Fair Trade’s Economic, Political, & Social Effects on African Women Annie, Jessica, & Nathan
Dec 15, 2015
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
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
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.