Women and Fair Trade
According to the Fair Trade Federation, 70% of fair trade artisans are women who are often the sole wage earners in their homes.
One of the main goals of Fair Trade is to promote development opportunities for disadvantaged producers, especially women and indigenous people, and to protect children from exploitation in the production process.
Women have benefited far more than men when they have had the opportunity to participate in Fair Trade. The stark facts about the conditions of working women in developing countries says it all:
- Worldwide, of the 1.3 billion people surviving on less than $1 a day, 70% are women.
- Women are paid 30-40% less than men for comparable work.
- Two-thirds of the world's one billion illiterate adults are women.
- Women in developing countries work an average of 60 to 90 hours a week. Much of this work is unpaid and in the home - childcare, cleaning, cooking, and agricultural labour.
- Young girls account for two-thirds of the 130 million children absent from schools worldwide.
Indigenous women have the world's lowest rates of education and life expectancy and the highest rates of illiteracy, infant and maternal mortality, and death from preventable diseases.
According to the Fair Trade Federation, 70% of fair trade artisans are women who are often the sole wage earners in their homes. Through their work in Fair Trade craft production, women not only improve the lives of their families, but improve their own lives as well. Many women artisans report that their work has given them self esteem and the opportunity to participate in decision making in their communities. Increased income ensures better alimentation, better schooling for their children, and an improvement in housing and living standards.
Here are some examples of Fair Trade for women at work in the handicrafts sector:Siyath Foundation
In the south of Sri Lanka, the Siyath Foundation has 3,500 women members. All suffered domestic violence and poverty. But through the development of several centers of coconut-mat production whose products are traded on a fair term, all have gained self-confidence and economic independence (IFAT, NI#322,April 2000, pp.17)
Grassroots HQ
For more than 700 years, artisans in Thailand have been using the bark of the mulberry tree to make paper products. In a country where forests are dwindling, using this tree bark is a sustainable way to use the forest without harming it.
Grassroots HQ, an alternative trade organization employing 150 people, is committed to making a difference in their local community. Grassroots HQ provides village women with viable income, raises their awareness of their rights, increases their confidence and self-respect and encourages them to unite as a cooperative and to stand up against exploitation, particularly by the sex industry.
Bhaktapur Craft Printers (BCP)
Bhaktapur Craft Printers (BCP) was founded by UNICEF to revive papermaking and to improve the living standards of low-income families, especially women and children in urban ghettos and remote rural areas in Nepal. In 1993, BCP provided employment to over 1,000 people. From 1987 to 1993, BCP contributed more than 10 million rupees (US $200,000) to fund community projects, including education, irrigation, forestry and environmental programs.
BCP's method of gathering the lokta bark used for the paper preserves the fragile ecology of Nepali forests. BCP also promotes ecological techniques to reduce firewood use during the papermaking process.
Since Fair Trade cooperatives are democratically run and promote gender equality, women are playing a significant role in these cooperatives. By working directly with democratically run cooperatives, the FAIR TRADE system helps to build the self-esteem through the recognition of their citizen rights. FAIR TRADE has been one way to address gender inequities while acknowledging cultural differences by providing for women and their families.
Bertilda Gamez
Take the case of Bertilda Gamez Peres. She is a member of the Vinvente Talavera Cooperative in Nicaragua, and sells her coffee to Cafedirect (Fair Trade organization in Britain) on a fairly traded basis. For her, the benefits of Fair Trade have changed many things as she notes that, "We didn't make enough to live on before. Now we get a better price and the money comes directly to us. I can buy more food, I can help support my daughter at university and take care of my son."
Blanca Rosa Molina
More recently, in March 2003 Blanca Rosa Molina, a Matagalpan coffee farmer and President of Cecocafen, one of the five Nicaraguan fair trade co-operatives, gave her personal example of the benefits of Fair Trade: "The fair trade price has enabled me to raise my children, send my daughter to university and build my house bit by bit - it's a very humble house and I'm still building."