Questions on readings for week 4

1. In ‘Women in the Informal Sector’, it is said that women are over-represented in the informal workforce worldwide and that the majority of economically active women in developing countries are engaged in the informal sector. What does this mean? Why is this such a negative thing?

2. In ‘Women in the Informal Sector’, it is said that there is no simple relationship between working in the informal economy and being poor or working in the formal economy and escaping poverty. What does this mean? What are some of the terms of this complex relationship?

3. In ‘Women Street Vendors: The Road to Recognition’, they discuss Maria, a street vendor in Peru who used micro finance to finance selling staple food products and eventually used those loans to launch her children’s careers. Why is it that some women are able to use micro finance and street vending to such great advantages while other women remain poor, their businesses only producing enough for them to survive?

4. In ‘Paradoxes of Globalization, Liberalization, and Gender Equality’, they discuss the effects of globalization on women’s interests in the workforce and note that the consequences are both empowering and constraining. I have no real question here other than this is an interesting note that should be discussed and examined.