Women are often treated as legal juniors under family law and ignored by economic policy, namely subject to double discrimination on the basis of gender and family roles. With increasing evidence of shifting family arrangements, diminishing co-residence of spouses, and the growing economic responsibility of women for children, policies that limit womens' economic access on the basis of marital or fertility status (or discriminate against them in the workplace) are inappropriate.
This strategic objective formed part of the Platform for Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference for Women (Beijing, 1995).
Action by governments to address this objective might include routinely collecting statistics and indicators disaggregated by sex, and strengthening national machinery for the advancement of women by locating it in a critical location in national policy-making where it can monitor the extent to which gender considerations are taken into account in government policies and programmes. It could include training government officials in gender analysis.
Action by non-governmenta1 organizations might include monitoring national policies and programmes for the extent to which gender considerations have been taken into account, assisting women who have been negatively affected by programmes to make this known and to obtain relief.
Action by organizations of the UN system might include promoting the global collection and dissemination of statistics and indicators disaggregated by sex, and developing new indicators, especially in the context of the system of national accounts, using gender analysis in the development of programmes in financial and other development institutions. It might involve strengthening networks of focal points as well as main institutions for gender analysis.
Economies are in the midst of institutional, structural and organizational changes at micro and macro level. The low presence of women in decision-making positions in business and local communities as well as at national and international level seriously limits their impact on the shape of those changes. However, many of these changes touch upon issues vital to women's present and future role in the economy and society. Women's presence in establishing the new rules of the game at regional and national, community and family level through the articulation of women's interests, or negotiations to make them compatible with the interests of other social groups and in finalizing the decision making process is crucial in order to successfully integrate women into the modern economy.
Against the background of recent development trends, changes in women's position and the slow modernization of institutions and policies, there are four main areas of concern for women: (a) access to and participation in the learning process; (b) improvement of job security and access to quality jobs; (c) reconciliation of professional and family responsibilities; and (d) alleviation of poverty.