The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards "Embedded Liberalism"?(Routledge/UNRISD Research in Gender and Development)

In the last two decades public policies have reflected a drive for accelerated global economic integration ("globalization"), associated with greater economic liberalization. The outcomes have been largely disappointing, even in the estimate of their designers. Rural livelihoods have become more insecure, and the expected growth has rarely materialized. Insecurity is also etched into the growth of informal economies across the world. Yet the economic policy agenda that has been so adverse to many people around the world has also provided new opportunities to some social groups, including some low-income women. In response to widespread discontent with the liberalization agenda, more attention is now being given to social policies and governance issues, viewed as necessary if globalization is to be "tamed" and "embedded". The contributors to this volume address key issues and questions such as whether states have the capacity to remedy the social distress unleashed by liberalization in the absence of any major revision of their macroeconomic policies and whether the proposed social policy reforms can redress gender-based inequalities in access to resources and power.

Table of Contents:
1. The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards “Embedded Liberalism”? Shahra Razavi Part One: Rural Livelihoods under Liberalization 2. The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization Policies on African Agricultural Economies and Rural Livelihoods Ann Whitehead 3. Gender Inequality and Agrarian Change in Liberalizing India Cecile Jackson and Nitya Rao 4. The Feminization of Agriculture? The Impact of Economic Restructuring in Rural Latin America Carmen Diana Deere Part Two: Informalization and Feminization of Labour 5. Informalization, the Informal Economy and Urban Women’s Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s Dzodzi Tsikata 6. Informalization and Women’s Workforce Participation: A Consideration of Recent Trends in Asia Jayati Ghosh 7. Informalization of Labour Markets: Is Formalization the Answer? Martha Alter Chen 8. Women’s Migration, Social Reproduction and Care Nicola Yeates Part Three: Social Policy and the Search for Security 9. Labour Reform and Livelihood Insecurity in China Ching Kwan Lee 10. Girls, Mothers, and Poverty Reduction in Mexico: Evaluating Progresa-Oportunidades Agustín Escobar Latapí and Mercedes González de la Rocha 11. Gender, Citizenship and New Approaches to Poverty Relief: Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes in Argentina Constanza Tabbush 12. Women in India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Smita Gupta

About the Author :
Shahra Razavi is Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), where she oversees the Institute's Programme on Gender and Development. She has conceptualized and coordinated global research projects in a number of areas, including Agrarian Change, Gender and Land Rights; Gender and Social Policy; and The Political and Social Economy of Care. Her recent books include Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context: Uncovering the Gendered Structure of "the Social", edited with Shireen Hassim (Palgrave, 2006); Agrarian Change, Gender and Land Rights, special issue of Journal of Agrarian Change (Blackwell, 2003); Gender Justice, Development and Rights, edited with Maxine Molyneux (Oxford University Press, 2002). In 2004--2005, she coordinated the preparation of an UNRISD flagship report, Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, which was the Institute's contribution to the "Beijing+10" process.