Gendering Global Trade

Dr. Erin Hannah, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, was recently awarded two major grants, along with co-investigators Silke Trommer and Adrienne Roberts, both of the University of Manchester.

“The potential policy impact is quite high,” Dr. Hannah says of the two grants, which are international collaborative projects.

The first grant, Gendering Global Trade Through Canada-UK Trade Relationships, is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This particular grant will address the issue of how future Canada-UK trade cooperation can best pursue gender-sensitive, socially progressive policies and how the two countries can be established as leaders in this global policy field. Through the grant, Dr. Hannah and her co-investigators will make specific recommendations with respect to the negotiation of a future Canada-UK free trade agreement (FTA).

The second grant, She Trades: Gendering Global Trade Governance, is funded through the SSHRC Insight Development Grants.  This grant will approach the subject of gendered impacts on trade and gender and trade initiatives from a number of different angles. The project will investigate the concrete mechanisms through which gendering global trade is becoming entrenched as a global policy norm, what types of political interventions are taken, and how these practices affect the possibilities of gender and trade initiatives to work for global social change.

“In this project, we advocate for a progressive, feminist approach to trade,” Dr. Hannah explains. “Trade is a social justice issue and trade policies affect women differently and profoundly. Our work is aimed at minimizing the adverse impacts of trade on women and identifying pathways for using trade as a lever for sustainability, gender equality, and welfare for all. Successfully delivering on this agenda could improve the lived experiences of some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Failing on this agenda could send women deeper into precarity.”

Erin Hannah is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. Her research and teaching interests include international political economy, development, gender and trade, global governance, global civil society, and the role of expert knowledge in global trade.

Silke Trommer is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. She is an international political economist specialising in gender, trade politics, global governance, and social movements.

Adrienne Roberts is Senior Lecturer in the Politics Department at the University of Manchester. Her research and teaching interests are primarily in the areas of international political economy, feminist political economy, finance, debt, trade, and development.

For more information, please see two commentaries recently published by the research team:

Erin Hannah, Silke Trommer and Adrienne Roberts, "'Gender-Sensitive Trade': Buzzword or Basic Principle of Post-Brexit Trade Policy?," Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute, 25 October 2018: http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2018/10/25/gender-sensitive-trade-buzzword-or-basic-principle-of-post-brexit-trade-policy/

Erin Hannah, Silke Trommer and Adrienne Roberts, "Can Gender Equality Give the WTO Renewed Purpose?," OpenCanada.org, 24 October 2018:  https://www.opencanada.org/features/can-gender-equality-give-wto-renewed-purpose/