Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2009

Women Workers Pay the Price for the Global Economic Crisis

March 2009

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

New research by Oxfam International uncovers a hidden aspect of the global economic crisis - its impact on women workers in developing countries. Preliminary findings from Oxfam's research with women in global supply chains shows that the crisis is having a devastating impact on their livelihoods, their rights, and their families. Women are often first to be laid off, with employers leaving pay outstanding and evading legal obligations to give notice and pay compensation, and governments turning a blind eye, with devastating knock-on effects. Last year, women's wages were putting food on the table and children through school in millions of families. Now, the lives of women who were already suffering from poor labour conditions have become even more precarious.