A Comprehensive Study of the Impact and Position of Trade Liberalization on Women's Working Lives and the Glass Ceiling Perception in Various Economic Sectors

1. Introduction

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Women's Working Lives in Various Economic Sectors Today, one of the most important concerns of politicians and economists is the impact of the phenomenon of economic globalization on real economic variables, such as production and employment. Economic globalization means the convergence, homogenization, and integration of economic markets, including commodity, labor, money, and capital markets, at the international level. This important issue, with the growth of international trade, foreign direct investment, the growth of capital flows at the international level, and the increased use of information and communication technology in the last two decades, has increasingly affected the economies of various countries, so much so that most studies show that almost no country can implement optimal policies to increase welfare, employment, production, and, in its domestic economy, without paying attention to international and global developments (Kamijani and Qovidel, 2006).

Different definitions of globalization are offered, societies and economies around the world are rapidly integrating. These measures and convergence are influenced by the revolution in the field of communications, the reduction of transportation costs, the reduction or elimination of trade tariffs, the increase in capital flows, and the increasing demand for migration.

Such a process is called globalization. The most important feature of globalization It can be seen in the removal of national barriers to economic affairs, in the expanded activities of multinational corporations and the international expansion of commercial, financial and production activities (Sa'i, 2008). Globalization makes some winners and some losers. Globalization causes women to bear the costs of economic liberalization by losing high-paying jobs and jobs (Bussmann, 2009).

The reason for women's participation in the labor force is their high demand for monetary power through marriage and financial independence. This is also confirmed by feminists (Beneria, 2003). With the increase in divorce rates, women's participation outside the home leads to a distribution and division of household chores after marriage. In developed countries, acquiring skills is an important factor for women in competing with men for gainful employment (Iversen & Rosenbluth, 2006).

More development leads to the movement of women (along with men) from agricultural occupations to the manufacturing and service sectors. Men and women from Non-income households and agriculture are moving towards gainful employment in the industrial and service sectors; (Tzannatos, 1999).

Feminist researchers believe that methodology and theories do not take into account the future of economic relations for women. (Elson et al. 2007) These individuals are more likely to believe in other sub-models such as compassion and social relations (Seguino et al.,1996).

A group of economists Scholars, emphasizing the positive dimensions of globalization, believe that women have largely benefited from economic reforms. From their perspective, although globalization has exacerbated the process of polarization, it has also increasingly led to an increase in women's income. One of the most important opportunities for women from globalization is the increase in employment rates (Taher Khani, 2004).

Men and women interact differently with the market due to gender differences in paid and unpaid work. This has an impact on individuals’ behaviors and priorities (Ruspini 2001; Beneria, 2003). In most empirical studies, the impact of globalization in the form of free trade on trade volume depends on different explanatory variables.

From On the other hand, women's participation in the labor market determines their employment rate and participation in various economic sectors, and the type of occupations women hold. In this regard, the present study examines the impact of globalization on women's working lives and examines economic theories on how women's participation in the labor market of various economic sectors changes, considering the effects of globalization on the labor market in developing and developed countries (Gol Mohammadi, 2017).

2. Research Background

Since women have always constituted half of the members of society, it is expected that this potential and extensive force, through their active participation in various economic, political, social and cultural activities, will set the wheels of society in motion along with men and achieve greater success in this way. However, throughout history, opportunities and possibilities for women have not been distributed in a way that allows them to easily appear alongside men on the social stage and play their worthy roles without gender limitations.

In the area of ​​decision-making, women's access to managerial positions and positions has not kept pace with the small increase in their participation in the labor market, as women have always been in positions that inevitably involve repetitive and low-level work.

Most women have worked in teaching positions and as assistant production managers, and have rarely held the responsibilities of production managers. Although this situation exists in all developed and developing countries, the severity of gender inequalities is much greater in developing countries (UNDP, 1997). In a general statement, employment is one of the most important sources of human identity. The quantity and quality of working life determine who each person is and what role they play in society.

Work gives order to human life through the continuous and regular activities it creates. It divides and schedules the different areas of his life. Having a formal job is an opportunity to acquire skills and to express creativity. Income from employment improves the freedom and independence of the individual (Haralambo and Holborn, 2004). Durkheim also considers employment as a social and moral commodity that determines the meaning of life and the position of the individual. Similarly, he sees material and economic insecurity and broken patterns of employment as sources of identity destruction and moral weakness in Society knows.

