Different Sections

Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction (Dzodzi, T.)

Baden, S. (1997) "Economic Reform and Poverty: A Gender Analysis" Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Stockholm: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency)

Hassanin, Mahassen Mostafa (1999) Egypt:  Poverty Profile National NGO Commission for Population and Development. Presentation made at the ICSW Civil Society Forum on Poverty, February 11, 1999, New York

Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (1998) Impact of Economic Reform Policies on Poverty in Selected ESCWA Member Countries: Egypt, Jordan and Yemen (New York: United Nations)

Laithy, Heba El, and Oman, O. M, "Profile and Trend of Poverty and Economic Growth in Egypt", A Background Paper Prepared for Egypt Human Development Report 1996, UNDP

United Nations Development Programme (1996) Egypt Human Development Report on Poverty (Cairo: UNDP Egypt)
 

Structural Adjustment and Women’s Employment

Women in developing countries in general and in Egypt in particular are considered the first victims as soon as economic changes occur. Macro-economic policies including economic structural adjustment policies concentrate mainly on the reallocation of resources as to achieve both stability and growth rather than on micro economic issues and gender differentiation. These policies are male biased as they fail to take into account the specific conditions of women and in particular in the labor market. From our point of view this is the result of a long term neglect of the role of gender in institutional theories about structures of internal labor markets, dual labor markets and labor market segmentation. Labor market theories were developed emphasizing the segmentation of the labor markets by race, color, religion, economic activity, age, geographical location, regulation, educational level, wage system and occupational structure.

Currently more recent research has shown how the structure of the females’ labor market differ from that for men. “It differs in terms of distribution by occupation, by sector as well as by work status. In some empirical work it was stated that women are more likely to be secondary workers than men, more likely to be primary subordinate workers and less likely to be independent primary workers such as craft workers, managers, professionals” Internal labor markets treat workers as members of groups and tend to treat workers within these groups differently segregating women and men into different jobs rather than paying them unequally for the same job.

This is what we call Gender Segmentation at the national level. Study questions in this respect are: Is gender a source of differentiation in the labor market? Does the female labor market have specific characteristics? Is the place of women marginalized? Do the characteristics of unemployed females differ from the characteristics of unemployed men? How much is the contribution of women in unions versus the participation of males?

In addition to gender segmentation of the labor market at the national level there is gender segmentation at the enterprise level. Men and women might have different labor market experiences within the same institutions although national labor laws treat workers in the same job category equally. “It has also been stated that workers of different gender by similar occupational characteristics might not experience similar earnings or mobility prospects at the enterprise level” Entry level jobs are likely to be different for men and women so that segregation will be maintained throughout one's career in the firm and women's job ladder may be shorter. Institutionally that type of differentiation could be aided by placing women in job titles that differ from related jobs that men hold. Clerical jobs which are feminized constitute a secondary system with many points of entry, high turnover and low wages in contrast to managerial jobs which are organized along craft or industrial lines”. Such observations suggest that the effects of internal labor markets differ for men and women in spite of consistent legal rights.

(1) The sexual division of labor. This factor implies that some kind of work is socially constituted as women's work while other kind of work is socially considered as men's work. This is a result of the prevailing pattern of social values, the division of labor inside the household as well as outside it.

(2) The second kind of bias is unrecognizing unpaid work required for the process of reproduction and maintenance of human resources and the work done by women outside the house to help their husbands, especially in the agricultural sector. The explicit exclusion of this work by different economic policies will lead to the sub-ordination of women to men.

(3) The third aspect is that in some cases economic policies are adding to the women's responsibility within the household through the increase in the costs of living without adding to the resources women require to undertake their responsibilities whether in the house or outside. Price liberalization policies and the rise in the cost of living accompanying ERSAP in particular lead to the rise of electricity fees and kerosene prices. This will throw an additional burden on working women given her traditional role in the household while she will be compelled to make savings on help in the housework, whether human or electrical to control the financial obligations of the family, and she is also in need to have a job outside the house to compensate the decrease in the family income.

