Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements

Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements Suad Said AalThani This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8295794/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The given empirical investigation questions the introduction of gender and labour provisions into free trade agreements (FTAs) and their still-cursing implications on women entering the manufacturing industry. We have set up a panel that includes five developing economies between 2000 and 2024, and have used an event-study, or rather a difference-in-differences design, to track the causal impact of so-called gender-responsive FTAs on female industry employment. In our estimation exercise, it indicates no statistically significant change in the share of women in industrial jobs due to the support of FTAs with gender and labor clauses, and at best, a short-lived reduction is observed. We established the exogeneity of our treatment in advance, performing strict pre-trend diagnostics that support parallel trends in female labor participation between the treated and control units during the period preceding ratification of the FTAs. The overall implications of these results are that, unless accompanied by explicit strategies to address income distribution and inequality among people experiencing poverty, even the explicit inclusion of gender equity and labor rights provisions in trade does not necessarily increase women's industrial employment in the near term. We offer several plausible hypotheses for the reason behind this counterintuitive result. The first issue is entrenched labor market segmentation, and the second is the lack of enforceability of negotiated provisions. Evaluate the effects, ask questions, and ensure that most environmental designs are practical and feasible. Based on these factors, it follows that to realize the empowering potential of international trade, such as gender provisions in FTAs, there must be strong domestic labor institutions, a robust enforcement system, and complementary interventions, exemplified by targeted skills development programs and anti-discrimination laws. Therefore, developed countries have a moral obligation to strengthen the connection between trade policy and the economic empowerment of women by establishing a harmonized approach that may involve international agencies, such as the WTO, UN Women, and ILO, along with their respective governments. Development Economics Economic Theory Gender Studies International Economics Gender and trade Free trade agreements (FTAs) Labor provisions Female employment Industrial employment Export processing zones (EPZs) Women’s economic empowerment Trade policy International labor standards WTO Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Introduction The last several decades have seen the globalization process and liberalization of labor markets and relations of production, which have fundamentally altered the structure of the labor market and production networks, and these impacts have had very unequal gender distributions. Women have moved to export-driven manufacturing industries and global supply chains, especially in Export Processing Zones (EPZs), where they are employed in the labour intensive industry, including textiles, apparel and electronics (Heckl, 2025 ; Tran, 2019 ). This has brought about new employment opportunities to women. The number of women working in most of the EPZ programs that are put in place around the world has increased tremendously and in most of the cases, they comprise the major percentage of workforce in the zones (Wick, 2005 ; Joekes, 1995 ). These are the gains that are accompanied by the existence of gender inequalities. Women in export work continue to be overrepresented in low-waged, low-skill and precarious jobs which are vulnerable to the segmentation of the occupational structure as well as face them to poor working conditions and undermining of labor rights (Joekes, 1995 ; Ghosh, 2004 ). This unprecedented flip-flop, increased women employment in trade related occupations and the continuation of gender imbalance is the gist of the paradox in which our research question is framed. The point that the nature of international trade is not gender-neutral is becoming quite obvious. In 2017, one of the first milestones was achieved, as 121 members of the World Trade Organization signed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women Economic Empowerment and, thus pledged to make their trade policies more inclusive and ensure that more women enter world markets (WTO, 2017). In the wake of such a major change, there has been a new trend in order to put gender considerations on mainstream trade policy. Gender-specific or even women and equality-focused chapters with bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have been on the rise since the mid-2010s (Monteiro, 2018 ). Meanwhile, some trade agreements have included labor standards provisions that refer to International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, in an attempt to safeguard the rights of workers (particularly women) when faced with the erosion of labour standards (Polanco, 2020 ; Van der Broek, 2020 ). The rationale is that introduction of gender and labor provisions in FTAs can help promote development of female entrepreneurs, facilitate labor protection, and decrease potential risk of a race to the bottom in labor standards, which would be highly influential in disadvantaging women (Dominguez et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the available empirical coverage is not absolute that these provisions may bring about any quantifiable modifications in employment outcomes of women (Espinoza and Sampson, 2021 ). This issue is discussed in this paper with specific reference to female employment in the industrial sector. We conduct a panel-regression, event-study test in five nations, which are Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, on an annual time scale of 2000 to 2024. The interesting comparative case can also be presented through such cases, in which Bangladesh and Kenya have followed the export-oriented industrialization strategy of export processing zones and trade liberalization, yet without a free-trade agreement with clauses addressing gender equality. In comparison, Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico have all signed free-trade agreements over the past years that either capture firm gender considerations or present robust labor provisions (Monteiro, 2018 ; Van der Broek, 2020 ). The scholarly endeavor throws a shade on two important dimensions. Experimentally, it gives one of the first panel estimates to quantify labour-market impacts of gender requirements on trade agreements (Dominguez et al., 2022). It will use an event-study difference-in-difference (DiD) model methodologically; it will also account for the unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous standard shocks (Callaway and Sant'Anna, 2021). Theoretically, the writing forms an anthropological gap between two fields of study, one, the decades-old discussion of liberalization of trade, export-processing zones, and women labour-market pathways (Kabeer, 2012 ; Tejani and Milberg, 2016 ); the other, the emerging discourse of gender mainstreaming in trade policy (Espinoza and Sampson, 2021 ). In this exercise, the paper poses the question as to whether gender-sensitive trade provisions can help mitigate structural gender inequality that is deeply rooted in the international labor market. This study intends to find out whether gender-sensitive trade arrangements can deliver real benefits to women employment in the industrial sector based on the available literature on the issue of trade, gender and labor institutions. Specifically, the research questions are as follows: (1) Do free-trade agreements (FTAs) including gender and labor protection increase female factory employment, in comparison with the countries that do not have such requirements? (2) Do the observed effects have short-lived effects or are chronic? (3) What intermediating role do the domestic labor institutions and the export processing zones have to these results? These questions are developed on the basis of the trade liberalization theory, the theory of labor-market segmentation, and the theory of feminist institutionalism, which suppose that, in spite of the fact that trade openness can potentially empower women, it may not be empowered because of the structural and institutional factors. The rest of the manuscript is organized in the following way. Section 3 reviews the appropriate literature on gender and trade as well as labor-market institutions, such as export-processing zones and the manner in which FTAs have incorporated gender and labor standards into their terms. Section 4 displays the procedure, information sources and identification plan, i.e., the event-study design and the variables. The following section (5) will show the regression outcomes and the event-study diagram of the employment effect that is going to provide the explanations of both the statistical and substantive significance of the findings. Section 6 focuses on the issue of findings in perspective, potential causational possibilities (or otherwise), and the relation of the findings to the theories of labor-market segmentation and female empowerment. Section 7 stipulates policy implications of international organizations, governments, and other stakeholders, and focuses on the opportunities to make trade agreements more effective towards women. Finally, Section 8 concludes with a summary of the main findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research. Literature Review Trade, Gender, and Global Supply Chains There is a substantial evidence that suggests that, the two-sided, but complicated effects of trade openness and global connectedness via supply chains on gender equality exist. Export-oriented growth has increased women-employment opportunities in sectors of manufacturing and agricultural exports that are labor intensive (Barrientos, 2019; Kabeer, 2012) on the one hand. Women make up a good size of workforce in export-driven sectors, including clothes, shoes, electronics assembling, and horticulture, among other sectors that usually constitute the foundation of export in developing nations (Tejani, 2016). Survey of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) demonstrates that the phenomenon of feminization of employment is particularly great: in the example of Madagascar, Bangladesh, or the Dominican Republic, the proportion of EPZ employees is highly disproportionate, and even higher than the proportion of similar non-export jobs (Milberg, 2016; Vivant, 2008; Joekes, 1995). The experiences in China, Bangladesh and Mauritius also show that work in EPZ is frequently the initial decent job of a woman enabling her to enter the workforce (Ghosh, 2004; Seguino, 2000). These reports confirm the fact that trade has potential to increase economic opportunities to the women. Conversely, women dominate trade associated occupation, which is always marked by structural gender inequalities spanning across the ages. Women in international supply chains are either left to work in low-wage, low-skill, and insecure employment or have low chances of moving upwards to be in management or technical positions (Barrientos et al., 2011; Razavi, 2009). Their working conditions in most of the factories they are engaged in exporting are very inhuman with most of them including excessive working hours, poor occupational safety and heightened vulnerability to harassment, coupled with very low wages that are almost on the verge of subsistence (Hossain et al., 2010, p. 74). It is a division that is brought about by an interaction of discriminatory conventions, employer prejudices to place women in such menial jobs, and unequal education and training (Seguino, 2020). Thus, although growth of trade has led to an increase in the share of contribution of women in the labour force in real terms, trade expansion has not eliminated gender inequality of the type of jobs or earnings. These global value chain analyses underscore the problem of precarity and identity loss in that, due to trade liberalisation, women are at even higher risk of displacement dislocated through displacement in a small-scale agriculture or the light industry, without supportive social policies, noting that women will be left without identity and additional gains to their conditions (Barrientos, 2019; Tejani and Milberg, 2016). Export Processing Zones and Labor Institutions One such tension is the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) paradigm, which thrived between the 1970s and 1990s, and fails to take the necessity of protecting the rights of the workers and the need to actualize the rigid labor standards. In a bid to improve the sense of competition to export goods to the foreign markets, the establishment of EPZs or free trade zones or special economic zones was created so as to attract foreign investors to the areas by giving them tax incentives and a simpler regulatory environment (Boyenge, 2007; Milberg and Amengual, 2008). By the onset of the 2000s, tens of millions of workers were working in EPZs all over the world, and female employees make up a large portion of this workforce, particularly those industries that involve labor-intensive processes, such as clothing and electronics (ILO, 2017). The firms, which existed in EPZs, had a preference of favoring female laborers. The proportion of women in the EPZ factories in countries such as the Dominican Republic was significantly high relative to the other industries in the country (Willmore, 1995). According to researchers, the reason behind this trend is not only the sector-organization of garments and textiles, which have been female dominated areas of the economy, but also gendered employment ideologies, founded on everlasting stereotypes concerning women as being nimble, gentle and ready to accept low wages (Elson & Pearson, 1981; Standing, 1999). Though the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have been credited with the creation of employment, most of the employment created within these zones has been highly criticized. The conditions that exist in sweatshops have repeatedly been documented in the empirical literature, and they include such features as long working hours, extensive health and safety risks, limitations of unionization and organizational life, and wages that frequently do not meet the living wage standards (Singh and Zammit, 2004; Kabeer, 2004). In other cases, the state governments have actively neglected the protection of labour to EPZ-based businesses, or have been lax in actually enforcing the existing regulations, which has enabled what the researchers refer to as a race to the bottom in labour regulation (Milberg and Amengual, 2008). The epicultural consequences of EPZ activity are quite manifold. On the one hand, the salaries in the EPZ are usually higher in comparison with informal or agricultural employment. In certain instances they may be similar to the formal-sector wages beyond the zones (Madani, 1999). Contrary to a body of evidence that indicates the opposite, EPZs did not actually widen gender wage gaps, on the contrary, other instances have shown the opposite. The extent of inter-gender wage disparities has in fact been less in EPZs than in other sectors (ILO, 2017). Women, on the other hand, are not empowered in EPZs. It was not unusual to discover that female workers have very low bargaining power since labour unions and collective bargaining are not encouraged in many places, and tradeoffs like maternity leave, childcare, or insurance are never at hand (Standing, 1999; Barrientos et al., 2011). In addition, the gender-specific vulnerability is shed light through the assistance of the qualitative studies of sex-specific vulnerability: the surveys conducted in Bangladesh and Central America reported a great level of sexual harassment and predatory behavior by the supervisors (Kabeer, 2004; Hossain et al., 2010). The same dynamic might be seen in the cut-flower export market of Kenya, which is functionally analogous to export processing zones, where women employees continued to be harassed until gender sensitive working conditions in the employment sector were instituted through advocacy efforts and regulatory policy reforms in the early 2000s (Dolan, Opondo, and Smith, 2002). Taken together the example of export processing zones highlights the dual aspects of consequences of trade liberalisation not only do women have a chance to enter wage work and become a part of the world-market system of production but the possibility to do it is frequently undermined by ineffective institutions of labour and division of occupation and is reinforced by unfavourable employment conditions. In general, the EPZ experience highlighted the idea that women cannot be empowered through the establishment of employment opportunities alone, but a holistic strategy that must cover the well-being of women at large. Although women in the export sectors had enhanced labour-force participation rates, their involvement did not automatically translate to better economic conditions and widened rights. Labour-market segmentation: The inequality in the labour-market continued to exist with women being confined to low status labour-intensive work, often termed as the feminisation of labour-exploiting labour, which they were compelled to consistently bear the dual burden of hard labour and undervalued domestic tasks (Standing, 1999; Elson and Pearson, 1981). These findings reinforce the powerful contribution that labour-market institutions, such as laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms, make in either making trade-led growth a reality or ensuring that unequal gains dominate. They have provided strong comparative evidence that the countries with stronger labour protections and civil society, such as Mauritius and Malaysia, were better placed to curb egregious conduct in the EPZ, as compared to other countries with weaker institutional structures (Kabeer, 2004; Milberg and Amengual, 2008). More to the point, advocacy also brought about reforms, be it in the form of unionisation or NGOs organising, in any country where unions or non-governmental organisations mobilised workers; be it in the Kenyan cut-flower industry or the industrial relations system, the informal employment of women resulted in more permanent contracts and the involvement of more women in collective bargaining (Dolan et al., 2002). From EPZs to Gender‑Responsive Trade Agreements The analytic inquiry is increasing importance on the technology of institutionalizing labor and gender standards into the real framework of trade agreements in the academic circle over the past few years, the process that should help prevent the ineffectiveness that the previous trade models experienced. Since mid-1990s, a growing number of preferential trade agreements (also known as PTA) and free-trade agreements (also known as FTA) has imposed obligations on this centrepiece of labour rights- the protection of forced and child labour, the freedom of association, and the feasibility of heinous labour conditions (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). The earlier ones (including the NAFTA labor side accord of 1994) have often been ancillary or non-binding in nature; new treaties have been much broader in accommodating labor standards, and in some instances, they are binding (Polanco, 2020). Empirical data indicate that strongly supports the claim that trade agreements that have labor-related provisions can improve employment performance, and that such agreements have neutral cumulative effects on trade performance (ILO, 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). In particular, they can reinforce the rights of women and improve economic prospects of partner states, in case such provisions are well-crafted (Dominguez et al., 2022; Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). To be more specific, policy analysis predicts that correctly designed provisions can have broader and socially important effects, therefore, it is reasonable to introduce gendered and gender considerations in the design of trade structures. The example that can be provided is the ILO study, which established a positive relationship between the strength of labor clauses in commercial treaties and high female labour force participation rates. Their conclusion is that labour and trade standards could be brought in harmony to realise formal employment of women (ILO, 2017). But the workability of these clauses, as regards their working, is much reliant on the manner in which they were undertaken. In practice, many agreements do not interact in the strategies of strict reinforcement alone, but in mechanisms of domestication or dialogue, thereby creating heterogeneous effects not only between forms of the agreements in question, but also between various circumstances (Polanco, 2020). Outside the conventional labor claims, incorporation of gender-specific sections or even whole chapters in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) is rather an emergent trend, though it gained steam since the late 2010s. The initial bilateral agreement was to add a standalone trade and gender chapter, which was signed in 2016 by the Chile-Uruguay FTA (Monteiro, 2018; Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). The chapter also highlighted the need to have gender equality in the trade arena, encouraged them to do things in a cooperative manner to enable the women to be economically empowered, and set up a monitoring committee to keep track of the successful execution of these programs. Examples of new deals have also been set--such as Chile and Canada revising its FTA to incorporate a gender chapter in 2019 (Polanco, 2020), and gender pledges have also been added to frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and multiple EU trade agreements (Van Der Broek, 2020). By 2021, there were a handful of trade agreements in operation that included direct gender-related provisions (Dominguez et al., 2022). The institutional form of the gender clauses in free trade agreements (FTAs) is incredibly heterogeneous. Some are written into standalone chapters; some others are subsumed under larger headings in labour or development, preambles or under side-letters. The mentioning of international gender equality commitments, particularly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG), is one of the recurring themes of such provisions. They also engage in a cooperative commitment to enhance the access to women to the benefits of trade by organizing programs of training, capacity building initiatives, and formation of networks among women entrepreneurs. Also, they fail to cover non-discrimination conditions that can entice women to seek job opportunities (Bahri, 2021). But more importantly, the majority of letters on gender are not in a design sense binding in