The international economic development of countries affects the type of work women do. As further development leads to the movement of women (along with men) from agricultural and domestic work to the manufacturing and service sectors, In the service sector, alongside the increase in women's participation, it is expected that service jobs will be replaced by non-income-earning domestic work (Kattab and Fenton, 2009).

Horton, 1999; Tzannatos, 1999 In developing countries, it is expected that due to globalization, women will be mostly employed in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

Therefore, working women in developing countries benefit the most from globalization. However, these same women in industrialized countries do not benefit to the same extent, but rather, women who have acquired skills in these countries benefit the most. Therefore, globalization has led to increased social and economic polarization among women; Not only among women living in different geographical areas, but also among skilled and unskilled women (Beneria, 2003; Young, 1998). In summary, globalization leads to an increase in women's participation in low-income employment positions (especially in the agricultural and industrial sectors), as women accept unstable and low-income jobs due to the demand for cheap labor. Almost all over the world, women work longer hours and earn lower wages. They work less than men in similar occupations (Saif, 2015).

Women in developing countries are the first hope for the advancement of their families and the growth and development of their countries. The success of women entrepreneurs in these societies not only brings economic benefits but also social and cultural benefits (Seymour, 2003). Sometimes women seek to create alternatives to family income because other family members may be unemployed as a result of globalization (Beneria, 2003).

Regarding women's expectations of the labor market, in industrialized countries, skilled women have a better chance of accessing jobs and the labor market than low-skilled women. Therefore, globalization has had a small impact on the overall participation rate of women in industrialized countries. In developing societies where the demand for unskilled labor is higher, less skilled women (who are more numerous in developing societies) supply the needs of the industrial sector in the production of specific goods (Bussmann, 2009). According to the Stapler-Samuelson theory, free trade is beneficial for regions that have an abundance of factors of production. Because an increase in the relative price of a good produced by abundant factors of production leads to an increase in the income of that factor of production, in Conversely, owners of scarce factors of production benefit from trade. Thus, societies that are rich in labor but have little capital benefit from trade freedom, while capital owners benefit from protection of domestic industries. In other words, developing societies benefit from unskilled labor and developed societies from skilled labor (Caves et al.1996).

Globalization and the growth of exports of manufactured goods are leading to an increase in women's participation in non-agricultural activities. Factory owners prefer to employ women because they demand fewer rights. Income from work increases women's self-sufficiency and financial independence in the home environment, and thus their position in the family is enhanced (Grown, 2006). Globalization advocates believe that gender inequality leads to economic growth.

Since women's cheap labor reduces the cost of exporting products and increases the competitiveness of products, exports earn foreign exchange, which is necessary for importing intermediate goods, increasing Production, growth, investment, and (Seguino, 2000a, 2000b; Blecker & Seguino 2002) Ninety percent of the world's countries have organizations for the advancement of women's social status, yet women are underrepresented at various levels of decision-making due to lower education, lack of self-confidence, and greater responsibility (Yousefian, 1996). In developing countries, many jobs that were previously performed by men are now being performed by women. They do the work, especially in countries that have experienced high export growth, and the growth of low-income jobs among women has been high (Standing, 1989). Today, agricultural production is often done by women, although it is not yet clear whether the number of jobs held by women has increased compared to men in different sectors of the economy.

By performing some specific jobs by women, the labor supply increases, which leads to a decrease in women's income and a decrease in labor standards. In this way, women's entry into the labor market is facilitated, but (Tzannatos, 1999; Standing, 1989; Beneria, 2003) working conditions decline. Tzannatos (1999) in a study examining changes in the labor market of women in the world economy believes that women's participation in the labor market is increasing in parallel with men. This gap is narrowing day by day in developing countries. The reason for this is the decrease in male participation (due to education and the existence of pensions) and the increase in female participation.

Ozler (2000), in a study conducted in the Turkish manufacturing sector during the period 1983-1985, concluded that specialized positions were disproportionately filled by men. In the manufacturing sector, which produces products that require a lot of unskilled labor (with low wages) and little need for capital, female employment participation is very high.

Kukra and Kucera & Milberg (2000) examined trade liberalization and manufacturing job losses in OECD countries over the period 1987-1995 and found that in the manufacturing sector, women in developing countries lost their jobs disproportionately, especially in sectors that needed more female participation (such as textiles and leather), and in countries that had engaged in foreign trade in the industries in question.

