The very poorest of women in the world are benefiting from globalization trends that have shifted manufacturing jobs to their doorstep, says a UC Davis economic geographer who has been studying world job trends for the past four decades.

In her new book, "Gender and Development," community development professor Janet Henshall Momsen documents the economic changes that have happened to women and men in countries such as Ghana, China, Bangladesh and Brazil.

"It is a hopeful book," Momsen says. "One of the unexpected blessings of the computer age is that isolated women can get in touch and learn from each other. There is now global interaction with groups of women talking about everything from how to handle domestic violence to how to start small businesses."

In the book, Momsen identifies some pitfalls of microcredit programs promoted by the World Bank and other agencies to encourage women entrepreneurs.

"In many ways, by tying the loans to women as being more reliable than men, the policy has promoted the feminization of debt -- women are often stuck with the loan they can't pay back after their husbands have taken the money and spent it unwisely."

Much of the benefits of globalization for women are more political and social than economic, Momsen says. She points to a growing confidence and sense of power as poor women are able to earn more money, feed their children and earn their husbands' respect.

Among the topics Momsen covers are factory work for Muslim women in Malaysia, sex-specific migration and its effects on Lesotho, family violence in Tajikistan and the husbands trafficking in wives in Bangladesh.