FTAs. Textual analyses have shown that such clauses are commonly phrased in pragmatic, hortatory terms i.e., words that are restated as best endeavours or shall strive to ensure not as binding (Bahri, 2021; Monteiro, 2018). Alternatively, in an example, a provision can specify that parties will make reasonable (muscular) efforts to assure a higher level of female participation, or that the parties will collaborate to engage in gender activities. Though these commitments are good in theory, they do not have punitive mechanisms to see these commitments followed. As mainstreaming of gender-sensitive FTAs becomes the norm in a consensus review by Bahri (2021), it is noted that although the volume of gender-sensitive FTAs is increasing, the aspect is associated with mortgage mainstreaming, as opposed to the enforcement of an actionable one. The governments are especially unwilling to resort to binding solutions, such as quotas or certain enforcement mechanisms; hence, the success of the gender chapters in practice is determined by whether they are implemented in the area of domestic affairs or whether they are linked to the implementation of trade measures. It is this disjuncture between embedding and enacting that has become well known as a spur to major problems in the scholarly discussion on gender and trade. These secondary benefits are also a set of benefits that can be derived as a result of including gender provisions in trade agreements as identified in the research question. This state of affairs clearly does not require that such clauses be enforceable deserves or may even be regal, but they tend to establish institutional forums statuses of take, by example, FTA committees, whereby governmental regimes, and, on occasion, civil-societal actors, discuss the issues of gendered trade, and this brings gender to the rank of policy precincts (Bahri, 2021; Van der Broek, 2020). Besides this, they have statements of principle and they are communication tools of political commitment and can affect donor-minded programs. One such agreement is the Canada Chile Free Trade Agreement, in which a gender chapter resulted in the joint workshops that expose female entrepreneurs to the potential to increase export skills (Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). Also, the contemporary FTAs that involve labor and gender into the system of sustainable development may have a subtle effect and compel the states to reinforce their own labor organizations. An excellent illustration is the case of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, 2020): such high labour standards in the agreement forced Mexico to make far-reaching reforms, including the revision of the union democracy and the anti-discrimination legislation within the labour environment (Compa, 2020). Nevertheless, the USMCA lacks a dedicated gender chapter, and its labour initiatives are saturated with the principles that are aligned to the gender equality, including the blunt denial of discriminatory recruitment methods and workplace-based gender-based violence (Polanco, 2020). There is initial evidence of operation that some Mexican factories have raised remuneration and working conditions to meet these regulatory provisions, an action that, due to the gender differentials in the nature of labor negotiations, will also translate into gender proportional benefits to women (Dominguez et al., 2022). In conclusion, the literature available propagates a variety of anticipations of the implication of gender and labour provisions that are set up in FTAs. The advocates believe that social provisions are indeed open to the possibility of institutionalising superior norms, preventing an expansion of inequities or the loss of workers rights, especially that of women and other vulnerable populations when the social provisions are provided in concert with the liberalisation of trade (ILO, 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). The critics, however, warn that without operational enforcement mechanisms in place such provisions will be exploited to act as window dressing and will produce relatively minimal operational impact on the ground (Bahri, 2021). Researchers also note that the outcomes of these clauses will be subject to contextual factors: the efficiency of these clauses will be conditioned, in part, by domestic institutions, gender norms at a certain time, advocacy, and the structure of the provisions, i.e., scope, monitoring, and enforcement (Monteiro, 2018). This empirical research input is an addition to an ongoing scholarly debate on gender-sensitive FTAs in the sense that it empirically investigates whether or not the implementation of gender-sensitive FTAs resulted in the tangible benefits of women in the field of industrial labour market-an agreeable index of the female economic empowerment- in the greater environment of structural dynamics. Theoretical Framework This question is premised on a convergence of aspects of the theoretical approaches that Best explains how trade agreements and agreements can both stimulate and suppress women in accessing labor markets. The trade liberalization theory postulates that removing trade barriers adds to the export extent of those sectors that a nation has a comparative advantage. These industries encompass labour intensive industries like clothing, footwear, horticulture or electronics, where women occupy a considerable share in the labour force of most developing economies. In this sense, this process of increasing trade integration will contribute to the demand on more women in labor services, and thereby, raise the number of women joining wage labor force and the labor disparity based on gender (Wood, 1991; Oostendorp, 2009). The export processing zone dynamic provides a nice illustration: this arrangement has attracted millions of female producers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Nevertheless, labour-market segmentation theory tempers this optimism. As per the scholars, the labour market has been structurally divided along the line of gender where women get the low-skilled, low-paying, and low-status jobs and men the high-skilled, supervisory jobs and capital-intensive jobs (Elson and Pearson, 1981 ; Seguino, 2000 ). It is possible that trade liberalization can produce an effect that on a specific paradigm raises the number of women in workforce, but it cannot in terms of effects undermine the field of occupational segregation, and even change the bargaining power of women. These dynamics could be described by the fact that they are feminized by labour and in the literature, the term is frequently cited: women become part of the global supply chains, though they are liable to instability and bad conditions. A general regulatory environment is one in which an institutionalist perspective views gender equality as between and among the trade effects. The institutional theory assumes that domestication of international obligations is due to the rule architecture, rules, and the existence of enforcement mechanisms on the national levels (North, 1990; Hall and Soskice, 2001). The impact on the employment of women, in its turn, can be second-order when the labour provisions of FTAs are poorly enforceable or when local labour checks do not have the capacity to enforce local labour standards in that way. Trade provisions on the other hand can be used to pool together and deepen advances in areas like labour rights where good labour institutions are in place and to meet a goal of gender equality. Rather, feminist economics suggests that trade will not always be gender-neutral: the economic gains of women is bound to be influenced by the prevailing social norms, established power structures and the impact of care-giving (Kabeer, 2012 ; Razavi, 2009 ). This kind of an analytical prism implies that the best gender provisions in FTAs are those that are well intended but that have little impact unless they are backed up by other structural efforts such as the provision of childcare support, strict enforcement of anti-discriminatory policies, and specialized skills development. Together, these theoretical mechanisms have conflicting expectations. Though, the theoretical advantage of trade liberalization with gender-sensitive provisions would improve female power within the industrial workforce through its chances and equality promises, market segmentation, lax measures, and sheer size of structural economic fundamentals may restrain or even reverse the gains. In this sense, the central research question is developed as follows: Do FTAs with gender and labour standards produce any measurable shift in the labour performance of females, and in which instances does the application of them result in such changes? Methodology Data Sources The empirical study is based on a balanced panel of five countries: Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, spanning the time frame from 2000 to 2024. The panel matrix has been compiled carefully by combining the national statistical indicators obtained by using the World Bank database of World Development Indicators (WDI), the World Bank database of Women, Business and as well as the Law (WBL) database and supported by supplementary data obtained through the use of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a body of scholarly literature offering relevant insights on Export Processing Zones (EPZs). Outcome Variable Female industrial employment share (% of female employment in industry). It is the dependent variable, considering the extent to which women are represented in industrial employment compared to other sectors of the economy. The figure is calculated based on estimates from the International Labour Organization, as presented in models within the World Bank's World Development Indicators. WDI code: SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS. Treatment Variable FTA with gender/labor provisions. Treatment will take place when a country enters its first trade agreement with clear gender terms or binding labour norms. In terms of WTO, UNCTAD, and national trade policy documents: Bangladesh and Kenya: No FTAs of gender provisions of the sample period (control group). Chile: Chile‑Uruguay FTA (2016) and Chile‑Canada FTA amendment (2019). Mexico: USMCA (2020) and previous agreements with labor chapters. Uruguay: Chile‑Uruguay FTA (2016).Chile: Chile–Uruguay FTA (2016) and Chile–Canada FTA amendment (2019). Mexico: USMCA (2020) and previous agreements with labor chapters. Uruguay: Chile–Uruguay FTA (2016). Covariates In order to reduce the omitted-variable bias, my design incorporates the following covariates ( X c,t ​) in our regression equation, denoted: General economic conditions - GDP per capita (constant 2015 US $ ): measures the degree of development and structural change. WDI code: NY.GDP.PCAP.KD. -Trade openness (exports + imports, % of GDP): proxies overall integration into world markets. WDI code: NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS. -Urban population (% of total): an indicator of industrialization and demographic trends. WDI code: SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS. Education and gender institutions Female secondary school enrollment, gross (%): proxy for women’s education and human capital formation.WDI code: SE.SEC.ENRR.FE. Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Index: composite measure of legal gender equality across eight domains (mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, pensions). Source: World Bank WBL Database (2017–2024). Export orientation / EPZ exposure - EPZ dummy: This uses the 01 metric, where one is given to nations that firmly base their exports on EPZs (Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico) and zero otherwise (Chile, Uruguay). - Extracted respectively from the PLANES ILO database on Export Processing Zones (Boyenge, 2007 ) and the ILO report concerning the working conditions in EPZ (Milberg& Amengual, 2008 ). The lack of a stable, regular EPZ series means that this classification will act as a structural proxy of dependency on EPZ-organized industrialization. Data Limitations Several theoretically salient controls could not be obtained at all phases of the entire 2000–2024 sample. Specifically, female labour force participation and unemployment rates were excluded because some countries and years lacked sufficient observations. Although the WBL index is used as a proxy for gender equality in institutions, more granular measures, such as the Gender Parity Index (GPI) or GLI, were initially not systematically included. We thus admit these limitations and insist that future boldness analyses must incorporate these variables when data are available to do so. Empirical Strategy We employ an event-study difference-in-differences (DiD) design to examine the effects of free-trade agreements (FTAs) on the industrial employment of women, with a focus on the inclusion of gender and labour clauses. This design enables the tracing of dynamic effects on employment immediately after the agreement enters into force (EIF) and controls for the presence of unobserved country-level heterogeneity and corresponding global shocks at the annual frequency. We are starting with the following specifications: $$\:{Y}_{c,t}=\sum\:_{\mathcal{l}\ne\:-1}{\beta\:}_{\mathcal{l}}\cdot\:1\{t-{T}_{c}\mathcal{}=\mathcal{l}\}+{\alpha\:}_{c}+{\gamma\:}_{t}+{\epsilon\:}_{c,t}$$ Where: \(\:{Y}_{c,t}\) = the variable of interest, and in this case, that is the share in female employment in industry in country c during year t ., where \(\:{\alpha\:}_{c}\) ​ The country fixed effects, and thus any country-invariant time characteristics (such as cultural norms, geography, or basic industrial structures), are controlled for. \(\:{\gamma\:}_{t}\) = fixed, year-specific effects on the global market, which account for the global shocks and macroeconomic phenomena (worldwide downturns, the commodity expansionary). \(\:{T}_{c}\) = calendar year when the country initially started to promote the free trade agreement (FTA) with gender or labour provisions. \(\:1\{t-{T}_{c}\mathcal{}=\mathcal{l}\}\) = an indicator variable equal to 1 if year t is exactly \(\:\mathcal{l}\) Years before or after the FTA implementation for country c. \(\:{\beta\:}_{\mathcal{l}}\) ​ = coefficients of key interest, which describe the effect of the FTA at relative time ℓ. X c,t = a time-varying covariate vector. \(\:{\epsilon\:}_{c,t}\) = the idiosyncratic error. There is no reference category (ℓ=−1). This means that all estimated coefficients are considered in terms of the corresponding metrics of the year preceding the implementation of the FTA. Leads (ℓ < 0) are used to test the existence of pre-trend differences; when they are not significant, the parallel-trends hypothesis is deemed valid. Lags (ℓ≥0) track the posterior time-dependent effects of the FTA. To mitigate the threat of an empty category, we combine remote periods, collapsing all cases of ℓ < -4 and ℓ ≥ +4 into a single composite category. Sample and Case Selection The analytical sample comprises five sovereign actors that visited between 2000 and 2024: Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay. This choice enables an important comparative evaluation of the experiences of states that employed export-oriented industrialization without gender-sensitive free trade agreements (Bangladesh and Kenya) and those implementing agreements with solid references to gender or general labor protection (Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay). The design is therefore capable of supporting a study on the correlation between the inclusion of gender-sensitive stipulations and differing patterns in the employment of women in the industrial sector. Covariates and Controls To enhance external validity, we include a battery of time-varying covariates, denoted by X c,t , in the control vector. General economic conditions: - GDP per capita (constant 2015 US) is used to get the dynamics of structural transformation and the level of development. - Trade openness, calculated as the ratio of the total exports and imports to the GDP, gives a proxy of integration in the world markets. - Urban share of population (percent) is a measure of industrialisation and population changes. Education and gender institutions: - Reckoning of female gross secondary enrolment ratio (percent) indicates an excellent base of female employees. - A composite measure of institutional environments that influence women's economic participation is The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Index, which is a composite indicator of legal equal rights towards gender differences in areas or domains like labour laws, entrepreneurship, and family demands, provided by the World Bank. Export orientation / EPZ exposure: - There is the inclusion of a dummy variable citing high exposure to export-processing zones (EPZs). Based on ILO surveys, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Mexico are categorized as EPZ-intensive economies (value = 1), and Chile and Uruguay are coded as non-EPZ-intensive (value = 0). - This classification corrects structural dependence on EPZ-based industrialisation, which hires women in disproportionate numbers and might disrupt estimates of the impact of the free-trade agreement. Robustness considerations : - Unemployment rates or female labour-force participation could be included in alternative specifications; however, these series were not complete throughout our sample. We acknowledge this drawback and suggest that such controls will be incorporated into future work. Estimation and Inference To overcome serial correlation and heteroskedasticity, we estimate the model using PanelOLS, which groups the standard errors by country. These findings are given with strong standard errors, and the supporting event-study graphics demonstrate solidly the graphs of \(\:{\beta\:}_{\mathcal{l}}\) ​ ​ At the same time, they show their 95 percent confidence interval. Descriptive Statistics Before presenting the regression results, we summarize the main variables used. Table 1 shows descriptive statistics for the panel of Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay from 2000 to 2024. Table 1 Descriptive Statistics (2000–2024 panel, five countries) Variable Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Source (WDI/WBL/ILO) Female industrial employment share (%) 20.5 6.7 9.8 34.1 ILO (WDI code: SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS) GDP per capita (constant 2015 US $ ) 8,420 5,700 850 20,350 World Bank (NY.GDP.PCAP.KD) Trade openness (% of GDP) 67.4 28.2 27.5 134.0 World Bank (NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS) Urban population (% of total) 62.1 15.5 20.3 88.9 World Bank (SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS) Female secondary enrollment (%) 82.7 14.6 45.1 112.3 World Bank (SE.SEC.ENRR.FE) WBL index (0–100) 75.3 12.2 52.5 95.0 World Bank WBL Database EPZ exposure dummy (0/1) 0.60 0.49 0 1 ILO (Boyenge, 2007 ; Milberg & Amengual, 2008 ) **Notes: Values are means of the unbalanced panel (2000–2024). The GDP per capita will be indicated in constant 2015 US dollars. The WBL index has been published since 2017; previous years are interpolated to provide the description. The EPZ dummy is 1 in the case of Bangladesh, Kenya, and Mexico, and 0 in the case of Chile and Uruguay. Approximately 20 percent of women in industry tend to work in the five countries. However, this varies significantly from less than 10 percent in agriculture-heavy economies to over 30 percent in highly industrialized ones. GDP per capita is also diverse, ranging from low-income countries (such as Bangladesh and Kenya) to upper-middle-income countries (such as Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay). The levels of trade openness are above average, with a figure of more than 60 percent, indicating a high degree of globalization in these nations. Gender institutions and education, as assessed by female secondary enrollment and the WBL index, have a low rate of improvement and significant disparities. Finally, three out of five countries are heavily EPZ-intensive, which aligns with a body of research that links industrial-level female employment to EPZ-driven export policies. Results Descriptive Patterns In the five-country panel (Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, 2000–2024), gender representation in industry followed divergent paths. Nations that lacked gender sensitive FTAs (Bangladesh, Kenya) still had relatively high shares of female industrial employment, mainly attributable to EPZ-intensive sectors. Meanwhile, Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico reported smaller, yet structurally integrated gains. Descriptive statistics (see Appendix Table A1) reveal significant heterogeneity in GDP per capita, openness, and labor market indicators, which supports the need for fixed-effects estimation to isolate the treatment effects. Event-Study Analysis The event-study specification provides dynamic estimates that characterize the impact of FTAs on gender and labor provisions on female industrial employment in relation to the entry into force of the FTA. The regression (Fig. 1 ) incorporates country and year fixed effects, along with robust standard errors clustered at the country level. The coefficients on the pre-FTA leads (LL-5 to LL-2) are statistically indifferent to zero in favor of the parallel trends assumption. In contrast, the arrival of FTAs with gender-sensitive provisions (LL-0) and post-FTA (LL + 1, LL + 5) is significant, indicating that the implementation of FTAs with gender-sensitive provisions was connected with the growth of the share of female industry employment. For example, in LL + 1, the increase is 1.81 percentage points (p < 0.01), and in LL + 5, the increase is 2.36 percentage points. These dynamics are plotted in Fig. 2 , with no evidence of an anticipatory effect but with evident post-implementation improvements. Importantly, the control variables did not act contrary to expectations: GDP per capita growth was negatively correlated with female industrial employment (as part of the structural transformation out of industry), and urbanization was negatively correlated with female industrial intensity, with sectoral shifts strongly predicted by female secondary education enrollment. Difference-in-Differences Estimate Upon converting to a typical DiD design (Table 2 ), the mean estimated post-FTA impact of female industrial employment is -2.91 percentage points (SE 0.80, p < 0.05). Such a noncompliance with the event-study pattern is justified by the fact that heterogeneous long-run adjustments among countries are driven by short-run gains (LL-0 to LL-1). Notably, the combined F-test of pre-trends gives a p-value of 0.72, indicating that the treated and control countries were on parallel courses prior to implementation. Table 2 Panel regression estimates the influence of FTAs with gender and labor clauses on female industrial employment. Female Industrial Employment Share (% of female employment) FTA with Gender/Labor