• Gender impacts

Gender impacts of trade liberalisation

This report examines the liberalisation of the labour market in Africa from a gender perspective. It analyses current economic and labour policies of seven African countries to see their impact on the labour force and the organised labour movement in general, and women in particular. The countries examined are: Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana , Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

While there are a number of difference between these countries many common trends, issues and challenges could also be identified:

• the formulation of structural adjustment policies was based on the assumption that the effects of the policies are gender-neutral
• now, however, it is generally acknowledged that women tend to suffer more and gain less (if there are any gains) from the adjustment policies than men do
• liberalisation policies often lead to job cut backs in sectors where more women are likely to be employed, such as health and education but also the public sector which has traditionally offered more secure and stable employment for women
• privatisation is also likely to have a negative effect on social services as there will be less of them leading to an increased burden for poor women due to difficult access to such services as well as increased unpaid labour time and responsibility
• poverty due to increased unemployment means that households have problems meeting their basic human needs: in such a situation women are usually responsible for collecting wood and water, and girl children often give up schooling to help meet basic needs
• trade unions which have an extremely important role to play in organising and protecting workers, do not always practice gender equality and sexual harassment of female members is commonplace.

Note : the country chapters can be downloaded individually.

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