Gender and Trade: Overview Report (2006)

Summary

Gender is a key factor in the complex relationship between trade, growth and development – and yet there is a widespread assumption that trade policies and agreements are class, race and gender neutral. This report points to the crucial need to ensure that trade liberalisation does not undermine women’s rights and poor people’s livelihoods, and supports the gender equality agenda. First and foremost, this requires the explicit recognition of women’s contribution to the economy through both their productive and their unpaid reproductive work.

Introduction

Over the last five years, there has been increased interest in the gender dimensions of trade among development practitioners, policy-makers and civil society. While the complex relationships between trade and gender equality1 are no longer a complete unknown, the growing number of civil society organisations working on trade still lack concise and easy-to-digest information on the key gender issues in trade, as do policy-makers at the local, national and international levels, including in development cooperation. Among the key questions that ought to be addressed are: how does trade advance or impede gender equality? What effects does gender equality have on trade? What are the implications of these effects for policy and practice at the macro, meso and micro levels? What entry points and strategies are available to make trade policy and practice more gender-equitable?

Research has increasingly pointed to the ambiguous nature of the impacts of trade on women and men. Trade can have positive effects on employment, growth and empowerment and can therefore increase wealth and well-being. It can also have negative affects – particularly on the lives of poor people and those marginalised by gender, race and class or caste. However, many gender advocates
have argued that, despite the evidence, the policies and institutions which govern trade at national, regional and international levels are in fact ‘gender blind’.

This Overview Report aims to identify the possible ways and means for ensuring that the trade and gender equality agendas support each other. This is particularly relevant in the context of the decade review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the Millennium Review in 2005, both of which raise critical questions about the implications of international trade relations and the role of trade policy in the achievement of the MDGs and gender equality. It is also ten years since the establishment of the WTO in 1995.

The report is aimed at trade, development and GAD actors who have some economics background and either work or want to work on trade or work in a connected field (such as employment, migration, investment, budgets, macroeconomics, livelihoods or agriculture). It highlights successful examples
and best practices, which demonstrate that gender-aware trade policies and institutions can effectively support the achievement of gender equality goals and accelerate economic growth and sustainable development. Section 2 describes the concepts behind the relationship between gender, trade and development. Section 3 outlines the historical context and the institutional structure of the Multilateral
Trading System (MTS), and discusses the main issues arising from the conceptual framework of the MTS.

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