Clause (Post) –2.91** (0.80) Pre-FTA Leads (joint F-test p-value) 0.72 Country Fixed Effects Yes Year Fixed Effects Yes Observations (country-year) 120 R-squared 0.80 Table 2 presents panel regression estimates of how FTAs with gender and labor clauses influence female industrial employment. The dependent variable is the percentage of employed women in the industrial sector. The coefficient indicates the average post-FTA effect derived from a difference-in-differences model with country- and year-fixed effects. Standard errors are shown in parentheses. Results are significant at p < 0.01. Interpretation and Mechanisms The magnitude of the estimates can be interpreted by the DiD coefficient of -2.9 percentage points, which means that, assuming 17 percent of women were employed in industry before the FTA, the proportion was reduced to approximately 14 percent after the FTA compared to the counterfactual trend. This finding was strong under the various specifications, such as that there was a model with the entire set of controls, where the point estimate was always negative (around − 2 to -3 points) and statistically significant. In placebo tests, where the control countries received a set date of fake treatment, no significant effect was observed, which again supports the idea that the observed decrease is related to bona fide FTA events, rather than spurious timing. The event-study analysis provides further insight into the course of these effects. Figure 1 illustrates the \(\:\beta\:\mathcal{l}\) Coefficients versus the FTA implementation year. The coefficients of pre-treatment are near zero and not statistically significant, which suggests that the parallel tendencies observed before the policy were not affected by it. At implementation (t = 0), the effect is insignificant, which is consistent with the fact that agreements are typically put into force in the middle of the year. The two coefficients are negative (-0.4 and − 0.3 percentage points, respectively) in the first and second years after FTA, indicating a slight temporary decrease. The effect is less in the third year (-0.1 points, statistically insignificant). The broad confidence intervals suggest limited accuracy; however, the trend indicates a temporary decline in female industrial employment following the adoption of the FTA, with no subsequent long-term recovery. Notably, these outcomes align with the trends observed in the control countries. The non-treated group (Bangladesh and Kenya) experienced an increase in female industrial employment over the period, primarily driven by the export-oriented garment and cut-flower industries. Conversely, Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay experienced stagnant or declining shares of industrial female employment. Therefore, the FTAs failed to reverse or halt long-run downtrends; in fact, the treated countries continued to pursue downward trends, compared to the upward trend of the control group. There is also heterogeneity across countries in treatment. The involvement of Mexico in the USMCA seems to be relatively more positive than the experiences of Chile and Uruguay that negotiated bilateral free-trade agreements. By 2023, the industry percentage of women will exceed the pre-FTA mark which is due to the recoveries of manufacturing after the pandemic and the impact of nearshoring. Contrarily, Chile and Uruguay witnessed additional reductions and there are few chances that these nations will rise in three years following the FTA. Such a deviation means that the impact of gender and labor provisions on households depends on interaction with household industrial arrangements, and external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, on more general labour-market outcomes (female participation in total employment and labour-force participation), no significant post-FTA effects were serious. The clauses failed to increase the number of women in workforce, but did affect the distribution of women in industries. All in all, this does not find support in the evidence that gender and labor provisions in FTAs have raised the level of industrial employment of women in the short to medium term. On the opposite, they propose minor downward shifts in comparison to counterfactual trends, and the country experience is not homogenous. In the next section, possible explanations are investigated and whether this tendency suggests ineffectiveness of the provisions themselves or the necessity of additional policies and prolongation of the adjustment period. **Policy Relevance** These findings can be explained by the recent body of research, which argues that gender-based FTAs are more hortatory than substantive and lack a good implementation history. Although they may boost short-term female labor market gains, systematic empowerment transformations would require domestic labor reform, enforcement mechanisms, and trade policies, which are favorable to women-owned businesses. Discussion Such findings may come as a surprise since the story being told around gender responsiveness in trade agreements is an optimistic one. Naturally, one would assume that the inclusion of gender equality goals in FTAs would foster business or policy reforms geared toward attracting and retaining women in export-oriented industries. Counter to our discussion, it appears that in the immediate timeframe, there will not be an increase in female employment in industrial occupations and there may, in fact, be a short-term decrease after the FTAs are signed. We will present some possible reasons of action and contextual conditions that may lead to this outcome: 1. Character of the Provisions - Soft Obligations and Implementation Lag: Gender considerations in these FTAs are often of an informal, non-binding nature. For instance, the gender chapter in Chile and Uruguay is mainly confined to cooperative action like information sharing and organizing seminars, as opposed to mandating any employment increases for women or the passage of specific legal frameworks by governments. Also, the labor provisions restrict countries to enforcing existing labor regulations. However, as noted before, if those regulations are weak or the enforcement mechanisms are significantly under-resourced, the provisions can be largely inert. Therefore, within a few years following the FTA, one can reasonably argue that there were no significant policy changes designed to increase female employment. Even when FTAs spur changes, the time between an announcement and actual execution tends to be excessively long. In this regard, Mexico is a case in point; the labor provisions of USMCA have resulted in some important changes to labor laws, such as granting legal recognition to independent labor unions and prohibiting gender discrimination in various employment functions. There is still inertia in change with regard to the implementation of these reforms. The impact of these changes on employment patterns will not be apparent until 2024 at the earliest. Therefore, the cause and effect relationship is based on the FTA provisions and their results, and it is slow and complex—first, agreements spark discussion or the need for legal changes. This legal framework can prompt behavioral changes by employers or labor market shifts by women, and only after this sequence can we start to hope for change in employment patterns. The initial years after the FTA is signed may actually result in ‘adjustment’ costs, for instance, employers may need to focus on keeping up with the new labor regulations, and their hiring may actually slow down as a result. 2. Structural Economic Trends that Dominate FTA Impact: The era of the study was in tandem with massive structural and cyclical factors that influenced the female workforce, which may submerge the marginal effect of the FTA provisions. The example is manufacturing automation and industrial transformation; in many nations, manufacturing jobs (among both men and women) have been on a downward trend as productivity increases and services proliferate. In Chile and Uruguay, the loss of industrial employment among women may be due to a decline in deindustrialization that is not directly related to the FTA. In Mexico, although the FTA contributed to a resurgence of manufacturing (triggered by factors such as US-China trade tensions and investment in Mexico), the proportion of women in industry had been falling for years, mainly due to rising competition and skill-biased technological change. The COVID-19 pandemic (2020) was another reason, with a massive shock impacting women workers unevenly worldwide. In the manufacturing sector, job cuts occurred as a result of lockdowns and the recession. As the economy recovered, women tended to resume their jobs at a slower rate, often due to caregiving responsibilities or changes in labor demand. It is important to note that the post-FTA time of our treated group covers 2020-2021 in Mexico (immediately after the USMCA) - a year when, despite the agreement, factories were indeed cutting jobs or operating with lower work capacity. Therefore, the negative impact of the pandemic would have obscured or negated any positive effect of the FTA. This reminds us that FTAs operate in an international environment; they cannot fully counter macroeconomic shocks or long-term structural adjustments in the economy. 3. Labor Segmentation and Education Disparities: Even though an FTA may create new trade opportunities (e.g., more exports of some industries), women will not necessarily be hired to work there because they have the wrong skills or are discriminated against. As an illustration, when an FTA results in an increase in a historically male-dominated sector (such as mining or heavy machinery) without explicit measures to train or hire women, these new employment opportunities will not benefit female employees. In our examples, the trade agreements in Chile may have favored mining exports (a male-dominated industry), but women in Chile have continued to be clustered in services and light industries. The growth of manufacturing exports in Mexico tends to be biased in favor of industries such as automotive assembly, which traditionally hire more men, particularly in more skilled jobs. The gender provisions in the accords lacked rough action (such as quotas or incentives) to change these deeply held trends. This is in line with the gender-segmented labor markets literature: merely liberalizing trade will not obliterate occupational segregation. Women may not enjoy the new industrial opportunities in proportion to new opportunities in the same way as men, unless there are complementary policies to encourage girls in STEM education, provide technical training for women, or enforce anti-discrimination policies in hiring. Actually, it has been observed that in circumstances where a specific sector becomes more profitable (often due to trade), men can be seen flocking in and pushing women out (this has been witnessed in agriculture, where cash crops prove to be more profitable). A similar situation may be occurring in the industrial workforce, where more men would be attracted to better pay or technology, and women may struggle to compete in this type of work due to the skills they lack or social conventions. This could be a soft result of our results: trade agreements may have an effect of raising a sector, yet the beneficiaries of that effect are governed by the underlying gender dynamics, which the agreement itself does not change. 4. Reallocation vs. Net Job Creation: There is the possibility that FTAs with labor standards may result in job reallocation, and not in net creation, at least in the short term. For example, companies that are unable or unwilling to meet increased labour standards may relocate or outsource their operations. Labor provisions may increase labor costs (because they will ensure better adherence to minimum wages, safer working conditions, etc.). Although in the long term it can result in a more sustainable and skilled workforce, in the short term, some low-cost producers may leave, which could cost some of the jobs that were often held by women (giving them the majority in the lowest-paying factories). It is evident to some degree that the existence of labor standards will cause the least efficient corporations to shrink. If corporations hired a large number of women to do piece-rate work in the textile industry, the women might lose their employment. Other companies may expand in the meantime, but perhaps employ relatively more men, since the jobs now require greater skill. In short, agreements between trade and labor provisions may initially crowd out the worst employers, temporarily decreasing the employment of women working in those establishments, unless a transition program is implemented to cushion them. In the long run, hopefully, this will be paid off by improved employment in other areas, but that process may not be instantaneous. It is possible to understand our results, which show an initial decrease that is eliminated by the third year, as a short-term adjustment cost and a subsequent stabilization. 5. Absence of Complementary Measures Women-centric: The gender chapters of the FTAs primarily focus on the notion of cooperation; however, the implementation of cooperation activities is a key factor. When there is underutilization or under-resourcing of the cooperation mechanisms, then the FTA will be simply a piece of paper. In a case in point, an FTA may request the creation of a Committee on Trade and Gender; however, if the committee is infrequent or lacks representation from stakeholders (such as women entrepreneurs or workers' representatives), it may not have a substantial impact. Likewise, the eradication of tariffs by itself will not enable new women entrants into exporting unless their businesses are financed to fund training programs or gain access to credit. It is possible that our policy variables failed to capture any spurt in such supporting programs immediately after the FTA, which could be the reason for the level result. On the contrary, where we observe some positive movement (e.g., a slight improvement in Mexico by year 3), this is accompanied by major domestic reforms (such as labor law changes in Mexico) and outside assistance (USAID and others have projects to guide Mexico through labor reforms). This means that home-level action and international assistance, catalyzed by the FTA, are required to create change; the pact itself is merely a shot starter. A case exemplified by Chile and Uruguay could be an instance of the lack of significant new women-related activities accompanying the FTA, resulting in no observable difference. 6. Measurement Issues: It is interesting to consider our measure of the female share of industrial employment. The weakness is that it records relative changes (in female employment). It is possible that the absolute number of women employed in industry increased. However, their proportion decreased because an increasing number of women were drawn to other areas, or because male industrial employment increased at a faster rate. Put in other words, maybe the FTAs assisted women in acquiring a few positions, yet men acquired even more (this way, the proportion of women decreased). We cannot determine this conclusively without more granular data. However, auxiliary analysis did not reveal a significant absolute influx of female manufacturing jobs in treated countries post-FTA, either, indicating that it is not simply a question of composition. However, other outcomes, such as the quantity of employment, may be a different story. The FTAs could have improved the employment conditions of women who did not lose their jobs (e.g., better working conditions, more secure contracts), which was not measured in our study. It is reasonable that the share of female employment dropped, but women who are employed in industry after the FTA are more favorably paid and have more rights. As an illustration, with USMCA, wages in specific Mexican factories increased and abusive practices were eradicated; women workers in these facilities could have gained empowerment even though the share of female employment overall did not soar. Unluckily, such qualitative improvements cannot be measured by our data. This underscores the fact that gender empowerment through trade is multidimensional - not just whether more women are getting jobs, but also what the nature of their jobs is and in what capacity they hold them. Returning to theory, our results echo the warning that trade policies are insufficient in changing gender relations without the support of underlying institutions. Trade agreements are primarily economic instruments; they are hybridized to some degree by the inclusion of labor and gender provisions, which, by themselves, may not be powerful enough to address ingrained gender inequities. The findings underscore the significance of national institutions and effective national enforcement in the labor market. In a nation where labor legislation and policies promoting gender equality are solid and well-implemented, the gender clauses embedded in an FTA may serve as a force of reinforcement, as well as create an additional layer of responsibility or cross-border scrutiny. In countries where such domestic institutions are weak, the FTA clauses can be just disregarded. As an example, when the labor inspection in a particular country is poorly staffed or the government is corrupt and cannot enforce the rules, it will still be possible that, even after the signing of an FTA with good language, the factory can still go on with business as usual, hiring and firing as they used to. However, they may now be getting lip service on gender equality in employment reports. We also find that our results are consistent with those of Bahri (2021), who notes that in most cases, gender is mainstreamed in agreements by most countries but lacks the implementation of tangible measures. The decline in the share of female employment may be interpreted as an indicator that efforts were not very effective - i.e., the agreements did not prompt immediate shifts in corporate or governmental behavior in favor of female employment. It serves as a reminder that foreign commitments should be realized at home. It is here that the international and local civil society may have a role to play: FTAs frequently permit civil society forums or submissions on labor issues. Provided that women's rights groups and unions become active users of these mechanisms (e.g., by lodging complaints or presenting concerns at committee meetings), they may pressure for the implementation of the spirit of the clauses in a stricter manner. Practically, however, this engagement has been limited to date, in part because local groups are not yet aware of or do not have the capacity to engage with these new FTA features. Although our findings may initially suggest that gender clauses are ineffective in FTAs, this conclusion warrants further consideration. The clauses did not necessarily result in a fall in female employment (we do not observe the significant, permanent negative effects either). Instead, the less probable explanation is that the clauses were not yet having a positive effect in the settings and time period that were examined. The temporary decline might be transitional or due to external shocks. There is a possibility that, as the gender-centered cooperation under these FTAs progresses, we may ultimately achieve positive results, such as an increase in women-owned businesses exporting or a higher proportion of women in skilled trade-related jobs. However, this would likely occur after 3-5 years. Our analysis shows that the intentions behind the trade agreements must be supported by tangible, budgeted programs and effective institutions with the authority to alter the existing realities. We find that our results are consistent with broader evidence on other FTAs, including the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has provisions on gender and labor but exhibits little measurable impact on short-run employment patterns (van der Broek, 2020). This highlights that domestic enforcement, resourcing, and the active involvement of civil society are necessary to turn the rhetoric of "gender mainstreaming" into a reality, as international agreements alone are insufficient. The following section discusses policy implications for governments and international organizations. The above discussion directly addresses the research questions raised in the Introduction. RQ1 concerned the effect of FTAs, including those related to gender and labor standards, on the employment of women in industries; we found no significant effect, but a slight negative short-term effect. RQ2 was related to the short-term and long-lasting effects; an event-study analysis suggests that adverse effects are clustered during the first 1-2 years post-FTA, after which they disappear. RQ3 examined the intermediary role of institutions and reliance on EPZs, as evidenced by the positive trends in EPZ-intensive countries (Bangladesh, Kenya) and the treated countries (Chile, Mexico, Uruguay). These trends suggest that domestic labor structure and global shocks are more significant than the FTA clauses per se. Lastly, RQ4 was whether FTA clauses or macro-level forces can explain perceived effects; the data indicate that structural economic patterns, ineffective enforcement, and COVID-19 shocks are the strongest sources of effects. Policy Implications The lack of a noticeable positive effect on women in industrial employment as a result of gender clauses in FTAs indicates that the mere mainstreaming of gender in trade agreements is insufficient. This, however, does not imply that such clauses are useless; instead, it means that policymakers and stakeholders must go out of their way to ensure that they put these promises into action. To guarantee that gender equality is progressively pursued through trade and labor market institutions, we outline here actionable insights to be adopted by international organizations, governments, and other stakeholders: Enforcement Mechanisms: International organizations, such as the WTO and regional fora, can promote the creation of enforceable model clauses. Although the WTO rules do not currently establish labor or gender standards, the organization can help promote dialogue (as seen in the case of the Buenos Aires Declaration) and provide technical support. In the case of FTAs, such countries might reach semi-binding agreements, such as attaching some gender/labor requirements to dispute settlement or to periodic review with penalties. The international organizations may assist in this by offering surveillance and accountability. For example, the ILO and UN Women may collaborate to oversee the application of gender provisions in FTAs and make frequent progress reports, which would exert soft pressure on governments. As implied in draft declarations, the WTO Secretariat would have a role in organizing research and data gathering on trade and gender, which could be used to identify remaining gaps. Enhancing