Gender and Trade: Let’s move the conversation forward

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Labor Office (ILO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently released their joint study, Gender dimensions of agriculture and women’s employment: Differentiated pathways out of poverty, this January. Although a ground-breaking report with important lessons for policymakers, I found it disheartening. To summarize the report in one sentence: women are still disadvantaged and benefit less from agricultural employment than men.

The study emphasized that securing decent work for women is central to poverty reduction and is a means for achieving equitable, rural economic development (see the UN Decent Work Agenda, which frames the study). Presently women in the developing world face inequalities in all of the pillars of decent work including: standards and rights; employment creation and enterprise development; social protection and safety; and social dialogue.

As gender inequality in rural employment is reinforced by gender biased social, political and economic institutions, it is also impacted by international trade. In principle, trade and global value chains offer opportunities for creating employment, but also threaten to reinforce existing gender stereotypes by increasing generally low-skilled, labor-intensive and low value-added jobs aimed at women in developing countries.

Rural women producers experience more constraints in accessing international markets than men do, which is complicated by biased land tenure systems, poor infrastructure, the time burden of women’s unpaid work, and their lack of access to credit, education, technology and information. As far as small-scale producers are concerned, the FAO/ILO/IFAD study revealed that small farmers are often not in a position to compete in global markets (yet they must frequently compete with foreign food imports in the domestic markets).

Women dominate the rural agricultural sector in many developing countries through self or informal employment selling low-value products in local markets, yet much of their unpaid work in rural agriculture and at home is not recognized or valued, despite its important economic functions. This limits women’s access to markets, training, education and resources necessary for decent employment opportunities. The FAO/ILO/IFAD study explained that rural women benefit more from increased international trade through the labor market than through the product market, as women generally hold the lowest positions in product value chains, with little bargaining power. However, although rural women are sometimes better off seeking paid employment, the gender biases of the labor market may actually make women worse off due to employment segmentation and gender gaps in earnings.

Whether rural women benefit from trade depends on the gender division of labor, access to and control over resources within the household and community, and the extent to which women’s work is paid or unpaid. With International Women’s Day right around the corner (March 8^th), it reminds us to ensure that international and domestic markets benefit women as well as men. In order to move the conversation forward, trade policies must take into account existing gender inequalities in their implications. Before IPSA’s upcoming conference, Trade Up: Strategies for Pro-Poor Economic Development, let’s make sure we are asking the right questions. For more on gender mainstreaming and trade policies, check out the UN’s Women Watch gender resources and The Global Development Research Center’s Gender Analysis Framework.

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