While gender has become increasingly important in development policies, there is less awareness that policies and the consequences of structural adjustment are never gender-neutral. The myth of neutrality continues while women often suffer de facto exclusion from the development process because of methods of implementation. Globalisation means that resources for the social sector will come out of an ever-shrinking common pool where women will get even less priority. In this meticulous study, the contributors, all well-known scholars -- Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive, K. Seeta Prabhu, Malavika Karlekar, Sumi Krishna, Kumud Sharma, Preet Rustogi, Vasudha Jain and Indrani Mazumdar -- examine what happens once these macro policies affect women at the micro level, especially the poorer women in urban slums and rural villages.

While gender has become increasingly important in development policies, there is less awareness that policies and the consequences of structural adjustment are never gender-neutral. The myth of neutrality continues while women often suffer de facto exclusion from the development process because of methods of implementation. Globalisation means that resources for the social sector will come out of an ever-shrinking common pool where women will get even less priority. In this meticulous study, the contributors, all well-known scholars -- Joy Deshmukh-Ranadive, K. Seeta Prabhu, Malavika Karlekar, Sumi Krishna, Kumud Sharma, Preet Rustogi, Vasudha Jain and Indrani Mazumdar -- examine what happens once these macro policies affect women at the micro level, especially the poorer women in urban slums and rural villages.