With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, a vision of global capitalism as the wave of the future took political and economic hold. The vision of capitalism was premised on the economic theory of market fundamentalism, the "idea that market forces work best and to everyone's benefit when government stands aside" (Brookes, 2005). The three policy prescriptions guiding the endeavor are liberalization, privatization and de-regulation. Today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are tasked with managing this integrated global economy. The proliferation of bilateral and regional trade negotiations continue to be built on the basic neo-liberal premises of market fundamentalism and limited government intervention. While new players like China, Brazil and India have emerged and are challenging the balance of power, the neo-liberal project is not over.

Economic liberalization and trade liberalization have not been environments that enhance gender equality. The recent UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) study, "Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World" defines the current global directions as a "disabling policy environment," arguing that neo-liberalism has proved largely unsuccessful, even on it own terms and offers minimal promise of generating social development. While some women may have benefited in the process of economic liberalization, the majority of women globally have not.

The increase of poverty in the world affects women's work, health, household responsibilities, and livelihoods.

These are some of the more obvious effects of economic and trade liberalization on the work toward achieving gender equality. They have not only limited women's advancement, in some cases women have lost the ground they worked so hard to gain in the 1970s and early 80s. This deterioration has negatively affected women's struggle against the deeply entrenched gender relations in all society. Inequalities based on sex, and exacerbated by class, ethnic and racial divisions, are a pervasive feature of all societies. They are the product of socially constructed power relations, norms and practices. Family dynamics, communities, religious bodies, states, institutions, political parties and "progressive" social movements all operate within these gender dynamics (UNRISD, 2005).

Women's struggle to overcome discrimination and inequality, deeply rooted in their societies and cultures, is exacerbated by the current direction of economic and trade liberalization. To address this persistent discrimination within the Global Economy, the Center is working on the issues listed below:

• Globalization
• Women's Economic Agenda for the 21st Century
• Gender, Trade and Development
• Women Workers: Trends and Trade
• A Framework for a Renewed Economy