Data for the period 1980-2004 for nine OECD countries showed weak evidence of employment impacts in changes in short-term interest rates in the countries studied, with no gender-differentiated employment impacts (Takhtamanova and Sierminska, 2009). A study of 51 “inflation reducing episodes” between 1970 and 2003 in 17 low- and middle-income countries found that there were contractions in total employment growth rates in 71 per cent of cases and that women’s employment was adversely affected relative to men’s employment in the majority of those contractionary episodes (ibid.). Where inflation-reducing episodes were accompanied by an expansion in employment, there was no gender-specific impact. Inflation reduction was most likely to lead to a contraction in employment, with adverse effects on women, when central banks responded to inflationary pressure by raising real interest rates above their long term trend. Maintaining a competitive exchange rate also helped to counter the negative impact on women’s employment during periods of contraction (ibid.). Women smallholder farmers and small- and medium-scale entrepreneurs in rural areas are among those who have been deprived of access to credit.