From family planning and maternal and child health to reproductive health.

Abstract

T he current global economic crisis is characterised by growing poverty worldwide, great and growing inequality of income, rising unemployment, debt and negative growth in many countries, and worsening urban and rural pollution and environmental degradation. Linked to these factors are increasing food prices, declining standards of health and education due to reduced spending on services, and social and cultural dislocation (Kaldor 1986). Since the 1980s, global deregulation allowing the private sector to expand without restriction has been the dominant principle in the restructuring of the industrialised nations. The restructuring and globalisation of the financial system, the transnationalisation of production and the spread of neo-liberal ideas are reflected in the growth of economic strategies such as high-tech industry, transnational, off-shore, and home-based production, 'flexible' production, and a rapid growth in the service sector (Marchand 1994, 64). This article argues that 'free trade', which guarantees the free movement of goods and capital, may have allowed for an acceleration of economic growth and economic interdependence among market economies in developed countries, but this has happened at the expense of an economic crisis in countries which have not benefited from such uneven growth. This has had a particularly acute impact on poor women, who are marginalised in the world economy. Although it is important to remember that different women's experiences are 'the outcome of different sets of interactions among patriarchal, class, racial, ethical, and spatial relations' (Pearson 1986, 93), gender is a critical determinant in the degree and manner in which economic and other forces affect different groups.l The effects of deregulation are particularly acute in countries of the East and South. In general, while Central and Eastern European countries are struggling with the impact of a radical economic and political transition, the less-developed countries of the South are burdened by debt, depletion in resources caused by poverty, inequality and environmental problems, and 'aid fatigue' after 40 years of 'development' initiatives. The current trends which are restructuring industry and employment towards service sectors, casual, and part-