Untangling multiple inequalities: intersectionality, work and globalisation

Abstract

This article begins by outlining the position of women and work in the Global South, highlighting the precarity of their labour market participation. It then argues that the experiences of these women are often examined within a single dimensional analytical framework and are therefore invisible in the intersectional literature, which tends to take a Western centric approach. The paper also contends that existing research fails to consider the particular domestic and cultural circumstances of the women so examined, and how their location in these spaces impacts on their experiences of work. The article argues for an examination of women and work in the Global South that takes an intersectional approach that recognises the complexity of their experiences as generated by multi-categorical and multilevel strands of inequality. It then goes on to introduce the contributions to this special issue, which explore inequality through an intersectional lens.