Symposium by GQUAL on CEDAW’s GR40: Let’s Close the Gender Leadership Gap in Global Trade

[Anoush der Boghossian is the Head of the Trade and Gender Office in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She is also the Founder and Chair of the WTO Gender research Hub as well as a recognised trainer and researcher on trade policy and gender equality.]

What is leadership? Is it about influence and impact? Is it about efficiency and power? Or is it something else? 

Leadership is about empowering people to take charge and make change in their communities. It is about transforming societies. Women have that transformative power to lead communities out of poverty. 

Like Ana, a mango producer from Latin America. For years, her production depended on middle agents, often men and she struggled to make ends meet. Until she learned how to improve her agricultural practices and increase the phytosanitary quality of her products, which she was able to certify. This allowed her to export her production to foreign markets and scale up her business. She used her new knowledge to increase and diversify her economic activity, enabling her to stablish her presence internationally, and therefore gain more income. Her new economic power and knowledge changed her status. She was able to take an equal part in her family’s decisions and to become the head of the mango producers’ association, where she mentored other women on how to access global markets.  

In 2021, about half a billion women in the world, like Ana, were formal entrepreneurs. In 2024, one in 16 women in the world owned an established business. These women are not just an economic force or ‘catalysts’ of export growth; they are leaders, mentors, political actors, and advocates for other women, supporting them and even providing them with jobs. The 2019-2020 World Trade Organization (WTO) regional surveys (covering Latin America, East Africa, and South Asia) outlined that in most businesses owned or led by women, more than half of the workforce is female.    

There is a need to recognize this type of leadership, especially when it comes to gender equality in trade. It is not enough to increase the number of female CEOs or board members in globalized companies. It is not enough to rejoice in the fact that the three major international organizations dealing with trade (WTO, UN Trade and Development Intergovernmental Organization (UNCTAD), and International Trade Centre (ITC)) are led by women.  

The most recent data on female leadership in the WTO proves it. In 2024, only 30% (down from 36% in 2023) of WTO Ambassadors are female. Only 15% (down from 30% in 2023) of Ministers in charge of WTO affairs are female. Only 30% (up from 23% in 2023) of main WTO bodies are chaired by women. Moreover, only 4 women have been appointed as chair of the General Council, one of the highest decision-making bodies of the WTO, since 1995, when the WTO was created.  

In the globalized corporate world, the data is similarly concerning. The 2024 Deloitte Global report on “Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective” reveals that women hold about 23% of board seats worldwide, a mere 3% increase since 2022. Additionally, women are less likely to be promoted in higher positions than men, while more women complete tertiary education worldwide (ILO). Furthermore, women often hold jobs that have limited upward mobility, interlinking the gender wage gap and promotion gap (ILO).  

What do these figures and facts have in common? The response is simple and disturbing at the same time: gender bias social norms.  

Many legal barriers exist preventing women from accessing leadership opportunities and they are often based on negative social norms. It is a well-documented fact that, globally, women enjoy just two-thirds of the rights of men in the workplace (World Bank 2024). The situation is very similar in trade. Women are prevented from accessing the leadership opportunities created by trade mainly because of negative social norms, which constitute a new type of trade barrier.  

When trade policies foster women’s participation in the workforce of export-oriented firms, they rarely focus on the level or quality of the jobs provided to them, or whether they are skilled, high-level and high-paying. In fact, most women, about 80%, working in companies that export hold medium- and low-skilled jobs (WTO-World Bank 2020). A few governments have integrated socially supportive measures in their gender-responsive trade policies to address this issue, often through skills development programmes.   

According to a 2024 global report, women “who want to climb the ladder are nearly twice as likely as men to believe they are not qualified for their manager’s job”. A belief that is also often derived from gender bias social norms.  

