A/HRC/11/6 page 21 both the Global North and the South.60 Gender equality in income and employment has been shown to have a stronger impact on women’s status and gender equality than education alone.61 Employment can empower women to more effectively resist patriarchal control and practices such as early marriage, polygamy, and discriminatory inheritance and land rights that increase the risks of VAW.62 65. Women’s employment opportunities often manifest at the intersections of patriarchy and capitalism where the male breadwinner model and uneven market entitlement structures disadvantage particularly poor women who have little or no resources at their disposal. The majority of working women lack access to public provisions, such as, childcare services, social security benefits and old-age pensions.63 Competitive globalization, while expanding women’s employment opportunities, has done so under precarious employment conditions, including subcontracting, outsourcing and offshore production, among others, which by nature are temporary, insecure and unregulated. 66. Many of the poor women from the Global South, who have entered the labour market in home country or abroad as migrants, often work in jobs that lack minimum labour and human rights standards. In some Northern countries women have been encouraged to take on part-time employment that does not guarantee economic independence and job security or opportunities for career development.64 These contexts, by and large, contribute to sustaining women’s subordinate position and in some situations expose women to increased risk of violence and exploitation. At the same time, however, the feminization of the workforce, including migrant labour are creating new contradictions that can potentially rupture patriarchal formations and expand women’s autonomy. Public policy in this regard can play a critical role in either empowering patriarchy or advancing women’s human rights. 60 Farmer, Amy and Tiefenthaler, Jill, “An economic analysis of domestic violence”, Review of Social Economy, Vol. 55, No. 3 (1997), pp. 337-358. 61 Seguino, loc. cit. (note 19 above), pp. 52 and 67. 62 Blumberg, Rae Lesser, “Income under female versus male control: Hypotheses from a theory of gender stratification and data from the Third World”, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 9, No. 1 (March 1988), pp. 51-84. 63 Orloff, Ann Shola, “Women’s empowerment and welfare regimes: Globalization, export orientation and social policy in Europe and North America”, in Social Policy and Development Programmes, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, pp. 29-30 (available at http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/0/58EC1361F09195F7C1256C080044FC77 ?OpenDocument). 64 For example, see the report on my mission to the Netherlands (A/HRC/4/34/Add.4).