Fair Trade’s Economic, Political, & Social Effects on African Women

Annie, Jessica, & Nathan

United Nations Development Programme

“Development cannot be achieved if fifty percent of the population is excluded from the benefits that it brings.”

“Poverty has a Female Face.”

Women in Africa Male-dominating culture

Heavy discrimination Primarily occupy the informal sector of the

economy or low-skilled jobs Africa is ranked the lowest among all other

regions of the world in the percentage of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector with a value of 8.5%

According to the World Bank, in both the public and private sectors, only 1 in 26 salaried African women are employed in a senior management position, compared to 1 in every 6 men

Why study women and Fair Trade in Africa? Africa “has the largest number of

individual certified smallholders and workers benefitting from the fair trade system” with over 600,000 smallholders and workers

76% of fair trade production performed by women

Observe the effectiveness of fair trade on marginalized workers: Women

Literature Review Economic

Does Financing benefit African Women By: Michael Fleshman Fair Trade Foundation

Political World Fair Trade Organization

Social Fair Trade Cooperatives and Women's

Empowerment By: Miranda Bernstein Beloit College

Swazi Indigenous Products (SIP)

Fair Trade is able to promote Economic Autonomy, Women’s empowerment, Improved Food Security, and related HIV/AIDS concerns.

Providing women with basic job training skills and micro-credit opportunity increased their control over their reproductive health

Economic empowerment

Improved Food Security

https://www.beloit.edu/polisci/assets/Empowerment_8_mar_tables.pdf

Theoretical Background Factor endowment theory: fair trade

utilizes the abundance of cheap labor to create highly demanded hand-made products.

In a sense, the scarce “commodity” that is imported, besides capital, is knowledge of pricing and access to far more lucrative international markets.

Economic Effects Small, self-reliant, and stable

economies rise around the foundation of fair trade operations.

Women allocate fair trade related profits towards further development of the community and its’ economy. Examples: education, creating

jobs, and improving infrastructure.

Increased access to credit

Global Mamas

Political Effects UN Development Fund for Women

(UNIFEM), in its 2008 report Progress of the World’s Women notes that women will not reach parity with men in legislatures in developing countries until at least 2047 at present rates of increase In contrast, the majority of fair trade

operations are run by women. Women managing fair trade

operations have substantial political power within their communities.

Social Effects

No Discrimination Policy Small fair-trade activity has strong

impact upon women’s sense of empowerment, ability to feed their households, and orientation to HIV and health generally

Household Gender Power Dynamics

Women Empowerment in Africa: The Tintsaba Master Weavers Experience Swaziland Started with 12 women in 1985

Trained 895 women in self development and economic skills

“Improving incomes by becoming highly skilled weavers”

Motivational and business training

Mobile Homeopathic Clinic Literacy Program

Conclusion: does fair trade help improve lives for marginalized workers such as women?

Fair trade can provide steady, fair, income and humane working conditions to people exploited by free trade.

Women in particular are empowered due to their better management of profits.

The improvement is reflected even more poignantly considering that Africa’s culture generally gives women fewer and inferior employment options compared to men.