Gendered Perspectives on Services Trade and Investment

Abstract

The service economy, and services trade and investment, are potentially important sources of inclusive growth by supplying considerable employment opportunities for female workers in light of the skills and work attributes often at play in services work. Services can play an important role in closing gender gaps, alleviating poverty and addressing the many forms of workplace discrimination weighing more heavily on female workers, managers and business owners. Economies around the world at all development levels are experiencing patterns of structural transformation resulting in a sustained rise in the share of services in key economic aggregates – output, employment, trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). Cross-border trade and investment can accelerate the pace at which economies specialize in tertiary output, employment and cross-border exchange. And trade and investment policies designed to induce an orderly process of structural change can help promote greater inclusiveness and address gender gaps in employment and work conditions. But trade policy alone cannot address a range of factors holding back the employment and economic opportunities of women and often confining them to a narrow range of service sectors and occupational categories. Trade-induced increases in employment opportunities for women often may not necessarily lead to reduced inequalities, such as gender segregation in types of occupations and activities, gender gaps in terms of wages and working conditions, and gender-specific constraints in access to productive resources, infrastructure, and services. Policies aimed at affording women higher levels of social protection, lessened time burdens flowing from household responsibilities, better access to education, vocational training, finance and information networks as well as strengthened entrepreneurial skills all form important complements for sustained improvements in female empowerment in services and beyond, as do steps taken to combat gender discrimination in all its forms. Trade in services, gender, structural change, female empowerment, international trade negotiations, World Trade Organization.