Trade can dramatically improve women’s lives, creating new jobs, enhancing consumer choices, and increasing women’s bargaining power in society. It can also lead to job losses and a concentration of work in low-skilled employment. Given the complexity and specificity of the relationship between trade and gender, it is essential to assess the potential impact of trade policy on both women and men and to develop appropriate, evidence-based policies to ensure that trade helps to enhance opportunities for all. Research on gender equality and trade has been constrained by limited data and a lack of understanding of the connections among the economic roles that women play as workers, consumers, and decision makers. Building on new analyses and new sex-disaggregated data, Women and Trade: The Role of Trade in Promoting Gender Equality aims to advance the understanding of the relationship between trade and gender equality and to identify a series of opportunities through which trade can improve the lives of women.

Equal rights between men and women are enshrined as a fundamental human right in the UN Charter, and reflected in various internationally agreed instruments, such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Although there has been notable progress in some areas, in most nations women are still at a disadvantage in terms of their role and position in the economic and political arenas. This publication examines the gender dimension of trade and seeks to identify policy challenges and responses to promote gender equality in light of increasing globalisation. Issues discussed include: economics of gender equality, international trade and development; multilateral negotiations on agriculture in developing countries; gender-related issues in the textiles and clothing sectors; international trade in services; gender and the TRIPS Agreement; the impact of WTO rules on gender equality; human rights aspects; fair trade initiatives; the role of IT in promoting gender equality, the Gender Trade Impact Assessment and trade reform.