Global Governance and Gender Disparities. Explaining Developments in Key Labor related Human Rights Indicators

How successful are current initiatives at furthering a fairer globalization for workers? Employing women’s equitable integration into the labor market as a paradigmatic case, this proposal suggests ways to examine the impact of global governance structures on key labor market indicators. Triangulating quantitative and qualitative methodologies on the macro-, meso- and micro- levels of aggregation, this research addresses three current world society lacunas: (1) Implementation: On the country level, quantitative data assess the impact of international norms from 1958 to 2005 on key labor market indicators of women relative to those of men: differences in unemployment rates by professions and gender wage differentials in the manufacturing sector. (2) Mechanisms: On the organizational level, qualitative interviews in four countries illuminate how world norms stipulated by the United Nations and world regional norms put forth by the Organizations of American States are adapted and utilized by social movement actors in Latin America: Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. (3) Diversity: On the individual level, large quantitative household data analyze differences within nations regarding gender equity attitudes and their (un)intended labor market effects in Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. This investigative trilogy integrates macro-level world society theory with micro-level feminist, social movement, and work satisfaction theory using qualitative and quantitative methods to address the effectiveness of current global governance efforts.