Trade and women economic empowerment : Capstone report

Abstract

Over a period spanning more than four decades, Trade Facilitation Office (TFO) Canada has provided assistance in the form of information, advice and contact services to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Trade Support Institutions (TSIs) from developing countries to gain access to international markets. Drawing from this experience, and as part of the current research project, TFO Canada proposes to establish a Women in Trade (WIT) Knowledge Platform, which will serve as a tool to fill important gaps related to the collection, storage, and analysis of gender disaggregated sector-specific trade and employment data. For the current research project, the following research questions were identified after an extensive review of the literature on trade and gender: 1). Why – and under what circumstances – do some trade sectors create more jobs for women and others do not? 2). To what extent are the jobs created contributing to women’s economic empowerment? 3). What strategies and policies are needed to ensure these sectors work optimally? We wanted to examine the relationship between trade and job creation for women, the extent to which these jobs contribute to women’s economic empowerment, and the policies that should be put in place to ensure that women benefit from trade.