Feminist Interventions in Trade Governance

Gender equality and women’s empowerment have recently emerged as policy priorities in trade policymaking communities. International and domestic trade institutions are also increasingly attuned to the need to address the adverse impacts of trade on women and vulnerable groups. This chapter assesses whether governance mechanisms aimed at making trade more gender equitable align with feminist values, namely the need to address 1) structural inequality; 2) impacts of trade on different groups of people in multiple roles; 3) benefits for the social reproduction of people and communities, and; 4) inclusivity and democracy. We find that while there has been a fundamental shift in thinking within trade policymaking communities about the ways in which trade intersects with gender equality and structural inequalities more broadly, existing governance mechanisms risk reproducing structural gender inequalities because the gendered norms and power relations underlying and constituting global trade are, for the most part, left unaddressed.