The impact of recession and structural adjustment on women's work in selected developing countries

Introduction

This paper reviews the impact on women's work of recession and structural adjustment policies in developing countries. For the purposes of this review, the overall focus will be on the 1980s, and on Latin America and sub-Saharan African(SSA), although more specific time periods will be highlighted as relevant. Because
of the relative insulation of Asian countries from recession and their (on the hole)after and more heterogeneous adjustment experiences, only limited reference is made to that region. In the literature on sub-Saharan Africa, adjustment policies form the framework for much of the existing analysis. But the material on Latin America and the Caribbean is set mainly within the framework of examining the effects of recession on women's work, with stabilisation and adjustment seen in this context.

There is a limited literature on the impact of recession on women's employment in developing economies, mainly focusing on Latin America (ICRW, 1986; Hirata and Humphrey, 1990; Francke, 1992). Some studies of the effects of recession on women's employment have highlighted the 'added worker' effect thereby women enter the labour force in increasing numbers and often at low wages to compensate for falling real household incomes; others note the withdrawal of some groups of women from the labour force (the 'discouraged worker' effect) as labour market conditions worsen. Sectoral shifts in labour demand and changing working conditions under recession are also highlighted, particularly in women's participation in informal sector activity or casualised forms of labour.

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