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Transnational Regulation of Labor Markets and the Emergence of New Lines of Social Inequality: Processes of Social Mobility of Women in the Banking Sector

The regulation of Latin-American labor markets has changed fundamentally in the wake of increasing transnational entanglements. Hereby new lines of social inequality are emerging which are related to the interdependent categories of gender, class and race. In contrast to the industrial sector, little is known about changes in the service sector and the impact on gendered lines of inequality. In the proposed research project I intend to examine these changes in the banking sector in Brazil and Mexico as an advanced example of a transnationally integrated and highly privatized branch. The implementation of new technologies, new forms of company organization and labor processes have changed qualification requirements and the profile of the work force. I will analyze changes in the social (gender) mobility of labor markets in the banking sector, where almost half of the work force are women with a high degree of qualification. Do the depicted changes have an impact on the upward respectively downward mobility of women? Can we observe the reproduction of traditional lines of gendered inequalities (between men and women) or new forms of hierarchies and segregation between women? The analytical framework for the examination of (gendered) lines of inequalities in transnational labor markets will be based on the approach of “intersectionality” which allows linking the categories of class, gender and race with transnational entanglements. Even if the focus point lies on the category gender, this concept permits to analyze genderized inequalities in the context of multiple interdependencies.

 

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