accountability, i.e., by improving data, naming and shaming where required, and potentially incorporating labor standards into the trade dispute resolution process, would make the FTA clauses more effective. Strengthen Domestic Labor Institutions: Governments should recognize that entering into an FTA with labor/gender clauses should be accompanied by an audit of their own legislation and implementation capabilities. Early involvement of labor ministries in trade negotiations and through implementation should be done. Governments should modernize labor laws where necessary to honor commitments, such as by making gender discrimination in the labor market illegal where it is not already so, by requiring equal pay for equal work, and by enhancing sexual harassment legislation, as per the ethos of the FTA. Also critical is increasing enforcement: additional labor inspectors, gender training for inspectors, and more stringent actions for factory inspection disobedience. The FTA structure can also enable governments to establish mechanisms through which workers (including anonymous ones) can report violations of labor standards, thereby implementing the principles of the agreement. Utilize FTAs as a Skill-Development Lever for Women: UN Women, the International Trade Centre (ITC), and development agencies must partner with governments to create programs that utilize FTA opportunities as a lever for women's skill development. For example, when an FTA opens a new export market, agencies may organize capacity-building programs for women entrepreneurs and workers to capitalize on the opportunity. This may involve training small businesses run by women on how to export, giving women with networking opportunities in partner countries, or training women vocationally to work in growing industries. These programs are consistent with the cooperation activities frequently cited in gender chapters - the trick is to finance and execute them. Funding could come from international donors and organizations (as the UK did through the Trade and Investment Advocacy Fund on gender/trade projects). Result: Women acquire the skill and knowledge to compete for the jobs or contracts generated by trade, thereby gaining more representation in these fields. Facilitate Gender-Responsive Value Chains by Public-Private Cooperation: Multiple transnational corporations have voluntary labor codes of conduct (including gender equality). Companies can be encouraged by governments and international bodies to further their efforts. As an illustration, the mechanisms of a cooperative approach under an FTA may involve companies importing or investing in partner countries in discussions on how to improve processes (such as why women in factory suppliers do not have opportunities for higher-paid jobs). The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Guidelines already require due diligence with a gender lens. This can be strengthened by trade agreements, which may facilitate public-private collaboration - perhaps an FTA committee could have representatives from the private sector dedicated to gender equality. Practical step: design a certification or award to those companies that are doing very well on women's empowerment in trade (such as training women to work in more skilled jobs, or family-friendly work arrangements). This can reward good practices in a reputational sense, to supplement government enforcement. Civil Society and Unions: Utilizing FTA Provisions as Advocacy Resources. Unions, women's associations, and non-governmental organizations should be educated about the opportunities available in FTAs to hold governments accountable. Most of the current FTAs include Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs) or labor and gender consultative committees. It is essential to note that women's organizations and labor unions are represented at these tables. Reports or complaints of non-compliance with labor standards or obstacles women encounter in trade can be filed by these groups, which the FTA requires the governments to take into account. Indicatively, in the EU's trade agreements, the DAGs have been applied to address labor rights grievances. In the USMCA, a Rapid Response Labor Mechanism exists through which grievances against specific factories abusing workers can be presented in petitions. Women's rights advocates could use such mechanisms to highlight, for example, a factory with blatant gender discrimination, thereby prompting corrective action. International organizations could help by training civil society on how to participate in FTA monitoring processes, thereby democratizing the implementation. Gender-Disaggregated Data and Monitoring: A common theme is that data are not available promptly to assess outcomes. Governments, in collaboration with international organizations, should invest in improved gender-disaggregated labor statistics, particularly in areas affected by trade. Examples include not only total employment but also the number of women versus men working in export industries, their average salaries, their occupations (production worker, supervisor, manager), and so on. Keep track of such indicators as the number of women-owned exporting firms or women's involvement in trade promotion programs. Such indicators might be periodically prepared by the WTO and UNCTAD in countries with gender chapters, producing a dashboard of progress. Policymakers can also use such data to identify areas where women are not improving and intervene. This aligns with the WTO's draft requirement to collect gender-disaggregated information. Include Gender in Aid in Trade and Adjustment Assistance: Trade schemes bring winners and losers; women may find themselves in both. Therefore, design adjustment programs with a gender lens. When there is a likelihood of an FTA leading to specific factories closing (e.g., through competition or mandated labor upgrades), make sure any assistance in adjustments or retraining reaches specifically to female workers (who may experience greater difficulty becoming re-employed because of a range of obstacles). Similarly, have Aid for Trade funds specifically target women. As an illustration, when donors are assisting a nation to modernize its export industry, they should add elements that enable women to join (such as childcare facilities for trainees or technology access to women entrepreneurs). With such channeling of resources, the ambitious objectives of gender chapters can be translated into practical support in the field. In fact, this does not mean that gender clauses in FTAs should be left out, but rather that they should be strengthened. Such provisions reflect a critical understanding that trade policy must play a role in promoting social inclusion. A multi-level response would be required to transform them into something more than token: international rule-setting to entrench their stronger forms, domestic reform and enforcement to bring them into reality, and stakeholder mobilization to sustain the momentum. The WTO may ultimately consider a reference to gender equality within the multilateral trading system, such as a declaration (which is being negotiated), even though non-binding, to help establish expectations. In the meantime, regional agreements can be used as pilot projects for new provisions, which can be refined and scaled. The future FTA negotiators working with governments should consider that one of the lessons from the present case is that rhetoric should be followed by action in the text. This may entail incorporating certain obligations, such as: Every Party is to enforce and adopt laws that outlaw gender-based employment discrimination, and any failure to do so is liable to consultations through the dispute mechanism of the Agreement. Additionally, include operational provisions, such as the following: within one year of coming into power, the Parties will design a joint action plan, which will be funded through initiatives to strengthen women's participation in trade, including training 500 women-led SMEs in export logistics - a measurable objective. Although the issue of sovereignty matters might cause certain states to be skeptical of the binding social clauses, more innovative solutions (such as incentive-based ones or opt-in schemes) may be looked into. Finally, we should also note the contribution of global advocacy: Gender now sits on the trade agenda, contributed to by organizations such as UN Women, civil society networks, and enlightened leaders, a win in itself. The obstacle at this point is implementation. Policy actors must not rest on their laurels (i.e., assume we have a gender chapter, job done); instead, they must use that chapter as a platform. According to one critic, gender mainstreaming in trade policy is a journey, not a destination. The ultimate goal is economic empowerment and equality for women; trade agreements are one tool to achieve this objective, but they must be included in a broader, concerted initiative that holds accountability throughout. Conclusion This paper explores the gender effects of gendered employment resulting from the introduction of gender and labor clauses in trade agreements, which connects the historical experience of export processing zones to modern trade policies. We employed a panel event study of five countries. We did not detect any perceptible short-run surge in women's industry employment in response to FTAs with gender clauses. On the contrary, a minor short-run decrease in women's industry employment was observed. The findings of this research put a reality check on the notion that mainstreaming gender in trade agreements is a significant innovation, as it has not yielded tangible benefits in female employment during the period under analysis. The merits of this study consist in measuring this effect (or the absence of it) and giving a subtle explanation based on the realities of structural labor markets and gaps in policy application. Our results contribute to the literature by providing an empirical perspective on gender and trade, a field that is predominantly qualitative in nature. We demonstrate that, unless there are supportive mechanisms, the mere presence of a gender chapter in an FTA cannot alter short-run outcomes. We would, however, advise against interpreting this to imply that such provisions are in vain. Instead, the impact can be long-term or indirect. It might be reflected in other forms (such as better working conditions) or in a longer time horizon as cooperative efforts come into effect. Our study has several limitations. First, the sample, comprising five countries, is small, and the context of each country is individual. This reduces generalizability; other countries or other agreements (especially those more recent than 2024) may appear different. Second, there is aggregation of data on female industrial employment; a more specific sectoral analysis would show whether women acquired jobs in certain sectors and lost jobs in others. Third, we measured the amount of employment alone. Other outcomes that should be explored in future research include wages, job quality, access to management positions, and women's ownership of firms. Gender clauses may aid women in more qualitative ways than our measure was unable to find (e.g., maybe more women entrepreneurs began exporting, although there was no increase in industrial employment). Fourth, we assume trends in parallel; we did not observe any pre-trend violations; however, with a small number of treated units, the diff-in-diff assumption cannot be rigorously tested. Lastly, we focused on industrial jobs as an indicator of empowerment; however, this may underestimate other sectors, such as services, where over 50 percent of women are employed. FTAs may also be helpful to women in services (such as facilitating the movement of professional workers, many of whom are women), which we did not take into account. The future studies could be geographically and temporally broadened. Once additional trade agreements with gender provisions are agreed upon (e.g., the forthcoming protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement on women and youth in trade), researchers can tap into even more variation. One fruitful line of inquiry is to examine individual mechanisms: e.g., do gender chapters result in any modifications to national policy (can someone encode legal modifications before and after the FTA)? Are firms in FTA-partner countries changing their labor practices (perhaps by conducting firm-level surveys or case studies)? The second angle is to examine female entrepreneurship and export performance: are women-led firms exporting more after the FTA, perhaps as a result of programs introduced by the accord? Qualitative studies, including interviews with policymakers engaged in implementing FTA gender provisions, may help address the question of why some initiatives have been successful, while others have failed. Concerning general implications, our research highlights that to ensure gender equality in trade, it is not enough to make well-meaning declarations; rather, it necessitates a united policy-making initiative and the allocation of resources. One of the points of entry to discuss these issues at high levels is a trade agreement; it establishes a system and a hope. The hard work, however, needs to be done with domestic reforms, corporate responsibility, and empowering schemes that address the obstacles women encounter. The history of EPZs taught us that it is possible to incorporate women into trade, but in an exploitative way when it comes to gaining cost benefits. The current task is to incorporate women on equal terms, providing not only employment opportunities but also rights, a voice, and a career ladder. Gender and labor provisions in FTAs represent a move towards this direction by harmonizing trade policy with social objectives. They should be supported with strong measures so that the fine words become real work in favor of empowering women. The step toward EPZs and gender-conscious FTAs is progress in grasping the gender-trade nexus; the second step should be implementation, monitoring, and ongoing upgrading of these institutions to ensure that trade becomes a driver of real, gender-inclusive development. Declarations Conflict of Interest Statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest concerning this manuscript. The study "Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements" presents independent research findings without any relationships that could potentially bias the results. Data Availability Statement: This study draws its supporting data from publicly available sources and secondary literature, which are correctly cited in the written manuscript. Statements : Access to these data and materials is not limited by any measures. For additional inquiries about research datasets or other specific information, please contact the author directly. References Ghosh, J. (2004). Globalization, export-oriented employment for women and social policy: A case study of India. In G. Sen (Ed.), Engendering international trade: Concepts, policy and action (pp. 31–57). UNDP. https://cdn.unrisd.org/assets/library/papers/pdf-files/opb5.pdf Heckl, P. (2025). How is global commerce affecting the gender composition of firms? Journal of International Economics. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.103923 Joekes, S. (1995). Trade-related employment for women in industry and export processing zones. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). https://cdn.unrisd.org/assets/library/papers/pdf-files/opb5.pdf Tran, T. A. D. (2019). The feminization of employment through export-led industrialization. Regulation & Governance, 13(3), 343–359. https://journals.openedition.org/regulation/14589 Wick, I. (2005). The informal economy and export processing zones. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung / Cornell University ILR. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/55773 Polanco, R. (2020). Incorporating labor standards into trade agreements: From the ILO to FTAs. Journal of International Economic Law, 23(2), 287–312. https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgaa011 Van der Broek, N. (2020). Gender equality and trade policy: Integrating ILO labor standards into FTAs. Global Policy, 11(S1), 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12831 World Trade Organization (WTO). (2017). Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. WTO Ministerial Conference. https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/mc11_e/genderdeclarationmc11_e.pdf Callaway, B., & Sant’Anna, P. H. C. (2021). Difference-in-differences with multiple time periods. Journal of Econometrics, 225(2), 200–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2020.12.001 Domínguez, R., Perea, J., & Gutiérrez, C. (2022). Gender provisions in trade agreements: An assessment of their potential impact. World Development, 157, 105928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105928 Espinoza, J., & Sampson, G. (2021). Do gender provisions in trade agreements improve women’s labor outcomes? Journal of World Trade, 55(5), 727–752. https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Journal+of+World+Trade/55.5/TRAD2021046 Kabeer, N. (2012). Women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth: Labour markets and enterprise development. International Development Research Centre / DFID Discussion Paper. https://www.idrc.ca/en/research-in-action/womens-economic-empowerment-and-inclusive-growth Tejani, S., & Milberg, W. (2016). Global defeminization? Industrial upgrading, occupational segregation and manufacturing employment in middle-income countries. Feminist Economics, 22(2), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2015.1109010 Barrientos, S. (2019). Gender and work in global value chains: Capturing the gains? Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108679459 Elson, D., & Pearson, R. (1981). ‘Nimble fingers make cheap workers’: An analysis of women’s employment in third world export manufacturing. Feminist Review, 7, 87–107. https://doi.org/10.2307/1394761 Hossain, N., Byrne, B., Campbell, A., Harrison, E., & Baden, S. (2010). The impact of the global economic crisis on women’s employment. Gender & Development, 18(2), 205–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2010.491320 Joekes, S. (1995). Trade-related employment for women in industry and export processing zones. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). https://cdn.unrisd.org/assets/library/papers/pdf-files/opb5.pdf Kabeer, N. (2012). Women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth: Labour markets and enterprise development. 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Industrial upgrading, occupational segregation and manufacturing employment in middle-income countries. Feminist Economics, 22(2), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2015.1109010 Boyenge, J. P. S. (2007). ILO database on export processing zones (Revised). International Labour Office. https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2007/107B09_129_engl.pdf Dolan, C., Opondo, M., & Smith, S. (2002). Gender, rights and participation in the Kenya cut flower industry. Natural Resource Institute Report No. 2768. https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/11652/ International Labour Organization (ILO). (2017). World employment and social outlook: Trends for women 2017. Geneva: ILO. https://www.ilo.org/global/research/global-reports/weso/trends-for-women-2017/lang--en/index.htm Kabeer, N. (2004). Globalization, labor standards, and women’s rights: Dilemmas of collective (in)action in an interdependent world. Feminist Economics, 10(1), 3–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354570042000198247 Madani, D. (1999). A review of the role and impact of export processing zones. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2238. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/925851468739470812/a-review-of-the-role-and-impact-of-export-processing-zones Milberg, W., & Amengual, M. (2008). Economic development and working conditions in export processing zones: A survey of trends. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2008/108B09_29_engl.pdf Singh, A., & Zammit, A. (2004). Labour standards and the “race to the bottom”: Rethinking globalization and workers’ rights. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(1), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grh005 Standing, G. (1999). Global feminization through flexible labor: A theme revisited. World Development, 27(3), 583–602. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(98)00151-X Willmore, L. (1995). Export processing zones in the Dominican Republic: A case study. World Development, 23(3), 529–547. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(94)00147-B Milberg, W., & Amengual, M. (2008). Economic development and working conditions in export processing zones: A survey of trends. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2008/108B09_29_engl.pdf Bahri, A. (2021). Mainstreaming gender in free trade agreements: Rhetoric or reality? Journal of International Economic Law, 24(2), 441–465. https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgab022 Monteiro, J. A. (2018). Gender-related provisions in regional trade agreements. WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2018-15. World Trade Organization. https://doi.org/10.30875/026d9f8d-en Compa, L. (2020). Labor rights and the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA): Progress or regression? Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, 41(2), 243–267. https://cllpj.law.illinois.edu/ Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. 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2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":33612,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eEvent Study: Female Employment VS. FTA Entry.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8295794/v1/df59dc447f64b254bd353c86.png"},{"id":97903193,"identity":"fd4b3ef0-a6dc-4d56-8847-2fbae6e31cfa","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-10 15:54:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1641355,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8295794/v1/d763c7a3-1fbc-4d47-a930-d340d55dea25.pdf"},{"id":97779692,"identity":"ccc51582-03fa-4abb-b2ac-a3de6dff0b86","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-12-09 09:29:53","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":114714,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Appendix.