Soliman, Azza Abdel Aziz (1995) Programme of Economic Reform & Structural Adjustment & its Effect on Egyptian Woman in Labor Force (Cairo : Cairo Demographic Centre)

Razavi, S. (1997) Working towards a More Gender Equitable Macro-economic Agenda. Report of the UNRISD/CPD workshop, Rajendrapur, 26- 8 November 1996

Ongile, G. (1992) "The Effects of Structural Adjustment Policies on Women's Access to Employment Opportunities" Institute for Development Studies Working Paper No 488 (Kenya : University of Nairobi)

Gladwin, Christina H. (ed.) (1991) Structural adjustment and African Women Farmers. (Gainesville : University of Florida Press: Center for African Studies, University of Florida: Orders, University Presses of Florida )

Standing G. and V. Tokman (eds) (1991) Towards Social Adjustment: Labor Market Issues in Structural Adjustment (Geneva: International Labor Office)

Mehra, R., (1991)”Can Structural Adjustment Work for Women Farmers?" American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 73, No. 5, December

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

As a consequence of structural adjustment, the question of employment generation and conditions of work in general, as well as those specific to women’s employment, are closely tied to the nature of the adjustment policies being implemented and their success in bringing about the structural changes necessary for the resumption of investment and output growth in the economy.
Growing awareness - particularly within the women's movement - of the need to mainstream gender in economic policies and planning tools, is contributing to a new emphasis on strengthening understanding of macroeconomics from a gender perspective and promoting women's participation in economic policy and decision-making.

The analytical framework in the existing literature on female employment and adjustment consists of a mapping between the structural changes and the nature of gender segregation in the labor market of the economy in question.

In the conventional approach, the adjustment policies by changing relative prices and removing quantitative restrictions are supposed to lead to a restructuring of the economy towards the expansion of the traded-goods sectors and a simultaneous squeeze on the non-traded goods sectors, thus restoring internal and external equilibrium and providing the conditions for the sustainable growth of the economy.

Women workers can be adversely affected by the adjustment program if they are initially concentrated in the non-traded sectors, and or due to labor-market segmentation along gender lines there are barriers to their mobility across the sectors.

If women are initially concentrated in the non-traded goods, sectors such as social and community services, they would be adversely affected in the transition period when the non-traded goods sectors are being squeezed and resources being shifted to traded goods sectors.

In addition, if there are barriers to their moving into new export-oriented traded goods sectors, the deterioration of real wages and conditions of work for women can be prolonged and even persist in the final equilibrium, when the economy has fully adjusted to the relative price changes resulting from the liberalization program.

The introduction of “user fees” for purposes of “cost recovery” in education can discourage the continuation of schooling for girls from poor households. This effect can be further strengthened if adjustment policy also leads to increased need for adult women to work outside home, e.g. in commercial agriculture, hence increasing the need for younger girls to attend to domestic work. Lack of education is shown to have deleterious effects on the future prospects of women both in the labour market and within the household.

The impact of adjustment on female employment becomes mainly an empirical question largely determined by exogenous barriers to women’s job mobility or wage discrimination. This, in our opinion, is unsatisfactory. Firstly, women’s role in the labour market and discriminatory practices against them are themselves subject to transformation depending on the strategy of development and the patterns of structural change in the economy. Secondly, the participation of women and their position in the formal labour market can have crucial implications for the success of the structural adjustment program in the first place. Such implications in the conventional literature have been discussed in terms of possible inefficiencies that the lack of mobility of women can create in the final post-adjustment equilibrium situation. These inefficiencies, however, are not significant enough to endanger the adjustment program, and hence gender issues remain marginal to the workings of the adjustment process according to the conventional view.

Baden, S. (1992) "Social, Economic and Health Implications of Adjustment for Women in Developing Countries" extended memorandum prepared for DANIDA (Brighton : BRIDGE, Institute for Development Studies)

Creating an Economic Security Agenda

Expanding Access to Quality Education and Training

Ensuring that Employment Yields Economic Security

Promoting the Development of Women-Owned Businesses

Increasing Women's Financial Literacy and Asset Development

Promoting women's economic security and rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Engendering macroeconomic frameworks and building capacity of countries to manage globalization and economic transition from the perspective of poor women.

Promoting enabling institutional, legal and regulatory environments for women's equal ownership and access to economic resources and assets such as land, finance, and property

Strengthening women's economic capacity and rights as entrepreneurs, producers and home-based workers.

Bringing a gender analysis to economic policies and the distribution, use and generation of public resources by means of gender responsive budget analysis.