1st Edition

Searching for Security Women's Responses to Economic Transformations

By Isa Baud, Ines Smyth Copyright 1997

    Human Security is a development buzzword of the 1990s. To attain security people need to be safe from natural disasters, such as famine, and 'man-made' problems, such as unemployment. Women are a particularly insecure section of society with the impact of deprivation disproportionately shouldered by women throughout the developing world.
    Searching for Security examines how economic, political and environmental factors have contributed to increased gender insecurity in the last decade. Analyzing the impacts of insecurity-inducing global changes on the lives of women throughout the developing world, the book discusses the gender responses to these changing circumstances from Africa to Malaysia, Hungary to the Caribbean.
    By examining the impact of liberal economic policies, and to a lesser extent the impact of war, rape and environmental damage on the lives of women, this collection of essays makes a timely contribution to emerging policy efforts to recognize and address the issue of gender insecurity.

    1. SEARCHING FOR SECURITY: Women's Responses to Economic Transformations Isa Baud and Ines Smyth 2. GLOBAL CHANGE AND INSECURITY: Are Women the Problem of the Solution? Ruth Pearson 3. THE RETREAT OF THE STATE IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN: The Impact on women and their Responses Gemma Tang Nain 4. INFORMAL SOCIAL SECURITY IN AFRICA FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE Gudrun Lachenmann 5. IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH: Gender Issues in Health Policy and their Implications for the 1990s Jo Beall 6. HOW CAN HUNGARIAN WOMEN LOSE WHAT THEY NEVER HAD? Maria Adamik 7. ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING IN MALAYSIA: Implications for Women Workers Chee Heng Leng and Cecilia Ng Choon Sim 8. TARGETING WOMAN-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS AND WOMAN-MAINTAINED FAMILIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Mayra Buvinic and Geeta Rao Gupta

    Biography

    Isa Baud is associate Professor of the Institute of Human Geography, University of Amsterdam; Ines Smyth has recently joined OXFAM as a Policy Advisor.

    'This is a timely book and the style is a model of clarity. The volume makes concrete suggestions for enhancing economic and political security for women in the midst of global restructuring - Swasti Mitter, Development and Change