https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

Globalization references processes that occur on the international level. Globalization is a result of transnational exchanges of goods, information, technologies, and migration (Jaggar). Globalization impacts food production and markets by expanding the supply chain to global economies (Jaggar). As food production processes have become increasingly globalized there has been a move away from local, small-scale food production to massive mono-crop productions intended for international trade (Jaggar). This notably impacts the health of women in the Global South (see map) as the price of food increases, the labour market becomes insecure and women are paid less for harder work (Jaggar). The United Nations estimates that one in nine people suffer from malnourishment on an ongoing basis and most likely impacts women more than men, as 70% of the global poor are women (Jaggar). The poverty women experience has negative impacts on their social mobility, physical health (chronic illness, fertility and pregnancy complications, malnourishment, etc.),  and access to adequate work (safe, secure, and fair wages with benefits/retirement). In part, the lack of job security stems from lacking labour rights. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has grossly under-protected women in the labour force by lacking enforcement of workplace safety (Jaggar). Moreover, impoverished women have a higher likelihood of experiencing sexual harassment, rape, and violence (Jaggar). For many women, cultural norms prohibit them from entering the workforce or encourage their role as a homemaker above an income-earner. These issues are drastically faced by women of the global South as their countries face massive debts since the 1980s (Jaggar). Alison M. Jaggar is a University of Colorado Boulder professor who is greatly concerned with political and social ethics and uses gender as a philosophical lens of analysis on global justice. She writes, “…by the mid-1980s, the Third World was paying out annually about three times as much in debt repayments as it received in aid from all developed-country governments and international aid agencies combined. Ten years later, the developing countries are paying the rich nations $717 million per day in debt service; $12 billion annually flows north out of Africa.” (432). The sustained debt of Southern nations perpetuates harm to women as their country’s economic political and economic processes disadvantage their ability to earn proper wages in safe work environments and access reasonably priced nourishing foods.

 

Jaggar, A.M., (2002). Vulnerable women and neo-liberal globalization: Debt burdens undermine women’s health in the global south. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 23(6), (pp. 425-440). Springer.