Gender and Trade

Jan Joel C. Atanacio                                        Elizabeth Uy Eviota, PHD

SA113                                                        Report

Gender and Trade

        This article on gender and development focuses on gender and trade, more specifically on the topic of making trade work for gender equality and the workings done by The Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association and the initiative called The Women’s Edge Coalition trade impact review (TIR).

        The article Making Trade Work For Gender Equality by Zo Randriamaro and Charlie Sever focuses on the differences in power, value and reward of work between men and women and how trade liberalization played a role in all this when it came to the scene. According to Randriamaro and Sever, “Men and women’s different experiences of trade liberalization arise from their different gender roles, and the different opportunities and constraints they face.” In addition to this, income-generating and formal jobs usually go to the men while domestic care work goes to the women. The work of men are also usually more valued and better rewarded than women. Trade liberalization has served as both positive and negative on women. For example, a growth in informal employment has been brought about by trade liberalization however, despite the opening of this opportunity, women still suffer from fewer employment options and have lesser power to negotiate and fight for their rights as workers as compared to men. Also stated in the article is the fact that women’s advocates in certain organizations like the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), Women in Development Europe (WIDE) and Women’s Edge Coalition have used gender analysis in tackling the scope of trade. But, in many cases, there is a failure to take into account the unequal relationship between men and women.