Occasional Paper No. 5
UN Fourth World Conference on Women
August 1995
by Susan Joekes

Tables and figures referred to throughout the text are not reproduced in this version of the paper due to copyright restrictions.

Preface

The Fourth World Conference on Women, to be held in Beijing in September 1995, provides an opportunity for the world community to focus attention on areas of critical concern for women worldwide — concerns that stem from social problems embracing both men and women, and that require solutions affecting both genders. One of the main objectives of the Conference is to adopt a platform for action, concentrating on some of the key areas identified as obstacles to the advancement of women.

UNRISD's work in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women focuses on two of the themes highlighted by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women:

• inequality in women's access to and participation in the definition of economic structures and policies and the productive process itself; and
• insufficient institutional mechanisms to promote the advancement of women.

The Institute's Occasional Paper series for Beijing reflects work carried out under the UNRISD/UNDP project, Technical Co-operation and Women's Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy. The activities of the project include an assessment of efforts by a selected number of donor agencies and governments to integrate gender issues into their activities; the action-oriented part of the project involves pilot studies in Bangladesh, Jamaica, Morocco, Uganda and Viet Nam, the goal of which is to initiate a policy dialogue between gender researchers, policy makers and activists aimed at making economic policies and productive processes more accountable to women.

This paper is intended to contribute to the project's policy dialogues. It considers current changes in the international economic context as they affect the evolution of employment structures, and analyses their implications for women's employment in the trade-related manufacturing and services sectors.

Susan Joekes is a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom Her areas of specialization include gender issues, especially as they relate to employment, local environmental resource management and the international economy. At UNRISD, the project on Technical Co-operation and Women's Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy is being co-ordinated by Shahra Razavi.