Adapted From: Workers’ World News January/February 1996

In 1990, a total of 780 million people out of 4 billion in less developed countries were living on diets that were not sufficient for a healthy life. About 184 million children suffered from a moderate form of protein-energy malnutrition. Women in developing countries have suffered the worst effects of the IMF and World Bank policies of neoliberalism. The structural adjustment programmes that go along with IMF/ World Bank loans have only resulted in political and economic disaster for the countries that borrow money from them.

Structural adjustment programmes are based on export-oriented industrialisation. They do not develop industry to meet local demand for basic goods. This kind of industrialisation has also resulted in people moving from rural areas to the towns and cities. The participation of women in the economy tends to be higher where the economy is organised around family-based production in agriculture. So, an industrialisation policy that is not linked to a sustainable land development programme has a negative impact on the participation of women in the labour market.

Where women participate in the industrial labour force, they are usually in a worse position than men. Transnational corporations, in their search for cheaper labour and higher productivity, often target women in developing countries as the most vulnerable group in the labour market. For example, it is more profitable for an American company to employ women to input data into computers in the Philippines than in America. Research in 1986 showed that shirtmakers in Bangladesh were paid 3-5 per cent of what US shirtmakers earned and were 60 per cent more productive.

Basic needs first

Women are the carers of children, the sick and the elderly. Therefore it is women, especially working class women, who benefit most from state services and welfare benefits such as maternity, childcare and unemployment benefits and primary healthcare.But the debt crisis and the economic liberalisation policies of the IMF and World Bank have caused major cutbacks in the provision of social security. For example, in 1994 India cut back its social service spending between 20 and 80 percent. India's external debt in 1993 was about US$ 85 billion.

Where employers have the legal obligation to contribute towards the cost of social security benefits, they often discriminate against women by refusing them permanent jobs.

According to the World Bank Report of 1995, many companies in the European country of Austria employ women only on a fixed-term contract so as to avoid paying maternity benefits. Some garment manuacturers in Bangladesh employ women only on a daily casual basis for the same reason. In Latin America some firms go as far as making women produce certificates that they have been sterilised before they will employ them.

To ensure that the basic needs of the people, particularly women, are met, we must:

• remove the stranglehold of neoliberal policies and the IMF/World Bank.

• break the cycle of debt repayment so that governments can have the money and resources to run social security programmes that will improve the conditions of women.

• counteract the repressive employment practices of TNCs through state regulation (investment agreements, minimum wage legislation)