"[G]lobalization and trade liberalization are often assumed to be gender-neutral. As a result, national priorities for trade policies and trade negotiations are generally determined with little gender analysis." However, "[t]rade policies often have a strong redistributive effect . . . . They can create opportunities for women's empowerment and can also create burdens as they disrupt markets in which women operate."
So notes the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a planning document for its upcoming Expert Meeting on Mainstreaming Gender in Trade Policy, scheduled for 10-11 March 2009 in Geneva. Meeting participants will discuss the social and economic impacts of trade policies on women, explore strategies to make trade policies more responsive to gender considerations, and examine how UNCTAD, together with the UN Task Force on Gender and Trade and others, can promote gender mainstreaming in trade policy.
Two UNCTAD reports will form the basis of the discussion:
- Mainstreaming gender in trade policy: case studies, which remarks that "if women remain in the pool of unskilled and temporary workers, enjoying limited workers' rights and having little direct contact with domestic and international markets, it is unlikely that they will be able to reap the benefits of trade liberalization."
