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Women's contributions to world development go unrecognised. Women represent, however, key agents of change for the years to come and into the next century. Through their expanded stock of scientific and technological capital, women should have a definite impact on all spheres of economic and social development.

Culture and traditions represent strong subjective criteria that determine the role of women in society. A conservative value system tends to restrict their active participation in the labour market and confine their efforts to more traditional household chores and family responsibilities.

The oil‐rich economy of Kuwait is seriously assessing its labour market prospects. Like other Arab Gulf States, it is constrained by a small indigenous population and work force and suffers from critical shortages in manpower. Foreign labour and skills are the catalyst of their accel‐erated growth. The nationals represent about 40 per cent of the population and only 22 per cent of the country'swork force.

In the age of working mothers, the human resources base of society cannot go unprotected. An established labour market trend indicates the prompt return of female workers to their jobs following the birth of their babies. That fact appears to be not so widely recognised by policy makers and seems to be deliberately ignored by the business community. American society, legislatively speaking, is still operating on the basis of an old norm — that of women dropping out of the labour force to give birth to children and to raise a family. This perception is not valid and should no longer be held. “Working mothers” represent a universal pattern in the industrial countries of the world. This is evidenced by the high labour force participation rate (80 per cent) of young women of child‐bearing age (25–39 years). There is a worldwide general consensus on the effective need to protect working mothers against enduring multiple penalties in meeting work and family obligations. These sacrifices include loss of income and job, physical and psychological strain and stress as well as infant development risks. The ILO Maternity and Protection resolution of 1919 and its subsequent revisions called for supportive pregnancy and maternity measures. All the industrial and developing countries — except five — have whole‐heartedly adopted and even exceeded the ILO guidelines. The US, to this date, has not ratified the ILO recommendations, and has no national maternity policy despite a high and increasing percentage of young female workers in the labour market. Instead, there is strong opposition to any move in this direction.

The literature has more than exhausted the issue of growth versus basic needs. The conventional growth oriented strategies of the fifties and the sixties supported the “trickle‐down” argument whereby the masses are supposed to benefit indirectly from growth. Yet evidence has shown the effects to be very weak. It was in that context that attention shifted towards meeting the basic needs of the population. The growth proponents criticised the basic needs logic because it emphasises consumption and redistribution at the expense of production and investment. It therefore sacrifices future development for current welfare. The counter‐argument stresses that meeting the basic needs of the population brings about improvements in productivity and income. Many case studies have demonstrated that if the objectives of basic needs and income distribution are pursued rationally, economic growth is not at stake.

In this paper we examine cross-country evidence on the status of women in the Middle East and North Africa, where high female illiteracy, fertility and maternal mortality rates are observed. We introduce a new concept, “female endangerment”, and construct a composite index using these three components, to look at female endangerment in the region. We argue that gender empowerment cannot be properly assessed independently of women's deprivation. We take a first step of identifying the socio-economic determinants of female endangerment and their relationship to other development correlates.

Describes the current situation in Guatemala, now that the civil war is over. Provides brief demographic, geographic, economic, political and cultural information. Discusses the plight of the indigenous population and women. Presents the problems faced by the indigenous population – poverty, illiteracy, lack of sanitation, lack of electricity, lack of land ownership, lack of food, and alcoholism. Focuses then on the problems faced by women – same as above but with the added problem of high fertility rates and high maternal mortality rates. Signals some of the changes that are taking place, with women organizing themselves into a political force to be reckoned with. Acknowledges readily that there is much to do.

Introduction Kuwait belongs to a grouping of countries — the Arab Gulf States — with unique characteristics in relation to other developing countries. Their vast financial resources coupled with their small populations have given them the highest per capita incomes in the world. Kuwait, like its neighbours, faces a challenging manpower dilemma. Its national economy has been predominantly manned by foreign workers. Its ultimate goal is to reverse that labour trend.

Employment Characteristics of Older Women. This is the title of an article by Diane E. Herz in the September 1988 issue of Monthly Labor Review. It examines the employment characteristics of older women in America in 1987.