• DOI:10.1177/0094582X9602300104
• Corpus ID: 143583266

The Disruptions of Adjustment

@article{FernndezPoncela1996TheDO,
  title={The Disruptions of Adjustment},
  author={Anna Mar{\'i}a Fern{\'a}ndez Poncela and Bill Steiger},
  journal={Latin American Perspectives},
  year={1996},
  volume={23},
  pages={49 - 66}
}

• A. M. Fernández Poncela, B. Steiger
• Published 1 January 1996
• Economics
• Latin American Perspectives

In the second half of the 1980s, various researchers examined the impact of structural adjustment on the popular sectors in Nicaragua, and some showed how women especially have borne the brunt of this program (Cornia, Jolly, and Stewart, 1987; UNICEF, 1988). The so-called masculine bias in economic policies and development planning has been especially apparent in the implementation of the stabilization plan. That many &dquo;survival strategies&dquo; have increased the unremunerated labor of women has compounded this differential effect (UNICEF, 1987; Beneria, 1992; Elson, 1990; Safa and Antrobus, 1992; Fernandez Poncela, 1993a, 1993b). Most research on the adjustment, aside from not explaining the differential impact of gender, adopts a macrosocial focus. This approach-adopted even in many sources that do employ a gender perspective-is useful for examining the general panorama, but it ignores an important part of the day-to-day reality of individuals. Only a qualitative and microsocial approach can bring this aspect to light. Poverty, open and disguised unemployment, the family responsibilities expected of women, the overload of domestic chores, and social violence all translate into psychosocial disruptions. Putting aside the question of their rationality or technical effectiveness, neoliberal strategies of economic stabilization negatively affect the familial, social, and labor relations of the population, particularly among women of the popular sector. The weight of structural poverty, added to the economic crisis and adjustment, is heaviest on the poorest sectors: salaried or self-employed workers, agricultural day laborers or small farmers, and traders (not to mention the occasional impoverishment and downward mobility of professionals and the middle class). Interpretation of this situation from the perspective of the affected people