Transparency: a key principle in gender-trade relationship

Abstract

Women have a critical role in sustaining the economy and in the development of trade. However, such role has long been invisible due to orthodox conceptions that have ignored the gender variable in commercial analyses. Today, it is generally accepted that neither the economy nor business are gender neutral and that the performance of these activities often impact negatively the lives of women. Women’s participation in trade, on equal terms as men, in any of the various possible roles ― producer, wage earner, consumer, merchant, taxpayer ― will not only favour the lives of women, but also the performance of the economies in which they participate. Transparency, as a principle of the multilateral trading system, can play a significant role as a strategy for the empowerment of women.

Keywords

• trade
• human rights
• gender equality
• transparency
• wto
• women workers