Economic globalization and its correlate, trade liberalization, offer women opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. In parts of the world where seclusion of women or male guardianship over women have been norms, women’s entry into the labor force and their growing visibility in public places often has been met by conservative backlashes, intense national debates on women’s roles, and feminist activism. Globalization has only served to intensify such debates and reactions, because of the accelerated nature of the social changes it engenders. This paper focuses on theoretical perspectives of rights of women since the birth of the concept of human rights. The human rights demanded cultural, social and economic rights. However, the notion of human rights in its initial days excluded women from demanding such rights. The paper makes an attempt to analyze the works on human rights that neither recognized the rights of women nor considered the intellect and rationality of women noteworthy. The process of globalization nevertheless has raised the demand for workforce and the focus of any program is to include women in the economic process of development with the ultimate objective of bringing about equality. In spite of recognizing the rights of women, the paper observes that violence against women has not ended and there are reports of such incidents. How have globalization processes affected women’s social rights and economic citizenship? This paper shows how state strategies for integration into the global economy have been affecting women’s economic participation and social rights and have been met by women’s collective action for legal equality and socio-economic rights. A discussion of recent reforms of family codes and labor laws will elucidate the contradictory effects of globalization and the complicated relations between states and feminists in the region.

Economic globalization and its correlate, trade liberalization, offer women opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.