The Impact of Globalization on Women's Health in Africa

This study presents an empirical analysis of the effects of globalization on the status of women's health in Africa. It follows the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. That conference's declaration and platform for action set strategic objectives for the advancement of women in several areas including health. The conference simultaneously considered globalization as a hindrance to improving women's health conditions. It is our intention to empirically investigate the impact of globalization on the health status of women in Africa in the twenty-five years (between 1995 to 2020) since the Beijing conference. Using fixed effect panel data analysis, we investigate the effects of social, political, and economic dimensions of globalization on female health in Africa. This is unique as most economists, when discussing globalization, only focus on a narrow aspect of globalization--economic globalization--that, in general, means openness to international trade and foreign investment. Moreover, unlike most other studies, which solely focus on life expectancy as a measure of women's health, this article uses several health indicators such as infant mortality and maternal mortality to gauge the effects of globalization on women's health.