Empowering women through fair trade? Lessons from Asia

Fair Trade is promoted as a system of trade that empowers women producers. Yet there is little empirical evidence with which to evaluate this claim. To what extent are women empowered through Fair Trade? While some suggest that focusing on handicrafts would advance the goal of women's empowerment, an analysis of the Fair Trade craft industry from the perspective of Asian craft producer networks reveals two key obstacles: fair trade's 'charity' approach to the craft sector, which reinforces traditional gender hierarchies, and the absence of a policy framework and institutional mechanisms that promote women's empowerment as a rights-based rather than a culture-based issue. The paper identifies two solutions to these discrete problems: a market-oriented craft business model, of which there are several empirical examples; and a human rights-based policy framework and robust regulatory mechanisms to address gender inequality in Fair Trade. The implications of these findings for Fair Trade's approach to empowering women are discussed.