ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the links between gender equality and international trade, considering both the direction of causality and whether the effects are harmful or beneficial for women’s advancement in the labor market and for societal well-being. Since the 1980s, export-oriented manufacturing industries in the Global South experienced rapid growth by actively recruiting and employing women workers, mostly from rural areas. Women became the preferred workforce due to their higher productivity, relatively lower wages and sexist assumptions such as their “nimble fingers” and docility. While concentration of women in export manufacturing has received the most attention, what is less recognized is that in many agricultural economies, women’s seasonal or daily wage labor on farms is critical to keeping costs low and export demand high. Women’s employment declines when trade and technological change make traditionally female jobs redundant, and as women face barriers to training for new jobs.