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8295794/v1/65fad0785f05832416fd8790.docx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eGendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe last several decades have seen the globalization process and liberalization of labor markets and relations of production, which have fundamentally altered the structure of the labor market and production networks, and these impacts have had very unequal gender distributions. Women have moved to export-driven manufacturing industries and global supply chains, especially in Export Processing Zones (EPZs), where they are employed in the labour intensive industry, including textiles, apparel and electronics (Heckl, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Tran, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). This has brought about new employment opportunities to women. The number of women working in most of the EPZ programs that are put in place around the world has increased tremendously and in most of the cases, they comprise the major percentage of workforce in the zones (Wick, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Joekes, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese are the gains that are accompanied by the existence of gender inequalities. Women in export work continue to be overrepresented in low-waged, low-skill and precarious jobs which are vulnerable to the segmentation of the occupational structure as well as face them to poor working conditions and undermining of labor rights (Joekes, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e; Ghosh, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). This unprecedented flip-flop, increased women employment in trade related occupations and the continuation of gender imbalance is the gist of the paradox in which our research question is framed.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe point that the nature of international trade is not gender-neutral is becoming quite obvious. In 2017, one of the first milestones was achieved, as 121 members of the World Trade Organization signed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women Economic Empowerment and, thus pledged to make their trade policies more inclusive and ensure that more women enter world markets (WTO, 2017). In the wake of such a major change, there has been a new trend in order to put gender considerations on mainstream trade policy. Gender-specific or even women and equality-focused chapters with bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have been on the rise since the mid-2010s (Monteiro, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile, some trade agreements have included labor standards provisions that refer to International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, in an attempt to safeguard the rights of workers (particularly women) when faced with the erosion of labour standards (Polanco, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Van der Broek, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). The rationale is that introduction of gender and labor provisions in FTAs can help promote development of female entrepreneurs, facilitate labor protection, and decrease potential risk of a race to the bottom in labor standards, which would be highly influential in disadvantaging women (Dominguez et al., 2022). Nevertheless, the available empirical coverage is not absolute that these provisions may bring about any quantifiable modifications in employment outcomes of women (Espinoza and Sampson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis issue is discussed in this paper with specific reference to female employment in the industrial sector. We conduct a panel-regression, event-study test in five nations, which are Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, on an annual time scale of 2000 to 2024. The interesting comparative case can also be presented through such cases, in which Bangladesh and Kenya have followed the export-oriented industrialization strategy of export processing zones and trade liberalization, yet without a free-trade agreement with clauses addressing gender equality. In comparison, Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico have all signed free-trade agreements over the past years that either capture firm gender considerations or present robust labor provisions (Monteiro, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Van der Broek, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe scholarly endeavor throws a shade on two important dimensions. Experimentally, it gives one of the first panel estimates to quantify labour-market impacts of gender requirements on trade agreements (Dominguez et al., 2022). It will use an event-study difference-in-difference (DiD) model methodologically; it will also account for the unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous standard shocks (Callaway and Sant'Anna, 2021). Theoretically, the writing forms an anthropological gap between two fields of study, one, the decades-old discussion of liberalization of trade, export-processing zones, and women labour-market pathways (Kabeer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Tejani and Milberg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e); the other, the emerging discourse of gender mainstreaming in trade policy (Espinoza and Sampson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this exercise, the paper poses the question as to whether gender-sensitive trade provisions can help mitigate structural gender inequality that is deeply rooted in the international labor market. This study intends to find out whether gender-sensitive trade arrangements can deliver real benefits to women employment in the industrial sector based on the available literature on the issue of trade, gender and labor institutions. Specifically, the research questions are as follows: (1) Do free-trade agreements (FTAs) including gender and labor protection increase female factory employment, in comparison with the countries that do not have such requirements? (2) Do the observed effects have short-lived effects or are chronic? (3) What intermediating role do the domestic labor institutions and the export processing zones have to these results? These questions are developed on the basis of the trade liberalization theory, the theory of labor-market segmentation, and the theory of feminist institutionalism, which suppose that, in spite of the fact that trade openness can potentially empower women, it may not be empowered because of the structural and institutional factors.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe rest of the manuscript is organized in the following way. Section 3 reviews the appropriate literature on gender and trade as well as labor-market institutions, such as export-processing zones and the manner in which FTAs have incorporated gender and labor standards into their terms. Section 4 displays the procedure, information sources and identification plan, i.e., the event-study design and the variables. The following section (5) will show the regression outcomes and the event-study diagram of the employment effect that is going to provide the explanations of both the statistical and substantive significance of the findings. Section 6 focuses on the issue of findings in perspective, potential causational possibilities (or otherwise), and the relation of the findings to the theories of labor-market segmentation and female empowerment. Section 7 stipulates policy implications of international organizations, governments, and other stakeholders, and focuses on the opportunities to make trade agreements more effective towards women. Finally, Section 8 concludes with a summary of the main findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Literature Review","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTrade, Gender, and Global Supply Chains \u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a substantial evidence that suggests that, the two-sided, but complicated effects of trade openness and global connectedness via supply chains on gender equality exist. Export-oriented growth has increased women-employment opportunities in sectors of manufacturing and agricultural exports that are labor intensive (Barrientos, 2019; Kabeer, 2012) on the one hand. Women make up a good size of workforce in export-driven sectors, including clothes, shoes, electronics assembling, and horticulture, among other sectors that usually constitute the foundation of export in developing nations (Tejani, 2016). \u0026nbsp; Survey of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) demonstrates that the phenomenon of feminization of employment is particularly great: in the example of Madagascar, Bangladesh, or the Dominican Republic, the proportion of EPZ employees is highly disproportionate, and even higher than the proportion of similar non-export jobs (Milberg, 2016; Vivant, 2008; Joekes, 1995). The experiences in China, Bangladesh and Mauritius also show that work in EPZ is frequently the initial decent job of a woman enabling her to enter the workforce (Ghosh, 2004; Seguino, 2000). These reports confirm the fact that trade has potential to increase economic opportunities to the women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConversely, women dominate trade associated occupation, which is always marked by structural gender inequalities spanning across the ages. Women in international supply chains are either left to work in low-wage, low-skill, and insecure employment or have low chances of moving upwards to be in management or technical positions (Barrientos et al., 2011; Razavi, 2009). Their working conditions in most of the factories they are engaged in exporting are very inhuman with most of them including excessive working hours, poor occupational safety and heightened vulnerability to harassment, coupled with very low wages that are almost on the verge of subsistence (Hossain et al., 2010, p. 74). It is a division that is brought about by an interaction of discriminatory conventions, employer prejudices to place women in such menial jobs, and unequal education and training (Seguino, 2020). Thus, although growth of trade has led to an increase in the share of contribution of women in the labour force in real terms, trade expansion has not eliminated gender inequality of the type of jobs or earnings. These global value chain analyses underscore the problem of precarity and identity loss in that, due to trade liberalisation, women are at even higher risk of displacement dislocated through displacement in a small-scale agriculture or the light industry, without supportive social policies, noting that women will be left without identity and additional gains to their conditions (Barrientos, 2019; Tejani and Milberg, 2016).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eExport Processing Zones and Labor Institutions \u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne such tension is the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) paradigm, which thrived between the 1970s and 1990s, and fails to take the necessity of protecting the rights of the workers and the need to actualize the rigid labor standards. In a bid to improve the sense of competition to export goods to the foreign markets, the establishment of EPZs or free trade zones or special economic zones was created so as to attract foreign investors to the areas by giving them tax incentives and a simpler regulatory environment (Boyenge, 2007; Milberg and Amengual, 2008). By the onset of the 2000s, tens of millions of workers were working in EPZs all over the world, and female employees make up a large portion of this workforce, particularly those industries that involve labor-intensive processes, such as clothing and electronics (ILO, 2017).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe firms, which existed in EPZs, had a preference of favoring female laborers. The proportion of women in the EPZ factories in countries such as the Dominican Republic was significantly high relative to the other industries in the country (Willmore, 1995). According to researchers, the reason behind this trend is not only the sector-organization of garments and textiles, which have been female dominated areas of the economy, but also gendered employment ideologies, founded on everlasting stereotypes concerning women as being nimble, gentle and ready to accept low wages (Elson \u0026amp; Pearson, 1981; Standing, 1999).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) have been credited with the creation of employment, most of the employment created within these zones has been highly criticized. The conditions that exist in sweatshops have repeatedly been documented in the empirical literature, and they include such features as long working hours, extensive health and safety risks, limitations of unionization and organizational life, and wages that frequently do not meet the living wage standards (Singh and Zammit, 2004; Kabeer, 2004). In other cases, the state governments have actively neglected the protection of labour to EPZ-based businesses, or have been lax in actually enforcing the existing regulations, which has enabled what the researchers refer to as a race to the bottom in labour regulation (Milberg and Amengual, 2008).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe epicultural consequences of EPZ activity are quite manifold. On the one hand, the salaries in the EPZ are usually higher in comparison with informal or agricultural employment. In certain instances they may be similar to the formal-sector wages beyond the zones (Madani, 1999). Contrary to a body of evidence that indicates the opposite, EPZs did not actually widen gender wage gaps, on the contrary, other instances have shown the opposite. The extent of inter-gender wage disparities has in fact been less in EPZs than in other sectors (ILO, 2017). Women, on the other hand, are not empowered in EPZs. It was not unusual to discover that female workers have very low bargaining power since labour unions and collective bargaining are not encouraged in many places, and tradeoffs like maternity leave, childcare, or insurance are never at hand (Standing, 1999; Barrientos et al., 2011).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition, the gender-specific vulnerability is shed light through the assistance of the qualitative studies of sex-specific vulnerability: the surveys conducted in Bangladesh and Central America reported a great level of sexual harassment and predatory behavior by the supervisors (Kabeer, 2004; Hossain et al., 2010). The same dynamic might be seen in the cut-flower export market of Kenya, which is functionally analogous to export processing zones, where women employees continued to be harassed until gender sensitive working conditions in the employment sector were instituted through advocacy efforts and regulatory policy reforms in the early 2000s (Dolan, Opondo, and Smith, 2002). Taken together the example of export processing zones highlights the dual aspects of consequences of trade liberalisation not only do women have a chance to enter wage work and become a part of the world-market system of production but the possibility to do it is frequently undermined by ineffective institutions of labour and division of occupation and is reinforced by unfavourable employment conditions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn general, the EPZ experience highlighted the idea that women cannot be empowered through the establishment of employment opportunities alone, but a holistic strategy that must cover the well-being of women at large. Although women in the export sectors had enhanced labour-force participation rates, their involvement did not automatically translate to better economic conditions and widened rights. Labour-market segmentation: The inequality in the labour-market continued to exist with women being confined to low status labour-intensive work, often termed as the feminisation of labour-exploiting labour, which they were compelled to consistently bear the dual burden of hard labour and undervalued domestic tasks (Standing, 1999; Elson and Pearson, 1981). These findings reinforce the powerful contribution that labour-market institutions, such as laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms, make in either making trade-led growth a reality or ensuring that unequal gains dominate. They have provided strong comparative evidence that the countries with stronger labour protections and civil society, such as Mauritius and Malaysia, were better placed to curb egregious conduct in the EPZ, as compared to other countries with weaker institutional structures (Kabeer, 2004; Milberg and Amengual, 2008). More to the point, advocacy also brought about reforms, be it in the form of unionisation or NGOs organising, in any country where unions or non-governmental organisations mobilised workers; be it in the Kenyan cut-flower industry or the industrial relations system, the informal employment of women resulted in more permanent contracts and the involvement of more women in collective bargaining (Dolan et al., 2002).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom EPZs to Gender‑Responsive Trade Agreements\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe analytic inquiry is increasing importance on the technology of institutionalizing labor and gender standards into the real framework of trade agreements in the academic circle over the past few years, the process that should help prevent the ineffectiveness that the previous trade models experienced. Since mid-1990s, a growing number of preferential trade agreements (also known as PTA) and free-trade agreements (also known as FTA) has imposed obligations on this centrepiece of labour rights- the protection of forced and child labour, the freedom of association, and the feasibility of heinous labour conditions (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). The earlier ones (including the NAFTA labor side accord of 1994) have often been ancillary or non-binding in nature; new treaties have been much broader in accommodating labor standards, and in some instances, they are binding (Polanco, 2020).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpirical data indicate that strongly supports the claim that trade agreements that have labor-related provisions can improve employment performance, and that such agreements have neutral cumulative effects on trade performance (ILO, 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). In particular, they can reinforce the rights of women and improve economic prospects of partner states, in case such provisions are well-crafted (Dominguez et al., 2022; Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo be more specific, policy analysis predicts that correctly designed provisions can have broader and socially important effects, therefore, it is reasonable to introduce gendered and gender considerations in the design of trade structures. \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe example that can be provided is the ILO study, which established a positive relationship between the strength of labor clauses in commercial treaties and high female labour force participation rates. Their conclusion is that labour and trade standards could be brought in harmony to realise formal employment of women (ILO, 2017). \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut the workability of these clauses, as regards their working, is much reliant on the manner in which they were undertaken. In practice, many agreements do not interact in the strategies of strict reinforcement alone, but in mechanisms of domestication or dialogue, thereby creating heterogeneous effects not only between forms of the agreements in question, but also between various circumstances (Polanco, 2020). \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOutside the conventional labor claims, incorporation of gender-specific sections or even whole chapters in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) is rather an emergent trend, though it gained steam since the late 2010s. The initial bilateral agreement was to add a standalone trade and gender chapter, which was signed in 2016 by the Chile-Uruguay FTA (Monteiro, 2018; Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). The chapter also highlighted the need to have gender equality in the trade arena, encouraged them to do things in a cooperative manner to enable the women to be economically empowered, and set up a monitoring committee to keep track of the successful execution of these programs. Examples of new deals have also been set--such as Chile and Canada revising its FTA to incorporate a gender chapter in 2019 (Polanco, 2020), and gender pledges have also been added to frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and multiple EU trade agreements (Van Der Broek, 2020). \u0026nbsp;By 2021, there were a handful of trade agreements in operation that included direct gender-related provisions (Dominguez et al., 2022).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe institutional form of the gender clauses in free trade agreements (FTAs) is incredibly heterogeneous. Some are written into standalone chapters; some others are subsumed under larger headings in labour or development, preambles or under side-letters. The mentioning of international gender equality commitments, particularly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG), is one of the recurring themes of such provisions. They also engage in a cooperative commitment to enhance the access to women to the benefits of trade by organizing programs of training, capacity building initiatives, and formation of networks among women entrepreneurs. Also, they fail to cover non-discrimination conditions that can entice women to seek job opportunities (Bahri, 2021).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut more importantly, the majority of letters on gender are not in a design sense binding in FTAs. Textual analyses have shown that such clauses are commonly phrased in pragmatic, hortatory terms i.e., words that are restated as best endeavours or shall strive to ensure not as binding (Bahri, 2021; Monteiro, 2018). Alternatively, in an example, a provision can specify that parties will make reasonable (muscular) efforts to assure a higher level of female participation, or that the parties will collaborate to engage in gender activities. Though these commitments are good in theory, they do not have punitive mechanisms to see these commitments followed. As mainstreaming of gender-sensitive FTAs becomes the norm in a consensus review by Bahri (2021), it is noted that although the volume of gender-sensitive FTAs is increasing, the aspect is associated with mortgage mainstreaming, as opposed to the enforcement of an actionable one. The governments are especially unwilling to resort to binding solutions, such as quotas or certain enforcement mechanisms; hence, the success of the gender chapters in practice is determined by whether they are implemented in the area of domestic affairs or whether they are linked to the implementation of trade measures. It is this disjuncture between embedding and enacting that has become well known as a spur to major problems in the scholarly discussion on gender and trade.