In some countries, the gender dimension of poverty can also be gauged by the incidence of woman-headed households. While they are not worse off than other households in all cases, in countries where poverty is widespread they are at a disadvantage. Women have less access to employment and income opportunities, since they tend to be less mobile than men and have less access to productive assets and resources. Female-headed households are also more likely to suffer when structural adjustment or other economic reforms are carried out and the governments' social expenditures are cut back. The financial crisis - its impact on women Quantitative assessments of the impact of the Asian crisis on women's labour force participation, unemployment and incomes, indicate an unambiguous worsening in some countries, with mixed results in others.
Different countries seem to show varied results in the formal sector.
In general, the Asian crisis brought hardship to many women due to the high rate of inflation and the market decline, causing the poorer populations in particular to fall further down on the poverty scale. Particularly hard hit have been women agricultural labourers, homeworkers, traditional artisans, weavers, and vendors. In the recent Asian financial crisis, gender-based discrimination in retrenchment has also become a major issue, and while women have been resilient in earning extra income in order to provide for the basic needs of their families, it means their diminishing income is being overstretched in the overall economic downturn. Furthermore, worrying forms of employment have come to the fore, such as child labour and trafficking in women and children. The debate remains, however, whether the social sanctions against women in the labour market can be lifted by specific social policies and measures which can protect women or promote gender equality at work, in tandem with the overall economic policies and long-term growth in general.