An overview of the benefits of Global Value Chains (GVCs) to women's economic empowerment, and the enduring challenges.

1. Global Value Chains
and Women’s Economic
Empowerment
Final Project - edX MOOC
- Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains -
World Development Report 2020 – World Bank Group

2. Introduction
– Trade dynamics and gender equality contribute significantly to
sustainable growth in societies worldwide.
– However, evidence suggests that traditional forms of trade shaped by
globalization have had a disproportionate impact on women.
– Global Value Chains (GVCs) have changed trade in a manner which
has been more beneficial than traditional trade. One of their many
benefits has been stronger social and economic participation for
women.
– How do GVCs contribute to women’s economic empowerment? How
can its benefits be harnessed, and how to respond to enduring
challenges?

4. The Impact of Traditional Trade
on Female Employment
– Trade and gender equality are key foundations for sustainable development,
job creation, and economic growth (WTO 2018).
– However, globalization has had a disproportionate impact on female
employment (OECD 2020).
– According to data, the growth of manufacturing value added per worker (or
rises in labor productivity) leads to a falling share of female employment
(UNCTAD 2016).
– The incidence of trade barriers, and tariffs and non-tariff measures, impact
women most heavily (WTO 2018).
– Women-owned or led SMEs struggle to grow, due to limited access to business
networks and market opportunities (WTO 2018).

5. The Benefits of Global Values
Chains
– In GVC trade, hyper-specialization and durable firm-to-firm
relationships allow firms to raise productivity and income.
– Those two dimensions contribute to making GVC trade far more
efficient than traditional trade in supporting growth and
countering the negative effects of trade (World Bank Group 2020).
– Therefore, nations must implement policies encouraging GVC
participation, multilateral cooperation, as well as ensuring GVC
trade benefits all dimensions of society.
– One of the most vital of such dimensions is women’s economic
empowerment.

7. Contributions of Global Value
Chains to Female Employment
– Gender plays an important role in shaping outcomes of participation within
GVCs (Said-Allsopp & Tallontire 2014). As such, GVCs can be a powerful
lever for empowering women (Boyle 2016).
– The creation of jobs within GVCs has increased the participation of women in
a wide range of economic sectors and at different levels (World Economic
Forum 2018). GVC firms also tend to employ more women than non-GVC
firms (World Bank Group 2020).
– GVCs depend on hundreds of millions of female workers in many sectors,
including agri-food, garments, and personal care (WOW 2018). Furthermore,
studies have established a positive correlation between export share and
female share of employment (UNCTAD 2016).
– Therefore, empowering women in GVCs presents opportunities to create
business value and strengthen women’s rights (BSR 2016).

8. Persistent Challenges
– Data and information on women’s economic empowerment within GVCs
remain either absent or limited (WOW 2018).
– While GVCs do offer more women jobs, women are generally found in lower
value-added segments. There is still a lack of women holding higher and more
senior positions (World Bank Group 2020).
– There are persistent variations in the participation of male and female
employees in GVCs, mainly due to differences in female labor participation
across industries.
– Studies suggest that existing gender employment gaps may translate into
economy-wide gender wage gaps, exacerbating inequalities and negatively
impacting female participation across sectors (OECD 2020).

9. Recommendations
– Social and economic upgrading must involve formal equality, to allow
equal opportunity for women at all levels of value chains. (UNCTAD
2016).
– Encourage capacity building, training, support, and social provision
for women in GVCs.
– Address gender bias and gender segmentation in role assignation
(UNCTAD 2016).
– Implement trade policies with a gender responsive approach. (WTO
2018).
– Study the role of technological developments such as e-commerce
platforms and digital solutions in enabling women's participation in
trade (WTO 2018).

10. 2017 Buenos Aires
Declaration on Trade
and Women's
Economic
Empowerment
In 2017, the Buenos Aires
Declaration on Women and
Trade, which seeks to address
barriers to women’s economic
empowerment, was supported by
118 World Trade Organization
(WTO) member and observer
states at the 11th WTO Ministerial
Conference (WTO 2017).
The Declaration is a step towards
fulfilling the UN Global
Development Goals, notably the
Sustainable Development Goal to
achieve gender equality through
the empowerment of women and
girls (SDG 5) (WTO 2017).

11. Conclusion
– Global Value Chains (GVCs) play a significant role in boosting women’s
economic empowerment, notably through substantial job creation and
new opportunities for women’s active participation in the socio-economic
sphere.
– However, despite the many benefits observed, certain challenges and
limitations persist, notably with regards to a lack of data to better inform
decisions and strategies, and the persistence of gender employment gaps,
amongst others.
– Actors within business and economic sectors, as well as trade policies
formulated by governments, play a major role in harnessing the benefits
of GVC trade to women’s economic empowerment, as well as offering
solutions to respond to enduring issues and limitations.

12. Sources
Boyle G. (2016), ‘Three key steps to empowering women in global value chains’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020) (https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/development-blog/three-
key-steps-to-empowering-women-in-global-value-chains)
BSR (2016), ‘Women’s Empowerment in Global Value Chains: A Framework for Business Action to Advance Women’s Health, Rights, and Wellbeing’ (Accessed on 14th September
2020) (https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR-Report-Womens-Empowerment-Supply-Chains.pdf)
OECD (2020), ‘Gender in Global Value Chains: the impact of trade on male and female employment’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020) (https://www.oecd.org/sdd/its/trade-global-
value-chains-and-gender.htm)
Said-Allsopp M. & Tallontire A.M. (2014), ‘Pathways to empowerment? Dynamics of women's participation in Global Value Chains’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020)
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262638277_Pathways_to_empowerment_Dynamics_of_women%27s_participation_in_Global_Value_Chains)
UNCTAD (2016), ‘Gender and Global Value Chains’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020) (https://unctad.org/meetings/en/Presentation/SYEM_2016S2P01_Tejani_eng.pdf)
World Economic Forum (2018), ‘Global Value Chain Policy Series: Gender’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020) (https://www.weforum.org/whitepapers/global-value-chain-policy-series-
gender)
WOW (2018), ‘Women workers in global value chains’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020)
(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/726584/Research-Brief-Women-Workers-global-value-chains.pdf)
World Bank Group (2020), ‘2020 World Development Report’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020)
(https://courses.edx.org/assets/courseware/v1/af97ab432d251a3231574abe051a859f/asset-v1:WBGx+WDR2001x+2T2020+type@asset+block/M1_Overview_pg_1-7.pdf)
World Trade Organization (2017), ‘Buenos Aires Declaration on Women and Trade outlines actions to empower women’ (Accessed on 16th September 2020)
(https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news17_e/mc11_12dec17_e.htm)
World Trade Organization (2018), ‘Conference on Trade and Gender: Closing the Gender Gaps’ (Accessed on 14th September 2020)
(https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/womenandtrade_e/tradegender18_e.htm)
Photos:
Slide 3: https://www.constructionjobsexpo.ie/cif-report-reveals-a-need-for-female-construction-workers/
Slide 6: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/trade/publication/women-and-trade-the-role-of-trade-in-promoting-womens-equality
Slide 10: https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news17_e/mc11_12dec17_e.htm