Seguino (2000) examined Gender inequality and economic growth for a set of export-oriented semi-industrial economies over the period 1975-1995, and argues that the distribution of labor is not only based on educational attainment, but also on economic structure. The greater participation of women in low-income sectors that produce goods at different price points influences trade patterns.

The wage gap leads to increased savings in industries where women participate more, and thus to increased exports. In their study explaining the uneven gender division of labor, Iversen & Rosenbluth, (2006) state that the increase in divorce rates is an important component of the distribution and division of household chores after marriage, also in developed countries, acquiring skills is an important factor for women in competing with men for gainful employment.

On the other hand, studies by Busse & Spielmann (2006) showed that gender inequality in wages leads to increased returns in the production of simple products, while gender inequality in hard work and the production of complex goods does not lead to increased returns, but in this case, the level of education leads to increased efficiency.

This means that the level of education and participation of women in hard jobs (if the level of education and skills of women increases) leads to economic growth. On the other hand, the cheap exploitation of women's labor also leads to economic growth, and it is important to pay attention to these relationships while studying the effects of trade liberalization on the situation of women.

In her study of 134 OECD and non-OECD countries, Bussmann (2009) examined the impact of trade liberalization on women's working well-being over the period 1970-2000 using fixed effects (FE) regression estimation and the generalized minutes method (2GMM). The results indicated that trade liberalization does not directly improve women's expectations.

Trade liberalization improves women’s access to secondary education to some extent, but it does not improve women’s well-being more than men’s. On the other hand, trade liberalization also affects women’s working lives. In developed countries, trade liberalization leads to an increase in women’s employment in the service sector, while in developing countries, it leads to an increase in women’s participation in the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Filipski et al. (2011) conducted a study focusing on gender and migration to examine the impact of free trade on the employment of immigrants and women in the Dominican Republic. They simulated the effects of the Caribbean and Caribbean Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) on rural income and rural well-being in the Dominican Republic.

The results of this study show that the elimination of tariffs on agricultural imports hurts households, both farmers and non-farmers, through market side effects and has significant and differential effects on the country of origin of workers and their gender. From studies conducted in Iran, regarding the consequences of globalization, including employment, we can see cases He pointed out the following:

Jazni (2004) in a study examined the obstacles and problems in women's employment in government sectors and believes that there are no specific differences between women and men in terms of personal talent and skills, but there are differences in the way they use their talent and skills in their jobs.

Taher Khani (2004) in her study on the effects of globalization on women states that although globalization has positive effects such as increased income, employment growth, development Social capital has been associated with increased productivity, increased voting rights, increased levels of awareness, and reduced fertility for women, but it has also exacerbated negative effects such as the growth of informal employment, low wages, reduced food security, increased migration, the spread of a consumer culture, and job insecurity to the detriment of women. The functional characteristics of Iranian women show that due to the social, economic, political, and cultural limitations prevailing in women's society and the global experience gained from globalization, the threats facing the country outweigh the opportunities facing them.

Kamijani and Qovidel (2006) have examined the effects of one of the most important consequences of economic globalization, namely foreign direct investment inflows, on employment in the service subsectors of Iran between 1997 and 2004.

The results obtained show that when multinational companies enter, service firms active in service sectors can increase their labor productivity by hiring more skilled labor and competing with foreign firms (spillover effect), which of course is the leasing-rental and business activities sectors that rank first in terms of attracting skilled labor and increasing the ratio of skilled to unskilled labor (spillover effect).

Keshavarz and Nejati Mahrami (2006) have studied the impact of globalization, using trade liberalization and tariff reduction as a measure, on wage inequality in Iran. The results of the model, considering tariff rates as an indicator of trade liberalization, show that a reduction in tariff rates causes a decrease in the wages of unskilled workers and an increase in the wages of semi-skilled and skilled workers. In other words, trade liberalization causes an increase in the wage gap between people with different levels of It becomes a skill.

Jawaheri et al. (2010) analyzed the effects of women's employment on their quality of life and reached the following conclusion: individuals who have a more suitable employment status also have a more suitable quality of life. In addition, it also confirms the relationship between job satisfaction and women's quality of life.

