The Impact of Recession and Structural Adjustment on Women’s Work in Selected Developing Countries

This report reviews the impact on women?s work of recession and structural adjustment policies in developing countries, with a focus on Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980?s. An overview of the existing literature is given, and the problems in analysing the impact of recession and adjustment on women?s employment are discussed. Formal sector employment, male-female wage differentials, urban informal sector employment, agricultural employment, unemployment and underemployment, and compensatory programmes are all examined.