Gender and Structural Adjustment in Pakistan

Abstract

We review the change in the socio-economic condition of women during the intensive period of structural adjustment (1987/88 onwards) in their role as producers, as home managers and as mothers. In their role as producers, overall female labour force participation increased such that their share in the labour force virtually tripled. However, over this period there has also been a dramatic decline in female self-employment and a more dramatic rise in the female unemployment rate. In their role as home managers, women confronted a more than doubling of the sensitive price index and a cut in consumption subsidies as a percent of the budget by about two-thirds. The price of wheat, from which the poor derive almost three-fifths of their caloric intake and three-fourths, also more than doubled. In their role as mothers, data show that compared to 1987-88, education expenditure as a percent of GNP has been constant while that of health has actually declined.