Mortgaging Women's Lives: Feminist Critiques of Structural Adjustment

by Pamela Sparr

Overview

This book explores the impact on Third World women of the stringent economic prescriptions of the World Bank and IMF. Introductory chapters explain in non-jargonistic terms exactly what structural adjustment is. These are followed by feminist critiques of its implications, and then a series of carefully chosen case studies examining the specific dimensions of structural adjustment in countries as diverse as Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856491020
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/01/1993
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Pamela Sparr is an economist working for the Women's Division of the United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.

The contributors are all women social scientists from the countries concerned.
Pamela Sparr is an economist working for the Women's Division of the United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.

The contributors are all women social scientists from the countries concerned.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. What is Structural Adjustment? – Pamela Sparr
The political-economic context
The variety of policy-based loans
The goals of structural adjustment
Loan procedures and strategies

2. Feminist Critiques of Structural Adjustment – Pamela Sparr
Theoretical underpinnings of structural adjustment
The gender bias in neoclassical theory
The issue of causality
Empirical evidence of the impact of SAPs on women
Is it all bad?
Appendix

3. Privatization and the Demise of State Feminism in Egypt – Mervat F. Hatem
Institutionalized feminism in the 1950s and 1960s
How structural adjustment changed women’s status
Conclusions

4. Ghana: Women in the Public and Informal Sectors under the Economic Recovery Programme – Takyiwaa Manuh
Social and economic context
Economic conditions which led to the ERP/SAP
The SAP and women’s employment
The SAP and women’s employment in the public sector
The SAP and women’s employment in the informal sector
The SAP and rural women’s employment
Conclusions

5. What Has Export-oriented Manufacturing Meant for Turkish Women? – Nilüfer Çagatau amd Günseli Berik
From import-substituting industrialization to export-led industrialization
Changing the economic course
Employment implications of structural adjustment for women workers
Policy conclusions

6. Structural Adjustment Policies, Industrial Development and Women in Sri Lanka – Swarna Jayaweera
The prelude
Structural adjustment policies
Women’s changing industrial employment opportunities
Women in small-scale and cottage industries
Women in export-oriented industries
Women entrepreneurs
Consequences and implications

7. The Dynamics of Economic Change and Gender Roles: Export Cropping in the Philippines – Maria Sagrario Floro
The SAP development model: promises and contradictions
Agriculture sector changes
Impact of the SAP on rural women
The traditional role of rural women
Impact on women’s home production activities
Effect on women’s time spent in crop production
Impact on women’s participation in the labour market
Conclusion

8. Nigeria: Agricultural Exports and Compensatory Schemes – Rural Women’s Production Resources and Quality of Life – Patience Elabor-Idemudia
Women and Nigeria’s agricultural development: a history
Nigeria’s structural adjustment policy
The case study
The Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs)
Research methodology
Socio-economic background
Agricultural sector
Household sector
Decision-making
Social and economic implications of SAP for women
Recommendations for sustainable development: alternatives to SAPs
Nigeria’s alternatives
Conclusions

9. Hitting Where it Hurts Most: Jamaican Women’s Livelihoods in Crisis – Joan French
Free Zone work
Higglering
Agriculture
Migration
Prostitution
The need for an alternative development path

10. Banking on Women: Where Do We Go From Here? – Pamela Sparr
Sharpening the cutting edge of the debate
Broadening the research agenda
Directions for political work
Current work on altering the state
Campaigns related to multi-lateral development institutions
Political approaches to transforming the private sector
Policy and organizing problematics

About the contributors
Index

Tables
1.1 Adjustment loans and lending commitments 1980-91
1.2 Legal policy conditions stipulated in World Bank adjustment loans
3.1 Egypt’s formal sector employment by gender and type of employer
8.1 Marketing outlets and constraints
8.2 Women’s number of hours of work and leisure per day
8.3 Changes in household expenditure in Nigeria
8.4 Nutritional survival strategies
9.1 Some price increases, 1970-1990

Editorial Reviews

A thoughtful and well researched contribution to the analysis of structural adjustment policies worldwide.” —Gita Sen, Indian Institute of Management

“This book captures the real life situation in Africa. It should wake up the people who read it and inspire, motivate and move them to action in solidarity with women.” —Julia Mulaha, Women's Programme, National Council of Churches Kenya

“There have been remarkably few books on this subject written from a feminist perspective. This is therefore a particularly welcome addition.” —Peggy Antrobus, general coordinator of DAWN

From the Publisher