Libéralisation économique et émancipation des femmes

Trade liberalization has long been seen as a positive process for every citizen, including women. It gives them more job opportunities, their purchasing power increases; they have more choices in terms of consumption. However, this idea is largely criticized now that experts as well as citizens observed that trade liberalization is not necessarily good for poor people or for minorities. Women benefit from trade liberalization in terms of employment, growth and empowerment but they also undergo severe inequalities because of the persistence of a gendered division of the world today in developed as well as in developing countries. Trade liberalization contributes to the emancipation of women until a certain point where they start losing instead of enjoying the benefits of it. In order for international and regional trade agreements to be more gender-aware, gender experts should intervene in the negotiations of trade agreements in order to promote their rights and in the objective of erasing all forms of gender discrimination in trade policies.