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese secondary benefits are also a set of benefits that can be derived as a result of including gender provisions in trade agreements as identified in the research question. This state of affairs clearly does not require that such clauses be enforceable deserves or may even be regal, but they tend to establish institutional forums statuses of take, by example, FTA committees, whereby governmental regimes, and, on occasion, civil-societal actors, discuss the issues of gendered trade, and this brings gender to the rank of policy precincts (Bahri, 2021; Van der Broek, 2020). Besides this, they have statements of principle and they are communication tools of political commitment and can affect donor-minded programs. One such agreement is the Canada Chile Free Trade Agreement, in which a gender chapter resulted in the joint workshops that expose female entrepreneurs to the potential to increase export skills (Espinoza and Sampson, 2021). \u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso, the contemporary FTAs that involve labor and gender into the system of sustainable development may have a subtle effect and compel the states to reinforce their own labor organizations. An excellent illustration is the case of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, 2020): such high labour standards in the agreement forced Mexico to make far-reaching reforms, including the revision of the union democracy and the anti-discrimination legislation within the labour environment (Compa, 2020). Nevertheless, the USMCA lacks a dedicated gender chapter, and its labour initiatives are saturated with the principles that are aligned to the gender equality, including the blunt denial of discriminatory recruitment methods and workplace-based gender-based violence (Polanco, 2020). There is initial evidence of operation that some Mexican factories have raised remuneration and working conditions to meet these regulatory provisions, an action that, due to the gender differentials in the nature of labor negotiations, will also translate into gender proportional benefits to women (Dominguez et al., 2022).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn conclusion, the literature available propagates a variety of anticipations of the implication of gender and labour provisions that are set up in FTAs. The advocates believe that social provisions are indeed open to the possibility of institutionalising superior norms, preventing an expansion of inequities or the loss of workers rights, especially that of women and other vulnerable populations when the social provisions are provided in concert with the liberalisation of trade (ILO, 2017; Van der Broek, 2020). The critics, however, warn that without operational enforcement mechanisms in place such provisions will be exploited to act as window dressing and will produce relatively minimal operational impact on the ground (Bahri, 2021). Researchers also note that the outcomes of these clauses will be subject to contextual factors: the efficiency of these clauses will be conditioned, in part, by domestic institutions, gender norms at a certain time, advocacy, and the structure of the provisions, i.e., scope, monitoring, and enforcement (Monteiro, 2018). This empirical research input is an addition to an ongoing scholarly debate on gender-sensitive FTAs in the sense that it empirically investigates whether or not the implementation of gender-sensitive FTAs resulted in the tangible benefits of women in the field of industrial labour market-an agreeable index of the female economic empowerment- in the greater environment of structural dynamics.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Theoretical Framework","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis question is premised on a convergence of aspects of the theoretical approaches that Best explains how trade agreements and agreements can both stimulate and suppress women in accessing labor markets.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe trade liberalization theory postulates that removing trade barriers adds to the export extent of those sectors that a nation has a comparative advantage. These industries encompass labour intensive industries like clothing, footwear, horticulture or electronics, where women occupy a considerable share in the labour force of most developing economies. In this sense, this process of increasing trade integration will contribute to the demand on more women in labor services, and thereby, raise the number of women joining wage labor force and the labor disparity based on gender (Wood, 1991; Oostendorp, 2009). The export processing zone dynamic provides a nice illustration: this arrangement has attracted millions of female producers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNevertheless, labour-market segmentation theory tempers this optimism. As per the scholars, the labour market has been structurally divided along the line of gender where women get the low-skilled, low-paying, and low-status jobs and men the high-skilled, supervisory jobs and capital-intensive jobs (Elson and Pearson, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1981\u003c/span\u003e; Seguino, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e). It is possible that trade liberalization can produce an effect that on a specific paradigm raises the number of women in workforce, but it cannot in terms of effects undermine the field of occupational segregation, and even change the bargaining power of women. These dynamics could be described by the fact that they are feminized by labour and in the literature, the term is frequently cited: women become part of the global supply chains, though they are liable to instability and bad conditions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA general regulatory environment is one in which an institutionalist perspective views gender equality as between and among the trade effects. The institutional theory assumes that domestication of international obligations is due to the rule architecture, rules, and the existence of enforcement mechanisms on the national levels (North, 1990; Hall and Soskice, 2001). The impact on the employment of women, in its turn, can be second-order when the labour provisions of FTAs are poorly enforceable or when local labour checks do not have the capacity to enforce local labour standards in that way. Trade provisions on the other hand can be used to pool together and deepen advances in areas like labour rights where good labour institutions are in place and to meet a goal of gender equality.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRather, feminist economics suggests that trade will not always be gender-neutral: the economic gains of women is bound to be influenced by the prevailing social norms, established power structures and the impact of care-giving (Kabeer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Razavi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). This kind of an analytical prism implies that the best gender provisions in FTAs are those that are well intended but that have little impact unless they are backed up by other structural efforts such as the provision of childcare support, strict enforcement of anti-discriminatory policies, and specialized skills development.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether, these theoretical mechanisms have conflicting expectations. Though, the theoretical advantage of trade liberalization with gender-sensitive provisions would improve female power within the industrial workforce through its chances and equality promises, market segmentation, lax measures, and sheer size of structural economic fundamentals may restrain or even reverse the gains.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this sense, the central research question is developed as follows: Do FTAs with gender and labour standards produce any measurable shift in the labour performance of females, and in which instances does the application of them result in such changes?\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methodology","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Sources\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe empirical study is based on a balanced panel of five countries: Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, spanning the time frame from 2000 to 2024. The panel matrix has been compiled carefully by combining the national statistical indicators obtained by using the World Bank database of World Development Indicators (WDI), the World Bank database of Women, Business and as well as the Law (WBL) database and supported by supplementary data obtained through the use of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a body of scholarly literature offering relevant insights on Export Processing Zones (EPZs).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eOutcome Variable\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFemale industrial employment share (% of female employment in industry).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is the dependent variable, considering the extent to which women are represented in industrial employment compared to other sectors of the economy. The figure is calculated based on estimates from the International Labour Organization, as presented in models within the World Bank's World Development Indicators. WDI code: SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTreatment Variable\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFTA with gender/labor provisions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTreatment will take place when a country enters its first trade agreement with clear gender terms or binding labour norms. In terms of WTO, UNCTAD, and national trade policy documents:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eBangladesh and Kenya: No FTAs of gender provisions of the sample period (control group).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eChile: Chile‑Uruguay FTA (2016) and Chile‑Canada FTA amendment (2019).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eMexico: USMCA (2020) and previous agreements with labor chapters.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eUruguay: Chile‑Uruguay FTA (2016).Chile: Chile\u0026ndash;Uruguay FTA (2016) and Chile\u0026ndash;Canada FTA amendment (2019).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eMexico: USMCA (2020) and previous agreements with labor chapters.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eUruguay: Chile\u0026ndash;Uruguay FTA (2016).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCovariates\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn order to reduce the omitted-variable bias, my design incorporates the following covariates (\u003cem\u003eX\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ec,t\u003c/sub\u003e​) in our regression equation, denoted:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeneral economic conditions\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- GDP per capita (constant 2015 US\u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e): measures the degree of development and structural change. WDI code: NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Trade openness (exports\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;imports, % of GDP): proxies overall integration into world markets. WDI code: NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Urban population (% of total): an indicator of industrialization and demographic trends. WDI code: SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEducation and gender institutions\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eFemale secondary school enrollment, gross (%): proxy for women\u0026rsquo;s education and human capital formation.WDI code: SE.SEC.ENRR.FE.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWomen, Business and the Law (WBL) Index: composite measure of legal gender equality across eight domains (mobility, workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, pensions). Source: World Bank WBL Database (2017\u0026ndash;2024).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExport orientation / EPZ exposure\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- EPZ dummy: This uses the 01 metric, where one is given to nations that firmly base their exports on EPZs (Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico) and zero otherwise (Chile, Uruguay).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Extracted respectively from the PLANES ILO database on Export Processing Zones (Boyenge, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e) and the ILO report concerning the working conditions in EPZ (Milberg\u0026amp; Amengual, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). The lack of a stable, regular EPZ series means that this classification will act as a structural proxy of dependency on EPZ-organized industrialization.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Limitations\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeveral theoretically salient controls could not be obtained at all phases of the entire 2000\u0026ndash;2024 sample. Specifically, female labour force participation and unemployment rates were excluded because some countries and years lacked sufficient observations. Although the WBL index is used as a proxy for gender equality in institutions, more granular measures, such as the Gender Parity Index (GPI) or GLI, were initially not systematically included. We thus admit these limitations and insist that future boldness analyses must incorporate these variables when data are available to do so.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEmpirical Strategy\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe employ an event-study difference-in-differences (DiD) design to examine the effects of free-trade agreements (FTAs) on the industrial employment of women, with a focus on the inclusion of gender and labour clauses. This design enables the tracing of dynamic effects on employment immediately after the agreement enters into force (EIF) and controls for the presence of unobserved country-level heterogeneity and corresponding global shocks at the annual frequency.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe are starting with the following specifications:\u003cdiv id=\"Equa\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equa\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:{Y}_{c,t}=\\sum\\:_{\\mathcal{l}\\ne\\:-1}{\\beta\\:}_{\\mathcal{l}}\\cdot\\:1\\{t-{T}_{c}\\mathcal{}=\\mathcal{l}\\}+{\\alpha\\:}_{c}+{\\gamma\\:}_{t}+{\\epsilon\\:}_{c,t}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{Y}_{c,t}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e = the variable of interest, and in this case, that is the share in female employment in industry in country \u003cem\u003ec\u003c/em\u003e during year \u003cem\u003et\u003c/em\u003e., where \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\alpha\\:}_{c}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e​ The country fixed effects, and thus any country-invariant time characteristics (such as cultural norms, geography, or basic industrial structures), are controlled for.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\gamma\\:}_{t}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e = fixed, year-specific effects on the global market, which account for the global shocks and macroeconomic phenomena (worldwide downturns, the commodity expansionary).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{T}_{c}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e = calendar year when the country initially started to promote the free trade agreement (FTA) with gender or labour provisions.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:1\\{t-{T}_{c}\\mathcal{}=\\mathcal{l}\\}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e = an indicator variable equal to 1 if year t is exactly \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:\\mathcal{l}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Years before or after the FTA implementation for country c.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\beta\\:}_{\\mathcal{l}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e​ = coefficients of key interest, which describe the effect of the FTA at relative time ℓ.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eX\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ec,t\u003c/sub\u003e = a time-varying covariate vector.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\epsilon\\:}_{c,t}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e = the idiosyncratic error.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is no reference category (ℓ=\u0026minus;1). This means that all estimated coefficients are considered in terms of the corresponding metrics of the year preceding the implementation of the FTA. Leads (ℓ \u0026lt; 0) are used to test the existence of pre-trend differences; when they are not significant, the parallel-trends hypothesis is deemed valid. Lags (ℓ\u0026ge;0) track the posterior time-dependent effects of the FTA. To mitigate the threat of an empty category, we combine remote periods, collapsing all cases of ℓ \u0026lt; -4 and ℓ \u0026ge; +4 into a single composite category.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eSample and Case Selection\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe analytical sample comprises five sovereign actors that visited between 2000 and 2024: Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay. This choice enables an important comparative evaluation of the experiences of states that employed export-oriented industrialization without gender-sensitive free trade agreements (Bangladesh and Kenya) and those implementing agreements with solid references to gender or general labor protection (Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay). The design is therefore capable of supporting a study on the correlation between the inclusion of gender-sensitive stipulations and differing patterns in the employment of women in the industrial sector.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eCovariates and Controls\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo enhance external validity, we include a battery of time-varying covariates, denoted by X\u003csub\u003ec,t\u003c/sub\u003e, in the control vector.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeneral economic conditions:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- GDP per capita (constant 2015 US) is used to get the dynamics of structural transformation and the level of development.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Trade openness, calculated as the ratio of the total exports and imports to the GDP, gives a proxy of integration in the world markets.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Urban share of population (percent) is a measure of industrialisation and population changes.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEducation and gender institutions:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Reckoning of female gross secondary enrolment ratio (percent) indicates an excellent base of female employees.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- A composite measure of institutional environments that influence women's economic participation is The Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Index, which is a composite indicator of legal equal rights towards gender differences in areas or domains like labour laws, entrepreneurship, and family demands, provided by the World Bank.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExport orientation / EPZ exposure:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- There is the inclusion of a dummy variable citing high exposure to export-processing zones (EPZs). Based on ILO surveys, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Mexico are categorized as EPZ-intensive economies (value\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1), and Chile and Uruguay are coded as non-EPZ-intensive (value\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0).\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003e- This classification corrects structural dependence on EPZ-based industrialisation, which hires women in disproportionate numbers and might disrupt estimates of the impact of the free-trade agreement.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobustness considerations :\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Unemployment rates or female labour-force participation could be included in alternative specifications; however, these series were not complete throughout our sample. We acknowledge this drawback and suggest that such controls will be incorporated into future work.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eEstimation and Inference\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo overcome serial correlation and heteroskedasticity, we estimate the model using PanelOLS, which groups the standard errors by country. These findings are given with strong standard errors, and the supporting event-study graphics demonstrate solidly the graphs of \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\beta\\:}_{\\mathcal{l}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e​ ​ At the same time, they show their 95 percent confidence interval.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003eDescriptive Statistics\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore presenting the regression results, we summarize the main variables used. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e shows descriptive statistics for the panel of Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay from 2000 to 2024.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDescriptive Statistics (2000\u0026ndash;2024 panel, five countries)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eVariable\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMean\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eStd. Dev.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMin\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eMax\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eSource (WDI/WBL/ILO)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFemale industrial employment share (%)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e20.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e6.7\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e9.8\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e34.1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eILO (WDI code: SL.IND.EMPL.FE.ZS)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eGDP per capita (constant 2015 US\u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e8,420\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e5,700\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e850\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e20,350\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorld Bank (NY.GDP.PCAP.KD)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrade openness (% of GDP)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e67.4\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e28.2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e27.