The effects of neoliberal structural adjustment on women's relative employment in Latin America

Abstract

Neoliberal structural adjustment policies (SAPS) have been criticized as having negative effects on women's employment. An analysis of several Latin American countries in the 1980s and 1990s suggests that differences in SAP contribute to differences in the growth of women's relative employment. Countries with less orthodox adjustment policies appear to have had greater growth in women's relative employment than countries with more orthodox policies. This pattern is illustrated with reference to specific countries and is tested for generality using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, incorporating data from all Latin American countries from which suitable data are available.