Issues and questions to be addressed - Session II

The links between trade policies and women´s empowerment and gender equality

Labour markets

Evidence shows that international trade tends to increase the availability of formal jobs in developing countries.

A large number of women have benefitted from new employment opportunities with related benefits in terms of empowerment and social status. However, women´s employment in developing countries is often temporary.

This makes the development of specific skills more difficult and results in women remaining low wage earners in the pool of unskilled workers.

From a policy perspective, it is crucial to assure that women meet the skills requirements sought by the market in order to fully benefit from the employment opportunities arising from trade integration.

SMEs

While trade integration may offer opportunities for small enterprises to grow, it also exposes them to international competition. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generally operate in protected markets and the increase in foreign competition means they are forced to grow and/or upgrade technologically. However, women often have less access to marketing networks, credit and technical knowledge, all of which are essential to improve small enterprises´ competitiveness.

Agriculture

The impact of trade policies on subsistence agriculture is an important issue from a gender perspective, as women´s participation in subsistence agriculture is generally high, especially in least developed countries.

Conceptually, international trade provides opportunities for growing more profitable crops, thus facilitating the switch from staple agriculture to cash crops. In practice, trade liberalization has been shown to reduce subsistence where farmers are able to adapt to new farming products and techniques.

As women working in agriculture are largely small-scale farmers with limited access to credit, knowledge and agricultural inputs, they are the most disadvantaged by the liberalization of the agricultural markets. The switch to export-oriented cash crops is to be set against the current situation of food insecurity, especially in Africa.

The recent food crisis has brought renewed emphasis on traditional staple food crops as a coping mechanism in situations of food insecurity.

Migration

Half of international migrants are women. They face the double disadvantage of being migrant and female. Low-skilled or unskilled migrant women tend to find jobs in a limited number of occupations in the services sector. Relatively few are found in the agricultural sector, while there are many in the textile and garments industry.

The marginality of unskilled migrant women is often reflected in low-status jobs, low earnings, poor working conditions and insecure contracts. However, migration generally helps women in raising their autonomy and social status.

Women are the largest senders and recipients of remittances, which are an important capital source for developing countries.