ILPC 2027

 FROM INFORMALIZATION TO INCARCERATION? REGULATING THE FEMALE LABOUR FORCE IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION

Dr. Ana Cárdenas Tomažič

 Capitalism requires an increased labour force supply to maintain and increase economic profits (e.g. Dörre et al. 2009; Streeck 2012). However, today’s existing male labour force participation rates are already high and stable (ILO 2016). Female labour force participation has thus become central to capitalistic expansion and accumulation in the era of globalization (Sassen 2007; Mayer-Ahuja 2013). Nevertheless, the gap between the female and the male labour force participation rate is still significant – while the former is 49.6%, the latter reaches 76.1% (ILO 2016). Research on labour market regulation focuses on measures that promote female labour force participation and its consequences. Meanwhile, research on labour market segmentation highlights the over-representation of low-skilled single mothers, with or without an immigrant background, in the informal labour market where unstable and low-paid labour conditions are prevalent. Current research, however, neglects two relevant labour market scenarios: (i) resistance among low-skilled female labour populations vis-à-vis informalization through participation in criminal labour relationships, and (ii) repression as a regulation modus of the state as regards the labour market(s). But since the 2000s, another growing trend is affecting the female labour population worldwide: incarceration. While female labour participation has increased in recent decades by 4.5% (ILO 2016), the female prison population, although still small, is growing steadily: the median level is 4.4%, but the total female prison population has increased by around 50% since 2000 (IPCS/ICPR 2016). At the same time, the male prison population rate has risen by about 18% (ibid.). In this regard, the key sociological relevant facts are as follows: (i) the female prison population comprises basically the same female population groups over-represented among the female informal labour population – mainly low-skilled single mothers, with or without an immigrant background; and (ii) the majority of female offenders are incarcerated as a result of “poverty crimes”, consisting mostly of drug dealing, theft and prostitution (UN Women 2011). Based on my own primary research in prisons (semi-structured interviews and a survey) and secondary research of existing theoretical and empirical international literature, this paper proposes an alternative approach to understanding female labour market participation by: (i) widening the notion of both labour market regulation and segmentation, and (ii) relating both research fields through a twofold theoretical approach that will consider:

1.     (1) The criminal labour market as a segment of the labour market in addition to the formal and the informal labour market; and

2.     (2) The prison as a labour market institution that regulates female labour.