By: Maddie Baker
Criticism of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been rampant in the past few decades due in part to the negative effects of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in many countries. These programs are infamous for cutting down the public sector and slashing social spending in countries that are in most need of social programs. Although it is well known that SAPs and neoliberal reform policies weigh heavily on the poor, the fact that women bear a disproportionately large part of this burden is often forgotten.
Today, women must care for their families as well as find a source of income. Scholars call this situation the double burden. Due to this double burden, any decrease in social programs has serious effects on women in heavily indebted countries. In many cases, neoliberal reform packages decrease women’s choices and opportunities. Author Pamela Sparr writes, “In cutting back on public services, for example, governments have implicitly relied on a quiet army of wives, co-wives, mothers, daughters, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, female friends and neighbors to pick up the slack.”[1]
There are many ways in which women are more likely to be negatively affected than men, and these are just a few:
Higher rate of unemployment for women: A study done in Egypt showed that during a period of structural adjustment, unemployment increased due to job cuts in the public sector. While unemployment for males increased to 10 percent, unemployment for females increased to a staggering 40.7 percent.[2] While female unemployment in Egypt is usually higher than male unemployment, 40.7% is over 20% higher than the usual rate according to the World Bank.[3]
Increase in workload due to the double burden: Social programs such as health programs and educational programs help women take care of their families by taking care of the sick and educating children, things traditionally done by women. Because of these traditional roles, cuts in social programs transfer the work back to women, increasing their work burden at home.
Women are more likely to be pulled out of school: Due to the increase in work needing to be done at home because of cuts in social programs, mothers are much more likely to pull their daughters out of school to help with the work.
How can these harmful consequences be reversed in highly indebted nations? Debt relief is an important part of the solution.
Debt relief will take money that was used to service heavy debt loads, and recycle it back into the social sector thus diminishing the harmful effects of debt on women. The revenue recovered through debt relief could help reduce the household burden that women face therefore helping to send female children back to school. If spending in the public sector expanded as a result of debt relief, many women that formerly worked in the public sector could go back to work.
Debt relief and debt cancellation have been proven to renew spending to important social sectors. In fact, the Jubilee USA Network has cited specific instances in which communities have seen great results from debt cancellation, including the vaccination of thousands of children in Mozambique as well as the return of 1.5 million children to school in Tanzania.[4]
However, even beyond debt relief, we must prevent loan programs from having such negative effects by demanding fair and responsible lending practices for poor nations. This will ensure that loans don’t go to irresponsible or corrupt governments and that expectations for repayment and interest are fair and have been truly taken out by the people of the borrowing nation. By allowing women to take on so much of the burden that comes from neoliberal reform, we fail to invest in the future of these poor countries. Through debt cancellation and responsible lending and borrowing, that burden can be lifted and much of the renewed funding will end up directly aiding mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and all of the women who have been given the title of caretaker.
[1] Sparr, Pamela, ed. Mortgaging Women's Lives: Feminist Critiques of Structural Adjustment. London: Zed Books, 1994. 17.
[2] Hatem, Mervat. "Privatization and the Demise of State Feminism in Egypt." In Mortgaging Women's Lives , Pamela Sparr, 40-60. London: Zed Books Ltd, 1994, 48.
[3] "Unemployment, female (% of female labor force)." The World Bank . The World Bank , n.d. Web. 29 June 2012
[4] "Why Drop the Debt?." Jubilee USA Network. Jubilee USA Network, n.d. Web. 28 June 2012.
Hatem, Mervat. "Privatization and the Demise of State Feminism in Egypt." In Mortgaging Women's Lives , Pamela Sparr, 40-60. London: Zed Books Ltd, 1994, 48.
Sparr, Pamela, ed. Mortgaging Women's Lives: Feminist Critiques of Structural Adjustment. London: Zed Books, 1994.
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