Examining Gaps in Justice and Well Being for Fair Trade Women Across Industries

This paper was presented January 5th in Boston, MA at the the Annual Meeting of The Allied Social Science Associations,  the American Economic Association, the Union for Radical Political Economics and the International Association for Feminist Economics.

This paper will be printed in full in the upcoming edition of Global Journals: GJHSS Volume 14 Issue 9 Version 1.0 - https://globaljournals.org/

Short Description: The $6.8 billion Fair Trade industry holds the premise that producer capabilities and opportunities are enhanced through FT participation. However, undifferentiated FT standards and gender-based limitations on engagement impact how much justice is realized by producers.

Problem: Undifferentiated Fair Trade standards and gender-based limitations on engagement negatively impact how justice is realized by producers. 

Solution: Democratize Fair Trade for greater social-economic justice and sustainability by using public reasoning to growing collaboration and transparency between Fair Trade consumers, institutions, producers and government.

Intro - Summary

            Fair Trade brings economic justice to disadvantaged producers by incorporating higher wages, environmental protection and education into the cost of production.  The Fair Trade industry is valued at $6.8 billion with 10% annual growth (WFTO, 2012).  It impacts millions of people, 30% of whom are women (WFTO, 2013).  Fair Trade guidelines, developed by European and US institutions, are applied to all production with the expectation that capabilities and opportunities are equally enhanced.  Yet they are not.  This paper examines through comparative study how undifferentiated Fair Trade standards and gender-based limitations on engagement negatively impact how justice is realized by producers.  The author suggests that by democratizing Fair Trade though regular public reasoning sessions targeting both genders, greater collaboration and reciprocity can be realized resulting in expanded capabilities and opportunities, economic resilience and an improved quality of life.  Looking at this as a case study of development policy in general, an argument can be made that by building gender specific public reasoning into early and ongoing project design and development, a more just and sustainable outcome can be achieved.