This collection of studies of the negative impact of the debt crisis and structural adjustment presents a new and damning argument against the World Bank and the IMF. They suggest not only that structural adjustment policies have serious consequences for the family and social organization in developing countries, affecting fertility, life expectancy, health, education, the sexual division of labour and land-tenure relations, but that these consequences were foreseen by the architects of the policies. The authors point out that women suffer more than men from structural adjustment, yet it is they who are at the forefront of grassroots mobilization and resistance. Women now represent a particular focus for international institutions whose programmes, in the name of development, are producing ever increasing levels of poverty.