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Many academic commentators have pointed to how the widening and deepening of a neoliberal reform agenda in Southeast Asia has brought about the end of developmental forms of state governance and the emergence of less directly market interventionist states pursuing economic 'competitiveness'. In this paper, I note how notions of competitiveness are increasingly fused with ideas regarding the contribution of gender equity and women's empowerment to national economic success. However, drawing upon a case study of Malaysia, this paper highlights how government policies stressing both the marketisation of social reproduction and the need to expand women's productive roles are constantly brought into tension with embedded social structures. Such an emphasis is essential to any understanding of the role of the Malaysian state in economic development - a role that has been fundamentally shaped by a localised politics of ethnicity. The paper draws upon examples from government policy-making that conceptualise women as key workers in the emerging knowledge-driven economy and as microentrepreneurs driving pro-poor economic growth and illustrates how such policies are brought into tension with traditionalist discourses concerning the appropriate role of women in society. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

AbstractThis paper explores the intersection between gender and migration through an analysis of the advocacy strategies undertaken by Malaysian non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and trade unions on behalf of female transnational migrant workers. In particular, the paper looks at the different ways in which local NGOs and trade unions have engaged with the so‐called "rights‐based approach" to migration that has been emphasized by transnational NGOs and key intergovernmental organizations – in particular the International Labour Organization (ILO). The paper suggests that despite the widespread feminization of migration in the region, the rights‐based approach has tended to employ a gender‐blind perspective on migration. It is only in the arena of activism around the rights of migrant domestic workers (an overwhelmingly feminized sector) that gender issues are brought to the fore of the migrant rights debate. The appropriation of rights‐talk by activists organizing on behalf of migrant domestic workers does indicate that the language of human rights can be employed strategically in ways that place the concerns of women workers at their centre. However, there are significant limitations posed by the employment of a human rights "master frame" by pro‐migrant worker activists. These limitations include: the continued association between rights and gender‐blind universal (labour) standards; the linkage between rights and "public sphere" activities outside of the household realm; and the problematic relationship between universal notions of human rights and particularistic notions of citizenship under conditions of political authoritarianism.

"Labor and Gender" published on by Oxford University Press.

This article analyzes how the mainstream study of multinational corporations (MNCs) reflects a set of gendered assumptions that construct the firm as a hegemonically masculine political actor. It is suggested that the same masculinist assumptions that are found in these writings on MNCs take shape within firms in the form of a masculinist managerialism that constructs women workers in terms of their "productive femininity." There is an extensive literature on women's employment in MNCs and their subsidiaries; the author suggests that this focus on women workers is only a starting point for developing a gendered understanding of global production. Importantly, a focus on "feminine" work and the role that masculinist managerial practices play in underpinning this construction provides insight into the gendered structures and institutions that support the workings of the global political economy.