Poor Women and Work in the Third World: A Research Agenda for Organisational Psychologists

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to draw the attention of organisational psychologists to the realities of poor women's work experiences in the Third World and provide a research plan forstudying these issues. Based upon interview and observational data, the article describes three cases of working women in Nicaragua and raises research questions emanating from these work situations. The work sites are a microenterprise development project, the maquilas or assembly plants, and a coffee plantation. The nature and import of the questions in the proposed research agenda demonstrate the valuable contribution organisational psychologists can make to the understanding of women and work issues in the Third World.

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