Trade policy & gender equality

Abstract

The purpose of this Research Paper is to present the links between equality and trade policy. The Paper provides a summary overview of key questions, concerns and policy recommendation about the links between trade policies and equality. This paper is worked out with the help of secondary data from various UN publications and websites. It reviews the evolution of the international debate on globalization, trade liberalization and their impacts on equitable development, the relevance of integrating perspectives in trade policy and discusses the implications of women's economic empowerment on trade and economic growth, addresses the potential of labor mobility as a tool for women's empowerment in the context of international migration and international trade in services. Because society places a low value on unpaid work and caring for others, such work remains at the core of discrimination. This “time poverty” contributes to perpetuating lower skill and educational levels for women and often limits their scope of employment to the informal economy, where paid and unpaid work can be more easily combined. In turn, higher levels of growth and productivity would expand employment opportunities and sustain livelihoods for all, men and women, giving them the same chances of benefiting from macro-economic policies. Trade policy, along with other macro-economic policies, was however perceived as being gender neutral. They also face persistent occupational segregation and discrimination in wages. In Africa and South Asia, large employment differences remain between men and women, with women's employment being largely relegated to unpaid and vulnerable activities.