Edited by NAHID ASLANBEGUI, STEVEN PRESSMAN and GALE SUMMERFIELD London and New York [page iii/title] WOMEN IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC REFORM Nahid Aslanbegui, Steven Pressman and Gale Summerfield[page iv/imprint] First published 1994 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 1994 Edited by Nahid Aslanbegui, Steven Pressman and Gale Summerfield Typeset in Garamond by Printed and bound in Great Britain by All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-415-10422-X 0-415-10423-8 (pbk) [page i/half-title with long blurb] WOMEN IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC REFORM The world economy is going through a period of radical change. This is self-evident in post-Socialist Europe with the disappearance of centrally planned economies. However, policies of liberalization and privatization are also sweeping the less developed world. While traditional theory predicts beneficial results from these changes, the practical outcome is less certain. Whatever the overall effect, it is clear that some citizens will pay a higher price than others. In Women in the Age of Economic Reform the authors deal with the impact of structural change on women. Each chapter summarizes the changes that have taken place in a particular economy. This is developed further by an empirical analysis of the effect on women. The authors discuss the evidence of gender bias and reach some telling, if unsurprising conclusions. It seems that regardless of the type of change involved, women suffer more in the transformation process. The authors conclude that this result is unlikely to be random. Rather, it reflects the social and political condition of women. Addressing these issues is thus essential if the burden of economic transformation is to be distributed fairly. Nahid Aslanbegui is Associate Professor of Economcis and Finance at Monmouth College, New Jersey. She is particularly interested in the areas of Women in Devleopment, History of Economic Thought and Economic Education. Steven Pressman is Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at Monmouth College, New Jersey. He specializes in Macroeconomics, Poverty and Public Finance. Gale Summerfield is Associate Professor of Economics at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has written extensivley on the impact of economic reforms on women in China.