From cooperation to criticism of economic globalization: An intersectional concept of gender justice

Abstract

Gender, class, race/ethnicity and citizenship intersect in the experience of nursing assistants and expose them to exclusion, commodification and denial of their unionization rights in every country that has embraced the new public management (NPM) reform. Resembling other women employed in caring services that are denied the benefit of skills recognition, their exclusion occurs both in the labour market and in campaigns targeting gender equality and gender mainstreaming. Rather than accepting the exclusionary definition of equality promoted by the institutions of economic globalization, the role of economic globalization in legitimizing the deterioration of employment quality for women employed in caring services should be challenged. In particular, feminists should insist on promoting gender justice by revisiting the concepts of equality and gender mainstreaming. This article presents an intersectional model of gender justice that reveals the deleterious effects of economic globalization and formulates a political ethics of care for women in badly-paid caring work. Job quality and average income in occupational fields must serve as the basis for defining discrimination. Revised notions of equality and gender mainstreaming, based on these proposed measures of discrimination, would provide the ground for feminist activism against NPM exclusionary practices.