How do rising levels of international interconnectedness affect
social, economic, and political conditions for women? Research on gender
and international relations frequently offers clear propositions but
seldom submits them to broad, quantitative testing. This article begins to
fill that gap. We advance the hypothesis that, on balance and over time,
increasing cross-national exchange and communication lead to improvements
in women's status and equality. Economic aspects of globalization can
bring new opportunities and resources to women. But equally important,
globalization promotes the diffusion of ideas and norms of equality for
women. In an analysis of 180 countries from 1975 to 2000, employing
cross-sectional–time-series regression techniques, we examine the
impact of several measures of globalization on women's levels of life
expectancy, literacy, and participation in the economy and parliamentary
office. International trade, foreign direct investment, membership in the
United Nations (UN) and World Bank, and ratification of the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), are
associated with improved conditions for women.A grant from the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies
at the University of California, Irvine, supported this research. The
authors are grateful for constructive comments from participants in the
faculty research colloquium of the Department of Political Science at
Brigham Young University. The authors also received helpful suggestions
from their fellow panelists at the 2004 Annual Meetings of the American
Political Science Association and from the editor of IO, Lisa
Martin, and two anonymous reviewers.