单项选择题

Passage Two

Globalization, a process whereby owners of capital are enabled to move their capital around the globe more quickly and easily, has resulted in the removal of state controls on trade and investment, the disappearance of tariff barriers and the spread of new information and communications technologies. In societies around the world, the effects of globalization have influenced social development. Not only are the influences of globalization apparent in markets, their forces are felt in the processes or working towards equality between men and women. Reda Behars of Egypt, stressing that the advancement of women would not be achieved by passing legislation, said that social development on the national scale must be strengthened and a climate conducive to development most be created if the goals set in Beijing (at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women) are to be realized. The problems stem from the fact that women are very differently positioned in relation to the markets in different parts of the world. In certain places, where women are socially excluded from leaving their homes, the challenge is to find ways for women to participate. In other places, the challenge is to create markets which are more friendly to women’s participation. Ilham Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed of Sudan condemned the debt burden carried by developing countries, economic sanctions, arbitrary measures and denial of access to new technological developments as obstacles to the growth of women’s rights. Women remain very much in the minority among Internet users and still face huge imbalances in the ownership, control and regulation of new information technologies. "The gains of globalization have not been equitably distributed and the gap between rich and poor countries is widening," said Zhang Lei of the People’s Republic of China. The gains of globalization thus far have for the most part been concentrated in the hands of better-off women with higher levels of education and with greater ownership of resources and access to capital. "Work in China and Vietnam shows that globalization has brought new opportunities to young women with familiarity with English in new service sector jobs, but has made a vast number of over-35-year-olds redundant, because they are either in declining industries or have outdated skills," Swasti Mitter of the UN’s Women Watch Online Working Group on Women’s Economic Inequality said.

What does "... but has made a vast number of over-35-year-olds redundant" (Line 2, Para. 5) refer to according to the passage