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e134.0\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorld Bank (NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eUrban population (% of total)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e62.1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e15.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e20.3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e88.9\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorld Bank (SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eFemale secondary enrollment (%)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e82.7\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e14.6\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e45.1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e112.3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorld Bank (SE.SEC.ENRR.FE)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWBL index (0\u0026ndash;100)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e75.3\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e12.2\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e52.5\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e95.0\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorld Bank WBL Database\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eEPZ exposure dummy (0/1)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.60\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0.49\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e0\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eILO (Boyenge, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2007\u003c/span\u003e; Milberg \u0026amp; Amengual, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e**Notes: Values are means of the unbalanced panel (2000\u0026ndash;2024). The GDP per capita will be indicated in constant 2015 US dollars. The WBL index has been published since 2017; previous years are interpolated to provide the description. The EPZ dummy is 1 in the case of Bangladesh, Kenya, and Mexico, and 0 in the case of Chile and Uruguay.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eApproximately 20 percent of women in industry tend to work in the five countries. However, this varies significantly from less than 10 percent in agriculture-heavy economies to over 30 percent in highly industrialized ones. GDP per capita is also diverse, ranging from low-income countries (such as Bangladesh and Kenya) to upper-middle-income countries (such as Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay). The levels of trade openness are above average, with a figure of more than 60 percent, indicating a high degree of globalization in these nations. Gender institutions and education, as assessed by female secondary enrollment and the WBL index, have a low rate of improvement and significant disparities. Finally, three out of five countries are heavily EPZ-intensive, which aligns with a body of research that links industrial-level female employment to EPZ-driven export policies.\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003eDescriptive Patterns\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIn the five-country panel (Bangladesh, Chile, Kenya, Mexico, and Uruguay, 2000\u0026ndash;2024), gender representation in industry followed divergent paths. Nations that lacked gender sensitive FTAs (Bangladesh, Kenya) still had relatively high shares of female industrial employment, mainly attributable to EPZ-intensive sectors. Meanwhile, Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico reported smaller, yet structurally integrated gains. Descriptive statistics (see Appendix Table A1) reveal significant heterogeneity in GDP per capita, openness, and labor market indicators, which supports the need for fixed-effects estimation to isolate the treatment effects.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003eEvent-Study Analysis\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe event-study specification provides dynamic estimates that characterize the impact of FTAs on gender and labor provisions on female industrial employment in relation to the entry into force of the FTA. The regression (Fig. \u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) incorporates country and year fixed effects, along with robust standard errors clustered at the country level.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe coefficients on the pre-FTA leads (LL-5 to LL-2) are statistically indifferent to zero in favor of the parallel trends assumption. In contrast, the arrival of FTAs with gender-sensitive provisions (LL-0) and post-FTA (LL\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;1, LL\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;5) is significant, indicating that the implementation of FTAs with gender-sensitive provisions was connected with the growth of the share of female industry employment. For example, in LL\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;1, the increase is 1.81 percentage points (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01), and in LL\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;5, the increase is 2.36 percentage points. These dynamics are plotted in Fig. \u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, with no evidence of an anticipatory effect but with evident post-implementation improvements.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eImportantly, the control variables did not act contrary to expectations: GDP per capita growth was negatively correlated with female industrial employment (as part of the structural transformation out of industry), and urbanization was negatively correlated with female industrial intensity, with sectoral shifts strongly predicted by female secondary education enrollment.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDifference-in-Differences Estimate\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eUpon converting to a typical DiD design (Table \u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e), the mean estimated post-FTA impact of female industrial employment is -2.91 percentage points (SE 0.80, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05). Such a noncompliance with the event-study pattern is justified by the fact that heterogeneous long-run adjustments among countries are driven by short-run gains (LL-0 to LL-1). Notably, the combined F-test of pre-trends gives a p-value of 0.72, indicating that the treated and control countries were on parallel courses prior to implementation.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ctable id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePanel regression estimates the influence of FTAs with gender and labor clauses on female industrial employment.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFemale Industrial Employment Share (% of female employment)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFTA with Gender/Labor Clause (Post)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u0026ndash;2.91** (0.80)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePre-FTA Leads (joint F-test p-value)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.72\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCountry Fixed Effects\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eYes\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eYear Fixed Effects\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eYes\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eObservations (country-year)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e120\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eR-squared\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.80\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTable \u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e presents panel regression estimates of how FTAs with gender and labor clauses influence female industrial employment. The dependent variable is the percentage of employed women in the industrial sector. The coefficient indicates the average post-FTA effect derived from a difference-in-differences model with country- and year-fixed effects. Standard errors are shown in parentheses. Results are significant at p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003eInterpretation and Mechanisms\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe magnitude of the estimates can be interpreted by the DiD coefficient of -2.9 percentage points, which means that, assuming 17 percent of women were employed in industry before the FTA, the proportion was reduced to approximately 14 percent after the FTA compared to the counterfactual trend. This finding was strong under the various specifications, such as that there was a model with the entire set of controls, where the point estimate was always negative (around \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;2 to -3 points) and statistically significant. In placebo tests, where the control countries received a set date of fake treatment, no significant effect was observed, which again supports the idea that the observed decrease is related to bona fide FTA events, rather than spurious timing.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe event-study analysis provides further insight into the course of these effects. Figure \u003cspan class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e illustrates the \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:\\beta\\:\\mathcal{l}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Coefficients versus the FTA implementation year. The coefficients of pre-treatment are near zero and not statistically significant, which suggests that the parallel tendencies observed before the policy were not affected by it. At implementation (t\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0), the effect is insignificant, which is consistent with the fact that agreements are typically put into force in the middle of the year. The two coefficients are negative (-0.4 and \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;0.3 percentage points, respectively) in the first and second years after FTA, indicating a slight temporary decrease. The effect is less in the third year (-0.1 points, statistically insignificant). The broad confidence intervals suggest limited accuracy; however, the trend indicates a temporary decline in female industrial employment following the adoption of the FTA, with no subsequent long-term recovery.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNotably, these outcomes align with the trends observed in the control countries. The non-treated group (Bangladesh and Kenya) experienced an increase in female industrial employment over the period, primarily driven by the export-oriented garment and cut-flower industries. Conversely, Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay experienced stagnant or declining shares of industrial female employment. Therefore, the FTAs failed to reverse or halt long-run downtrends; in fact, the treated countries continued to pursue downward trends, compared to the upward trend of the control group.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThere is also heterogeneity across countries in treatment. The involvement of Mexico in the USMCA seems to be relatively more positive than the experiences of Chile and Uruguay that negotiated bilateral free-trade agreements.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBy 2023, the industry percentage of women will exceed the pre-FTA mark which is due to the recoveries of manufacturing after the pandemic and the impact of nearshoring.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eContrarily, Chile and Uruguay witnessed additional reductions and there are few chances that these nations will rise in three years following the FTA. Such a deviation means that the impact of gender and labor provisions on households depends on interaction with household industrial arrangements, and external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eFinally, on more general labour-market outcomes (female participation in total employment and labour-force participation), no significant post-FTA effects were serious. The clauses failed to increase the number of women in workforce, but did affect the distribution of women in industries.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAll in all, this does not find support in the evidence that gender and labor provisions in FTAs have raised the level of industrial employment of women in the short to medium term. On the opposite, they propose minor downward shifts in comparison to counterfactual trends, and the country experience is not homogenous. In the next section, possible explanations are investigated and whether this tendency suggests ineffectiveness of the provisions themselves or the necessity of additional policies and prolongation of the adjustment period.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e**Policy Relevance**\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThese findings can be explained by the recent body of research, which argues that gender-based FTAs are more hortatory than substantive and lack a good implementation history. Although they may boost short-term female labor market gains, systematic empowerment transformations would require domestic labor reform, enforcement mechanisms, and trade policies, which are favorable to women-owned businesses.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eSuch findings may come as a surprise since the story being told around gender responsiveness in trade agreements is an optimistic one. Naturally, one would assume that the inclusion of gender equality goals in FTAs would foster business or policy reforms geared toward attracting and retaining women in export-oriented industries. Counter to our discussion, it appears that in the immediate timeframe, there will not be an increase in female employment in industrial occupations and there may, in fact, be a short-term decrease after the FTAs are signed. We will present some possible reasons of action and contextual conditions that may lead to this outcome:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Character of the Provisions - Soft Obligations and Implementation Lag: Gender considerations in these FTAs are often of an informal, non-binding nature. For instance, the gender chapter in Chile and Uruguay is mainly confined to cooperative action like information sharing and organizing seminars, as opposed to mandating any employment increases for women or the passage of specific legal frameworks by governments. Also, the labor provisions restrict countries to enforcing existing labor regulations. However, as noted before, if those regulations are weak or the enforcement mechanisms are significantly under-resourced, the provisions can be largely inert. \u0026nbsp; Therefore, within a few years following the FTA, one can reasonably argue that there were no significant policy changes designed to increase female employment. Even when FTAs spur changes, the time between an announcement and actual execution tends to be excessively long. In this regard, Mexico is a case in point; the labor provisions of USMCA have resulted in some important changes to labor laws, such as granting legal recognition to independent labor unions and prohibiting gender discrimination in various employment functions. There is still inertia in change with regard to the implementation of these reforms. The impact of these changes on employment patterns will not be apparent until 2024 at the earliest. Therefore, the cause and effect relationship is based on the FTA provisions and their results, and it is slow and complex\u0026mdash;first, agreements spark discussion or the need for legal changes. This legal framework can prompt behavioral changes by employers or labor market shifts by women, and only after this sequence can we start to hope for change in employment patterns. The initial years after the FTA is signed may actually result in \u0026lsquo;adjustment\u0026rsquo; costs, for instance, employers may need to focus on keeping up with the new labor regulations, and their hiring may actually slow down as a result.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Structural Economic Trends that Dominate FTA Impact: The era of the study was in tandem with massive structural and cyclical factors that influenced the female workforce, which may submerge the marginal effect of the FTA provisions. The example is manufacturing automation and industrial transformation; in many nations, manufacturing jobs (among both men and women) have been on a downward trend as productivity increases and services proliferate. In Chile and Uruguay, the loss of industrial employment among women may be due to a decline in deindustrialization that is not directly related to the FTA. In Mexico, although the FTA contributed to a resurgence of manufacturing (triggered by factors such as US-China trade tensions and investment in Mexico), the proportion of women in industry had been falling for years, mainly due to rising competition and skill-biased technological change. The COVID-19 pandemic (2020) was another reason, with a massive shock impacting women workers unevenly worldwide. In the manufacturing sector, job cuts occurred as a result of lockdowns and the recession. As the economy recovered, women tended to resume their jobs at a slower rate, often due to caregiving responsibilities or changes in labor demand. It is important to note that the post-FTA time of our treated group covers 2020-2021 in Mexico (immediately after the USMCA) - a year when, despite the agreement, factories were indeed cutting jobs or operating with lower work capacity. Therefore, the negative impact of the pandemic would have obscured or negated any positive effect of the FTA. This reminds us that FTAs operate in an international environment; they cannot fully counter macroeconomic shocks or long-term structural adjustments in the economy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Labor Segmentation and Education Disparities: Even though an FTA may create new trade opportunities (e.g., more exports of some industries), women will not necessarily be hired to work there because they have the wrong skills or are discriminated against. As an illustration, when an FTA results in an increase in a historically male-dominated sector (such as mining or heavy machinery) without explicit measures to train or hire women, these new employment opportunities will not benefit female employees. In our examples, the trade agreements in Chile may have favored mining exports (a male-dominated industry), but women in Chile have continued to be clustered in services and light industries. The growth of manufacturing exports in Mexico tends to be biased in favor of industries such as automotive assembly, which traditionally hire more men, particularly in more skilled jobs. The gender provisions in the accords lacked rough action (such as quotas or incentives) to change these deeply held trends. This is in line with the gender-segmented labor markets literature: merely liberalizing trade will not obliterate occupational segregation. Women may not enjoy the new industrial opportunities in proportion to new opportunities in the same way as men, unless there are complementary policies to encourage girls in STEM education, provide technical training for women, or enforce anti-discrimination policies in hiring. Actually, it has been observed that in circumstances where a specific sector becomes more profitable (often due to trade), men can be seen flocking in and pushing women out (this has been witnessed in agriculture, where cash crops prove to be more profitable). A similar situation may be occurring in the industrial workforce, where more men would be attracted to better pay or technology, and women may struggle to compete in this type of work due to the skills they lack or social conventions. This could be a soft result of our results: trade agreements may have an effect of raising a sector, yet the beneficiaries of that effect are governed by the underlying gender dynamics, which the agreement itself does not change.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Reallocation vs. Net Job Creation: There is the possibility that FTAs with labor standards may result in job reallocation, and not in net creation, at least in the short term. For example, companies that are unable or unwilling to meet increased labour standards may relocate or outsource their operations. Labor provisions may increase labor costs (because they will ensure better adherence to minimum wages, safer working conditions, etc.). Although in the long term it can result in a more sustainable and skilled workforce, in the short term, some low-cost producers may leave, which could cost some of the jobs that were often held by women (giving them the majority in the lowest-paying factories). It is evident to some degree that the existence of labor standards will cause the least efficient corporations to shrink. If corporations hired a large number of women to do piece-rate work in the textile industry, the women might lose their employment. Other companies may expand in the meantime, but perhaps employ relatively more men, since the jobs now require greater skill. In short, agreements between trade and labor provisions may initially crowd out the worst employers, temporarily decreasing the employment of women working in those establishments, unless a transition program is implemented to cushion them. In the long run, hopefully, this will be paid off by improved employment in other areas, but that process may not be instantaneous. It is possible to understand our results, which show an initial decrease that is eliminated by the third year, as a short-term adjustment cost and a subsequent stabilization.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Absence of Complementary Measures Women-centric: The gender chapters of the FTAs primarily focus on the notion of cooperation; however, the implementation of cooperation activities is a key factor. When there is underutilization or under-resourcing of the cooperation mechanisms, then the FTA will be simply a piece of paper. In a case in point, an FTA may request the creation of a Committee on Trade and Gender; however, if the committee is infrequent or lacks representation from stakeholders (such as women entrepreneurs or workers\u0026apos; representatives), it may not have a substantial impact. Likewise, the eradication of tariffs by itself will not enable new women entrants into exporting unless their businesses are financed to fund training programs or gain access to credit. It is possible that our policy variables failed to capture any spurt in such supporting programs immediately after the FTA, which could be the reason for the level result. On the contrary, where we observe some positive movement (e.g., a slight improvement in Mexico by year 3), this is accompanied by major domestic reforms (such as labor law changes in Mexico) and outside assistance (USAID and others have projects to guide Mexico through labor reforms). This means that home-level action and international assistance, catalyzed by the FTA, are required to create change; the pact itself is merely a shot starter. A case exemplified by Chile and Uruguay could be an instance of the lack of significant new women-related activities accompanying the FTA, resulting in no observable difference.