Surviving Manley and Seaga: Case Studies of Women's Responses to Structural Adjustment Policies

Abstract

Using the life stories of four urban, working-class women in Jamaica, this study examines how female economic activity is differentially affected by structural adjustment policies over a five-year period (1980-85). The Jamaican working-class familial organization centers on women as mothers and as providers. Under conditions framed by structural adjustment policies, the macro constraints of the national economy come face to face with the micro-level activities of working-class and poor women, children and men