low levels of taxation hurt poor people and poor women in particular because they prevent the establishment of development programmes which can counteract marketgenerated inequalities where fiscal reform has involved cuts in social expenditures or the imposition of user fees on services and utilities women have often had to compensate by increasing the amount of time taken to care for children the sick and older persons at home to save money walking longer distances in search of health care or queuing for longer periods for water razavi in zambia for example the abolition of marketing boards and the privatization of extension services and rural credit under structural adjustment affected women farmers more than men local market cooperatives used to be one of the few sources of credit and extension services for women farmers evers and walters