Gender in International Trade and Investment Policy

Citation:

Williams, Mariama. 2001. “Gender in International Trade and Investment Policy.” In Financing for Development: Proposals from Business and Civil Society, edited by Barry Herman, Federica Pietracci and Krishnan Sharma, 63-70. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

Author: Mariama Williams

Annotation:

“Of the world’s 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less then US$2 a day, and 1.2 billion on less than a US$1 a day (World Bank, 2000). Most of these people are women, who today constitute the backbone of the unpaid, and a growing pool of the paid workforce that is directly affected by trade liberalization and foreign direct investment, as in export processing zones, agri-business and services. Women are also over-represented in the informal economy, sex tourism/trafficking, poverty and destitution. Women are the major cushion for domestic structural adjustment, as has been well documented in numerous case studies of structural adjustment programmes (see, for example, Afshar and Dennis, 1992; Brown, 1995; and Sparr, 1995). Thus, there are important reasons for integrating a gender perspective into the themes of financing for development, especially foreign direct investment, other private capital flows and trade. We see these as inextricably intertwined with the topics of debt and systemic reform. (Williams, 2001, p.63)”

Topics: Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Financial Institutions

Year: 2001

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