Trade Drives Gender Equality and Development
Article

Trade Drives Gender Equality and Development

Nadia Rocha and Roberta Piermartini
IMF, 2023
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Editorial Rating

8

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Recommendation

Open trade and reform policies that facilitate more efficient labor markets and afford workers new opportunities benefit everyone, but particularly women in developing economies, according to economists Nadia Rocha and Roberta Piermartini. In this astute analysis, the authors note that tariffs, protectionism and other obstacles hinder women’s economic advancement. Rocha and Piermartini offer ideas for labor market policies that will help women learn new skills, expand their education, and increase their mobility and access to regions offering better employment opportunities.

Summary

Gender equality is a basic human right and an economic priority.

Extensive research has demonstrated the wisdom of gender equality. The work of both men and women helps economies around the world. Developing economies, which feature a greater inequality gap, need the benefits that working women provide.

Global trade can elevate women’s participation in the economy, mitigating inequality and affording women more opportunities for education and training. Women in developing economies constitute one-third of exporters’ employees, as opposed to one-quarter of the employees in firms that do not export. Exporting companies pay more and hire more women, thus reducing economic disparities. By virtue of their integration with global value chains, exporters create better and more secure employment, benefits...

About the Authors

Nadia Rocha is a lead economist at the World Bank. Roberta Piermartini is chief of trade cost analysis at the World Trade Organization.

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