This psychological factor or barrier is also highly present when it comes to international trade, particularly when an entrepreneur decides whether to export. In the 2019-2020 WTO regional surveys conducted amongst more than 800 women entrepreneurs in South Asia, East Africa and Latin America, data reveals that less than 27% of businesswomen exported. When asked if they intended to trade internationally, the vast majority of those non-exporting entrepreneurs expressed their disinterest in exploring foreign markets to expand their businesses, remaining satisfied with their domestic or local presence. However, more than 90% of them said they would be interested in attending training courses to understand the rules of international trade. Further one-on-one interviews explained that the lack of confidence and fear was a vivid obstacle to their potential export goals. Therefore, policies promoting female leadership in trade through entrepreneurship, should also include dedicated support programmes addressing this issue and integrating notions related to the psychology of female entrepreneurship.  

The newly adopted General Recommendation No. 40 (2024) by CEDAW on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems (GR40) can help reverse these trends in international trade. 

GR40 provides a detailed framework to help governments integrate gender parity into the formulation of laws and policies, collect sex-disaggregated data, and monitor and evaluate how and whether women access decision-making positions in all spheres of society (education, economic, social, political, or judicial). 

In the field of international trade, female leadership is not a topic that focuses the attention of decision- and policymakers. Most gender-responsive trade policies include measures such as supporting job openings for women in export sectors or removing barriers for female entrepreneurs and farmers to access global markets, providing them with tools to scale up their businesses through trade.  

The topic of leadership has not been considered as a priority in addressing gender inequalities in trade. And yet, as Ana’s story shows, this issue is crucial.  

Despite this context, some free trade agreements do include provisions on female leadership and women’s participation in decision-making. Overall, they support or promote women’s high-level positions in society and their contribution to decision-making in business or in the public sphere. Some provisions also focus on the development of female leadership through training and experience sharing, fostering female leaders’ networks in business and trade, and promoting and facilitating the equal participation of men and women in decision-making positions and positions of authority. Other commitments aim at fostering women’s leadership in technology, science and innovation; a sector blatantly lacking female leadership whilst innovation is positively affected by the transformational leadership of female Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and whereas firms are more innovative when they employ female CTOs, according to studies published in 2019 and 2021.  

For many years now, the narrative around trade and gender equality has focused on the idea that trade supports women’s economic empowerment and helps them get out of poverty. Today, many countries also estimate that women’s economic empowerment directly supports their trade expansion and their integration in international markets. They believe that gender issues should be an integral part of their national trade policies and strategies and that investing in women’s productive potential is essential to enhancing their trade performance. Additionally, a few countries also believe that female leadership in trade is key to enhancing their integration into the global trading system and are introducing this notion in their national trade policies. No doubt, GR40 can foster this nascent trend. 

In fact, in 2024, some synergies have been established between CEDAW and the WTO. In July 2024 and following up on CEDAW’s work on GR40, the WTO Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender discussed the topic of female leadership in trade for the first time since its creation in 2020. The exchange focussed on gender equity and mentorship in trade diplomacy emphasizing the positive correlation between diverse leadership and improved economic outcomes. Practical steps for greater engagement involved fostering inclusive discussions, promoting mentorship, and encouraging the active support of allies to enhance gender diversity in leadership roles in international trade.  

As a result of this discussion, female leadership has become one of the priority topics of the WTO Trade and Gender Office in 2025 and will be discussed at the upcoming World Trade Congress on Gender, to be held on 24-27 June 2025 at the WTO.  

Empowering women can be one of the most rewarding action any government can take. While gender equality is not yet entirely and widely mainstreamed in trade policies, governments are taking steps to integrate issues related to women’s economic empowerment into their trade strategies not only by adopting measures that are purely economic or trade oriented, but also by combining them with more socially oriented provisions, including on female leadership, making these policies more targeted and efficient.  

Undeniably, the work initiated by CEDAW in advancing female leadership will sustain these efforts, steer the world towards gender parity in decision making systems, and hopefully, using the words of Sheryl Sandberg, towards a future when there will be no female leaders, just leaders.