Women’s descriptive representation and support for the inclusion of gender-related provisions in trade agreements

Abstract

Recent regional trade agreements (RTAs) tend to link gender and trade issues through gender-related provisions. This pattern is mostly observed in RTAs formed between global North and South countries. Despite a growing interest in gender-related provisions among countries, there have not been systematic studies on the formation of RTAs with these instruments. Our study underscores women’s descriptive representation. Female representatives care more about advancing women’s interests and improving their status than their male counterparts. Thus, we posit that when women’s political representation in a country’s legislature is high, it is more likely to support gender-related provisions. Focusing on RTAs between the European Union and democratic developing countries from 1997 and 2016, we find some support that women’s presence in the legislature affects trade policy outcomes. Countries with higher female representation in the legislature tend to join RTAs with gender-related provisions, but these countries do not increase their commitment to gender equality by adding multiple provisions on gender.

Labour provisions in trade agreements and women's rights in the global south

“…Despite identifying some intriguing empirical patterns, the literature is limited about the more granular effects of PTA social provisions on specific groups, including women (see Shin & Park, 2022 and Bahri, 2021 for exceptions; Park & Shin, 2023 explore how representation affects likelihood of gender provisions in PTAs). Additionally, the literature on trade liberalisation and human rights does not pay sufficient attention to the design of trade agreements, focusing mainly on international financial institutions (Detraz & Peksen, 2016; Eriksen & de Soysa, 2009).…”

More Equality for Women Does Mean Less War: Descriptive Representation, Legislative Votes, and International Conflict

“…Moreover, I provide a new research design and data for identifying the causal effects of women's representation on a wide variety of outcomes in the social sciences. Women's legislative representation is shown to correlate with various outcomes at a country level, including international trade and agreements (Betz, Fortunato, and O'brien 2021;Imamverdiyeva and Shea 2022;Park and Shin 2023), corruption (Debski et al 2018;Dollar, Fisman, and Gatti 2001;Esarey andSchwindt-Bayer 2018, 2019;Jha and Sarangi 2018), foreign aid (Breuning 2001;Hicks, Hicks, and Maldonado 2016;Tusalem 2022;Yoon and Moon 2019), human rights (Mechkova, Dahlum, and Petrarca 2023;Melander 2005b), welfare policies (Bolzendahl and Brooks 2007;Kittilson 2008;Patton and Fording 2020), environmental protection (Atchison and Down 2019;Mavisakalyan and Tarverdi 2019), and even capital punishment (Moreland and Watson 2016).…”