3. Research Objective

To determine the impact of trade liberalization on women's working lives in economic sectors (agriculture, services, and industry). (Methodology) In the present study, the generalized momentum method (GMM) is used to estimate the model. What is important about this estimator is that this robust estimator does not require precise information about the distribution of the violation terms.

The main assumption of this method is that the violations in the equations with the set of non-instrumental variables are correlated and by choosing the right instrumental variables, this estimation method, by applying a weighting matrix, can create a powerful estimator for the conditions of variance heterogeneity (Bussmann et al. 2005).

Therefore, given the specific conditions of the presented model, where the existence of a relationship between the explanatory variables and the violation sentences is not far from being expected, we do not have any information about how the violation sentences are distributed, considering the emergence of structural failures in the natural processes of the variables due to accidents such as revolutions, War and the use of different socio-economic programs, the emergence of the phenomenon of heterogeneity of variance is not far from expected, and the existence of intra-temporal relationships between variables cannot be ruled out. It seems that in these circumstances, the best possible estimator that can be used is (GMM). The use of this estimator in similar circumstances has also been emphasized in some other studies (Dufour et al., 2006).

4. Statistical Population

The statistical population under study is all countries of the world and the selected sample is 74 selected countries of the world that had the data needed to estimate the research econometric model during the period 1990-2006. According to the studies conducted on the data and information related to the World Development Indicators (WDI, 2010), the countries in question are: Austria, Ethiopia, Argentina, Uruguay, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Spain, Australia, Estonia, Israel, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, El Salvador, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, England, United States, Iran, Italy, Ireland, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Paraguay, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Thailand, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Russia, Romania, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Chile, France, Finland, Philippines, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Colombia, Georgia, Guatemala, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Hungary, Morocco, Mongolia, Macedonia, Mexico, Mauritius, Moldova, Norway, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Venezuela, Vietnam, Netherlands, Greece.

4.1 Data Collection Tool

In the present study, various websites, magazines, and books were used to collect data using the library method. The data collection tool included statistical tables and observations. Most of the statistical information required was extracted from the World Bank (WDI) CD ROM in 2010.

4.2 Workflow

To determine the impact of trade liberalization on women's working lives in various economic sectors, the Bussmann (2009) model has been used in the form of two equations as follows. Equation(1)

Equation (2)

J= 9, 10, 11

Where Ln is the natural logarithm and the dependent variables are x9 female employment in agriculture, x10 female employment in industry, and x11 female employment in services. Also, the explanatory variables include x1 the ratio of trade to gross domestic product, x2 per capita income, x3 fertility, x4 women's education, x5 population, x6 male employment in agriculture, x7 male employment in industry, x8 male employment in services, error term and i is the country indicator (intercept). Also, some variables have been used in the estimation with a lag period, which is shown in the table with (-1) next to them.

In the following, some of the variables used in the model are explained. With regard to women's participation in professional occupations, in this study, the number of women employed in the labor market has been considered as an indicator of women's employment. In this way, it can be understood whether globalization leads to an increase or decrease in women's employment. In addition, in order to examine the distribution of women's participation in the agricultural, industrial or service sectors, women's participation in terms of employment in different sectors is considered.

Another common indicator of economic integration is trade freedom, measured as economic flows relative to gross domestic product (GDP). This type of measurement reflects economic size without taking into account economic policies. However, there are problems and limitations of abundant data on other types of trade freedom indicators. Therefore, since economic flows are theoretically explainable, the ratios of trade availability to gross domestic product have been used.

The practical definition of trade freedom is actually the sum of exports and imports relative to gross domestic product (Heston et al. 2002). In this study, many variables can be considered as control variables so that the findings are not affected by the trends of the omitted variables.

The level of economic development is one of the main controls. In countries with low per capita capital, the family relies on the income of individual family members. Therefore, participation in the labor market with development Economically, women's participation in the labor market is very high in developing countries (Cagatay & Ozler, 1995). Therefore, per capita income is used as an indicator of economic development in the labor market participation model.

Another variable is the fertility rate (total number of births per woman), which, on the one hand, controls population growth and, on the other hand, the level of women's involvement in raising and caring for children and reducing leisure time for work. Therefore, the population variable is added to the model in logarithmic form, because populous countries have different views of welfare and labor markets. There is also a tendency for populous countries to have a lower trade liberalization effect, while small countries have a higher trade liberalization index in order to access larger markets (Bussmann, 2009). Finally, the complementary role of men alongside the variables of interest is important when examining the relative effects and Comparative trade liberalization is considered.

