Women and Globalisation Women perform excellently at small costs Performing the same work, women earn only two thirds of male pay throughout Europe. In order to reconcile their household and care chores with their job, they accept insignificant employment or other types of employment with­out legal protection. On a European average, the proportion of women working part-time rose from 27.3%(1985) to 31.3%(1995), the male rate from 3.4 to 5.2%. In Germany as well, one third of female em­ployees(3.6% of men) work less than the"nor­mal working hours"(European Commission 1996). Throughout Europe 70 to 90% of all part­time workers are women. Politicians recom­mend to look abroad, to the United States, to Great Britain and to the Netherlands where new part-time jobs have emerged. In Great Britain, two thirds of the positions created since 1993 are part-time jobs. Nearly half(44.3%) of all employed women work part-time, but just 5.5% of men. In the Netherlands 34.3% of all jobs are part-time jobs. If we have a look at the gen­der-specific distribution, 67.2% of all employed women hold these kind of positions, but only 16.7% of men. On the other hand, women per­form 70% of unpaid labour in the household and community and only 0.66% of all children un­der the age of three have a place in day nurser­ies. Part-time jobs normally cannot provide for a living and often lead to poverty in old age. The regular employment in typically female occupa­tions(cleaning jobs, electronic homework, re­tail industry) is insignificant. Whoever works in these areas, is poor despite having work(cf. Notz 1998b). This also holds true for the "new self-em­ployed"(women). Politicians praise the estab­lishment of small firms as the answer to unem­ployment. It belonged to one of the goals of the Employment Summit of Luxembourg 1998 to promote"entrepreneurial spirit". In the time between 1979 and 1990, in 12 of 20 OECD­countries the number of self-employed persons grew faster than the number of wage and salary earners. In the more profitable lines of business men clearly dominate. Half of the"self-em­ployed" women(East 53%, West 41%) pay themselves less than 1,800 DM a month. Nearly 25% of these women have to live with a monthly net income of less than 1,000 DM. Often self­employment turns out to be pseudo self-em­ployment(cf. Notz 1997a). The back yard and street economy of the in­formal sector that has rapidly spread in the in­dustrial countries, the subsistence chores nec­essary for survival, the labour between market and state in the"third sector" and the person­alised services praised as the growth segment of the labour market are as well women's work to a great extent. It is assumed that the expan­sion of better paid female employment, linked to more demanding jobs, leads to an increase of vacancies in household-oriented services, as the demand for flexible"simple services"(private child care, cleaning aids, laundry services, shop­ping aids, etc.) increases. Experts disagree to what extent this will have an effect on employ­ment figures: In Germany, they expect at least one million new jobs in private homes alone (cf Notz 1997b, p. 18ff.). Unpaid vacancies for women exist throughout Europe in social"voluntary services", in self­help organisations or"civic work", recom­mended for women who return to employment after a family leave and for elderly unemployed (cf. Notz 1998a). The future of female gainful employment For the future, it is necessary to denounce the global social contract with its sexist division of labour. Christa Wichterich(1998) is right in re­ferring to the necessity for an internationalisa­tion and globalisation of women's solidarity, opposition and resistance. This would also mean to strengthen the ability of the margi­nalised and weak to help themselves and to jointly develop strategies for the struggle aiming at meaningful work that secures subsistence. In 7