Macroeconomic policies, globalization and gender: Issues and challenges in an era of declining economic security

Abstract

Economic globalization and the increasing frequencies of financial and economic crises in East Asia, Latin America and the transition economies in recent years have served to underline the deficiencies and excesses of markets and financial systems. Economic restructuring and market expansion that have occurred as a result of market liberalization policies have created new patterns of wealth and poverty as well as shifts in the levels and patterns of employment and unpaid work. In recent decades, many industrialized and developing countries experienced the destabilization of their labor market structures, leading to the reduction in stable forms of employment and the growth of informalized work or temporary and part-time employment (Ben-eria 2001). These changes have brought greater attention to the heightened vulnerability of poor households in those countries, amidst economic growth and accumulation of global wealth, and the urgent need to address poverty in a more systematic and comprehensive manner. They also emphasize the need better to understand the link between gender and human security and macroeconomic policies specifically in meeting the goals of poverty alleviation and gender equality.