5. Results and Discussion

To determine the effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of women's employment in different sectors, equation (1) has been used and the results are given in Table (1). Table: (1) The effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of women's employment in different sectors separately in developed and developing countries.

Table 1: The effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of women's employment in different sectors separately in developed and developing countries

The results show that trade liberalization in developed countries leads to a decrease in the share of women's participation in the two sectors of agriculture and industry, while trade liberalization increases the share of women's participation in the services sector. However, in developing countries, trade liberalization does not have a significant effect on women's participation in the three sectors studied.

Also, the increase in fertility rates in developed countries has led to an increase in women's participation in agriculture and industry. However, with the increase in fertility rates in developing countries, only women's participation in agriculture has increased. With the increase in per capita income in developed countries, women's participation in the agricultural sector has decreased, but in developing countries, with the increase in per capita income, women's participation in the services sector has increased and in the agricultural sector has decreased.

With the increase in the level of education of women in the guidance sector, in developed countries, the level of women's participation in the agricultural sector has decreased and in the industrial sector has increased. In developing countries, as women's education level increases in the leadership sector, their participation in agriculture and services has increased.

To determine the effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of women's employment, if men's employment in the various sectors under study is used as a control variable in the model, then using equation (2), the results can be observed in Table (2).

Table 2: The effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of women's employment (when the variable of men's employment is used as a control variable)

Table: (2) The effect of trade liberalization on the distribution of female employment (when the variable of male employment is used as a control variable).  In developed countries, trade liberalization has led to a decrease in women's participation in the agricultural sector, while with an increase in per capita income, more women have been employed in the agricultural and service sectors. In developing countries, trade liberalization has had a negative impact on women's participation in the industrial sector. In these countries, with an increase in per capita income, women's participation in the service sector has also increased significantly, while women's employment in the industrial sector has decreased.

Also, considering the results obtained, it can be seen that in developed countries, with greater trade liberalization and male employment in the agricultural sector, women's participation in the aforementioned sector has decreased, and in developing countries, with trade liberalization and more male employment in the industrial sector, women's participation in the industrial sector has decreased, but the effect of trade liberalization on women's participation in other sectors, with respect to male employment in other cases studied, has not been significant.

Also, as the level of education of women in the management sector increases, in developed countries, women's participation in the industrial sector increases, but in developing countries, women's participation in the industrial sector has decreased.

6. Conclusion

Despite the fact that women constitute half of the world's population, throughout history, opportunities and possibilities for them have not been distributed in a way that allows them to easily participate in society alongside men. Based on previous studies, with the development of countries, women have moved alongside men from agricultural and domestic occupations to income-generating industrial and service sectors. On the other hand, globalization leads to an increase in women's participation in low-wage jobs, because they are cheap labor and industrial owners also prefer to hire women.

Therefore, in the present study, with regard to economic theories, this issue was examined, considering the effects of trade liberalization on the labor market in developed and developing countries, how women's participation in the labor market of various economic sectors (agriculture, industry, and services) changes. In this regard, data from 74 selected countries of the world during the period 1990-2006 were used to determine the effect of trade liberalization on women's working lives. The results obtained from the estimation using the GMM method, It has been shown that trade liberalization in developing countries has led to an increase in the share of women's participation in the two sectors of agriculture and services, while women's employment in the industrial sector has decreased.

Similarly, trade liberalization in developed countries has led to an increase in women's participation in the services sector and a decrease in their employment in the two sectors of industry and agriculture. On the other hand, with the increase in per capita income, women's employment in the agricultural sector has decreased in developing countries, but The share of women's participation in the service sector has increased significantly.

However, in developed countries, with an increase in per capita income, women's participation in the labor market in the agricultural sector has decreased, but in other sectors, the increase in per capita income has not had a significant effect on women's employment (from a statistical point of view). Finally, it can be said that trade liberalization leads to a greater decrease in the overall participation rate of women in developed countries than in developing countries.

Authors contribution: All authors contributed to this research.

Funding: It is funded from authors' own budget, no fund is provided by any institution.

Conflict of interest: the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest, no sponsor was involved in design of the study, data collection, manuscript writing or decision to publish the work result.

Informed Consent: Not Applicable