 pandemic influenced these? Methods We engage with these questions through collaborative research based on semi-structured interviews carried out in 2019 and 2020 with sex workers in The Hague, the Netherlands. Results Revealing a stark mismatch between the insecurities that sex workers' experience and the concerns enshrined in regulation, our analysis shows that sex workers' everyday insecurities involve diverse concerns regarding their occupational safety and health, highlighting that work insecurity is more multi-faceted than sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Widespread employment and income insecurities for sex workers are exacerbated for transwomen and male sex workers. Their legal liminality is enabled not only by the opaque legal status of sex work in the Netherlands, but also by the gendering of official regulation. The COVID-19 pandemic made visible how the sexual and gender norms that informally govern sex workers' working conditions intersect with hierarchies of citizenship, complicating access to COVID-19 support, particularly for migrant sex workers. Conclusions Sex work regulation in the Netherlands leaves workers in a limbo-not without obligations and surveillance, yet, without the full guarantee of their labour rights. Policy Implications To effectively address sex workers' insecurities, a shift in regulation from its current biopolitical focus to a labour approach is necessary. Besides, public policy and civil society actors alike need to address the sex industry's harmful social regulation through hierarchies of gender, sexuality and race.
Social Science & Medicine, Mar 1, 2020
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Nov 1, 2021
The Institute of Social Studies is Europe's longest-established centre of higher education and re... more The Institute of Social Studies is Europe's longest-established centre of higher education and research in development studies. On 1 July 2009, it became a University Institute of the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). Postgraduate teaching programmes range from six-week diploma courses to the PhD programme. Research at ISS is fundamental in the sense of laying a scientific basis for the formulation of appropriate development policies. The academic work of ISS is disseminated in the form of books, journal articles, teaching texts, monographs and working papers. The Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit comments and generate discussion. The series includes academic research by staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and award-winning research papers by graduate students.