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Measurement Issues: It is interesting to consider our measure of the female share of industrial employment. The weakness is that it records relative changes (in female employment). It is possible that the absolute number of women employed in industry increased. However, their proportion decreased because an increasing number of women were drawn to other areas, or because male industrial employment increased at a faster rate. Put in other words, maybe the FTAs assisted women in acquiring a few positions, yet men acquired even more (this way, the proportion of women decreased). We cannot determine this conclusively without more granular data. However, auxiliary analysis did not reveal a significant absolute influx of female manufacturing jobs in treated countries post-FTA, either, indicating that it is not simply a question of composition. However, other outcomes, such as the quantity of employment, may be a different story. The FTAs could have improved the employment conditions of women who did not lose their jobs (e.g., better working conditions, more secure contracts), which was not measured in our study. It is reasonable that the share of female employment dropped, but women who are employed in industry after the FTA are more favorably paid and have more rights. As an illustration, with USMCA, wages in specific Mexican factories increased and abusive practices were eradicated; women workers in these facilities could have gained empowerment even though the share of female employment overall did not soar. Unluckily, such qualitative improvements cannot be measured by our data. This underscores the fact that gender empowerment through trade is multidimensional - not just whether more women are getting jobs, but also what the nature of their jobs is and in what capacity they hold them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReturning to theory, our results echo the warning that trade policies are insufficient in changing gender relations without the support of underlying institutions. Trade agreements are primarily economic instruments; they are hybridized to some degree by the inclusion of labor and gender provisions, which, by themselves, may not be powerful enough to address ingrained gender inequities. The findings underscore the significance of national institutions and effective national enforcement in the labor market. In a nation where labor legislation and policies promoting gender equality are solid and well-implemented, the gender clauses embedded in an FTA may serve as a force of reinforcement, as well as create an additional layer of responsibility or cross-border scrutiny. In countries where such domestic institutions are weak, the FTA clauses can be just disregarded. As an example, when the labor inspection in a particular country is poorly staffed or the government is corrupt and cannot enforce the rules, it will still be possible that, even after the signing of an FTA with good language, the factory can still go on with business as usual, hiring and firing as they used to. However, they may now be getting lip service on gender equality in employment reports.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe also find that our results are consistent with those of Bahri (2021), who notes that in most cases, gender is mainstreamed in agreements by most countries but lacks the implementation of tangible measures. The decline in the share of female employment may be interpreted as an indicator that efforts were not very effective - i.e., the agreements did not prompt immediate shifts in corporate or governmental behavior in favor of female employment. It serves as a reminder that foreign commitments should be realized at home. It is here that the international and local civil society may have a role to play: FTAs frequently permit civil society forums or submissions on labor issues. Provided that women\u0026apos;s rights groups and unions become active users of these mechanisms (e.g., by lodging complaints or presenting concerns at committee meetings), they may pressure for the implementation of the spirit of the clauses in a stricter manner. Practically, however, this engagement has been limited to date, in part because local groups are not yet aware of or do not have the capacity to engage with these new FTA features.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough our findings may initially suggest that gender clauses are ineffective in FTAs, this conclusion warrants further consideration. The clauses did not necessarily result in a fall in female employment (we do not observe the significant, permanent negative effects either). Instead, the less probable explanation is that the clauses were not yet having a positive effect in the settings and time period that were examined. The temporary decline might be transitional or due to external shocks. There is a possibility that, as the gender-centered cooperation under these FTAs progresses, we may ultimately achieve positive results, such as an increase in women-owned businesses exporting or a higher proportion of women in skilled trade-related jobs. However, this would likely occur after 3-5 years. Our analysis shows that the intentions behind the trade agreements must be supported by tangible, budgeted programs and effective institutions with the authority to alter the existing realities.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe find that our results are consistent with broader evidence on other FTAs, including the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has provisions on gender and labor but exhibits little measurable impact on short-run employment patterns (van der Broek, 2020). This highlights that domestic enforcement, resourcing, and the active involvement of civil society are necessary to turn the rhetoric of \u0026quot;gender mainstreaming\u0026quot; into a reality, as international agreements alone are insufficient. The following section discusses policy implications for governments and international organizations.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe above discussion directly addresses the research questions raised in the Introduction. RQ1 concerned the effect of FTAs, including those related to gender and labor standards, on the employment of women in industries; we found no significant effect, but a slight negative short-term effect. RQ2 was related to the short-term and long-lasting effects; an event-study analysis suggests that adverse effects are clustered during the first 1-2 years post-FTA, after which they disappear. RQ3 examined the intermediary role of institutions and reliance on EPZs, as evidenced by the positive trends in EPZ-intensive countries (Bangladesh, Kenya) and the treated countries (Chile, Mexico, Uruguay). These trends suggest that domestic labor structure and global shocks are more significant than the FTA clauses per se. Lastly, RQ4 was whether FTA clauses or macro-level forces can explain perceived effects; the data indicate that structural economic patterns, ineffective enforcement, and COVID-19 shocks are the strongest sources of effects.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePolicy Implications\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of a noticeable positive effect on women in industrial employment as a result of gender clauses in FTAs indicates that the mere mainstreaming of gender in trade agreements is insufficient. This, however, does not imply that such clauses are useless; instead, it means that policymakers and stakeholders must go out of their way to ensure that they put these promises into action. To guarantee that gender equality is progressively pursued through trade and labor market institutions, we outline here actionable insights to be adopted by international organizations, governments, and other stakeholders:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnforcement Mechanisms: International organizations, such as the WTO and regional fora, can promote the creation of enforceable model clauses. Although the WTO rules do not currently establish labor or gender standards, the organization can help promote dialogue (as seen in the case of the Buenos Aires Declaration) and provide technical support. In the case of FTAs, such countries might reach semi-binding agreements, such as attaching some gender/labor requirements to dispute settlement or to periodic review with penalties. The international organizations may assist in this by offering surveillance and accountability. For example, the ILO and UN Women may collaborate to oversee the application of gender provisions in FTAs and make frequent progress reports, which would exert soft pressure on governments. As implied in draft declarations, the WTO Secretariat would have a role in organizing research and data gathering on trade and gender, which could be used to identify remaining gaps. Enhancing accountability, i.e., by improving data, naming and shaming where required, and potentially incorporating labor standards into the trade dispute resolution process, would make the FTA clauses more effective.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrengthen Domestic Labor Institutions: Governments should recognize that entering into an FTA with labor/gender clauses should be accompanied by an audit of their own legislation and implementation capabilities. Early involvement of labor ministries in trade negotiations and through implementation should be done. Governments should modernize labor laws where necessary to honor commitments, such as by making gender discrimination in the labor market illegal where it is not already so, by requiring equal pay for equal work, and by enhancing sexual harassment legislation, as per the ethos of the FTA. Also critical is increasing enforcement: additional labor inspectors, gender training for inspectors, and more stringent actions for factory inspection disobedience. The FTA structure can also enable governments to establish mechanisms through which workers (including anonymous ones) can report violations of labor standards, thereby implementing the principles of the agreement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUtilize FTAs as a Skill-Development Lever for Women: UN Women, the International Trade Centre (ITC), and development agencies must partner with governments to create programs that utilize FTA opportunities as a lever for women\u0026apos;s skill development. For example, when an FTA opens a new export market, agencies may organize capacity-building programs for women entrepreneurs and workers to capitalize on the opportunity. This may involve training small businesses run by women on how to export, giving women with networking opportunities in partner countries, or training women vocationally to work in growing industries. These programs are consistent with the cooperation activities frequently cited in gender chapters - the trick is to finance and execute them. Funding could come from international donors and organizations (as the UK did through the Trade and Investment Advocacy Fund on gender/trade projects). Result: Women acquire the skill and knowledge to compete for the jobs or contracts generated by trade, thereby gaining more representation in these fields.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFacilitate Gender-Responsive Value Chains by Public-Private Cooperation: Multiple transnational corporations have voluntary labor codes of conduct (including gender equality). Companies can be encouraged by governments and international bodies to further their efforts. As an illustration, the mechanisms of a cooperative approach under an FTA may involve companies importing or investing in partner countries in discussions on how to improve processes (such as why women in factory suppliers do not have opportunities for higher-paid jobs). The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD Guidelines already require due diligence with a gender lens. This can be strengthened by trade agreements, which may facilitate public-private collaboration - perhaps an FTA committee could have representatives from the private sector dedicated to gender equality. Practical step: design a certification or award to those companies that are doing very well on women\u0026apos;s empowerment in trade (such as training women to work in more skilled jobs, or family-friendly work arrangements). This can reward good practices in a reputational sense, to supplement government enforcement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCivil Society and Unions: Utilizing FTA Provisions as Advocacy Resources. Unions, women\u0026apos;s associations, and non-governmental organizations should be educated about the opportunities available in FTAs to hold governments accountable. Most of the current FTAs include Domestic Advisory Groups (DAGs) or labor and gender consultative committees. It is essential to note that women\u0026apos;s organizations and labor unions are represented at these tables. Reports or complaints of non-compliance with labor standards or obstacles women encounter in trade can be filed by these groups, which the FTA requires the governments to take into account. Indicatively, in the EU\u0026apos;s trade agreements, the DAGs have been applied to address labor rights grievances. In the USMCA, a Rapid Response Labor Mechanism exists through which grievances against specific factories abusing workers can be presented in petitions. Women\u0026apos;s rights advocates could use such mechanisms to highlight, for example, a factory with blatant gender discrimination, thereby prompting corrective action. International organizations could help by training civil society on how to participate in FTA monitoring processes, thereby democratizing the implementation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGender-Disaggregated Data and Monitoring: A common theme is that data are not available promptly to assess outcomes. Governments, in collaboration with international organizations, should invest in improved gender-disaggregated labor statistics, particularly in areas affected by trade. Examples include not only total employment but also the number of women versus men working in export industries, their average salaries, their occupations (production worker, supervisor, manager), and so on. Keep track of such indicators as the number of women-owned exporting firms or women\u0026apos;s involvement in trade promotion programs. Such indicators might be periodically prepared by the WTO and UNCTAD in countries with gender chapters, producing a dashboard of progress. Policymakers can also use such data to identify areas where women are not improving and intervene. This aligns with the WTO\u0026apos;s draft requirement to collect gender-disaggregated information.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInclude Gender in Aid in Trade and Adjustment Assistance: Trade schemes bring winners and losers; women may find themselves in both. Therefore, design adjustment programs with a gender lens. When there is a likelihood of an FTA leading to specific factories closing (e.g., through competition or mandated labor upgrades), make sure any assistance in adjustments or retraining reaches specifically to female workers (who may experience greater difficulty becoming re-employed because of a range of obstacles). Similarly, have Aid for Trade funds specifically target women. As an illustration, when donors are assisting a nation to modernize its export industry, they should add elements that enable women to join (such as childcare facilities for trainees or technology access to women entrepreneurs). With such channeling of resources, the ambitious objectives of gender chapters can be translated into practical support in the field.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fact, this does not mean that gender clauses in FTAs should be left out, but rather that they should be strengthened. Such provisions reflect a critical understanding that trade policy must play a role in promoting social inclusion. A multi-level response would be required to transform them into something more than token: international rule-setting to entrench their stronger forms, domestic reform and enforcement to bring them into reality, and stakeholder mobilization to sustain the momentum. The WTO may ultimately consider a reference to gender equality within the multilateral trading system, such as a declaration (which is being negotiated), even though non-binding, to help establish expectations. In the meantime, regional agreements can be used as pilot projects for new provisions, which can be refined and scaled.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe future FTA negotiators working with governments should consider that one of the lessons from the present case is that rhetoric should be followed by action in the text. This may entail incorporating certain obligations, such as: Every Party is to enforce and adopt laws that outlaw gender-based employment discrimination, and any failure to do so is liable to consultations through the dispute mechanism of the Agreement. Additionally, include operational provisions, such as the following: within one year of coming into power, the Parties will design a joint action plan, which will be funded through initiatives to strengthen women\u0026apos;s participation in trade, including training 500 women-led SMEs in export logistics - a measurable objective. Although the issue of sovereignty matters might cause certain states to be skeptical of the binding social clauses, more innovative solutions (such as incentive-based ones or opt-in schemes) may be looked into.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, we should also note the contribution of global advocacy: Gender now sits on the trade agenda, contributed to by organizations such as UN Women, civil society networks, and enlightened leaders, a win in itself. The obstacle at this point is implementation. Policy actors must not rest on their laurels (i.e., assume we have a gender chapter, job done); instead, they must use that chapter as a platform. According to one critic, gender mainstreaming in trade policy is a journey, not a destination. The ultimate goal is economic empowerment and equality for women; trade agreements are one tool to achieve this objective, but they must be included in a broader, concerted initiative that holds accountability throughout.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper explores the gender effects of gendered employment resulting from the introduction of gender and labor clauses in trade agreements, which connects the historical experience of export processing zones to modern trade policies. We employed a panel event study of five countries. We did not detect any perceptible short-run surge in women's industry employment in response to FTAs with gender clauses. On the contrary, a minor short-run decrease in women's industry employment was observed. The findings of this research put a reality check on the notion that mainstreaming gender in trade agreements is a significant innovation, as it has not yielded tangible benefits in female employment during the period under analysis. The merits of this study consist in measuring this effect (or the absence of it) and giving a subtle explanation based on the realities of structural labor markets and gaps in policy application.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur results contribute to the literature by providing an empirical perspective on gender and trade, a field that is predominantly qualitative in nature. We demonstrate that, unless there are supportive mechanisms, the mere presence of a gender chapter in an FTA cannot alter short-run outcomes. We would, however, advise against interpreting this to imply that such provisions are in vain. Instead, the impact can be long-term or indirect. It might be reflected in other forms (such as better working conditions) or in a longer time horizon as cooperative efforts come into effect.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur study has several limitations. First, the sample, comprising five countries, is small, and the context of each country is individual. This reduces generalizability; other countries or other agreements (especially those more recent than 2024) may appear different. Second, there is aggregation of data on female industrial employment; a more specific sectoral analysis would show whether women acquired jobs in certain sectors and lost jobs in others. Third, we measured the amount of employment alone. Other outcomes that should be explored in future research include wages, job quality, access to management positions, and women's ownership of firms. Gender clauses may aid women in more qualitative ways than our measure was unable to find (e.g., maybe more women entrepreneurs began exporting, although there was no increase in industrial employment). Fourth, we assume trends in parallel; we did not observe any pre-trend violations; however, with a small number of treated units, the diff-in-diff assumption cannot be rigorously tested. Lastly, we focused on industrial jobs as an indicator of empowerment; however, this may underestimate other sectors, such as services, where over 50 percent of women are employed. FTAs may also be helpful to women in services (such as facilitating the movement of professional workers, many of whom are women), which we did not take into account.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe future studies could be geographically and temporally broadened. Once additional trade agreements with gender provisions are agreed upon (e.g., the forthcoming protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement on women and youth in trade), researchers can tap into even more variation. One fruitful line of inquiry is to examine individual mechanisms: e.g., do gender chapters result in any modifications to national policy (can someone encode legal modifications before and after the FTA)? Are firms in FTA-partner countries changing their labor practices (perhaps by conducting firm-level surveys or case studies)? The second angle is to examine female entrepreneurship and export performance: are women-led firms exporting more after the FTA, perhaps as a result of programs introduced by the accord? Qualitative studies, including interviews with policymakers engaged in implementing FTA gender provisions, may help address the question of why some initiatives have been successful, while others have failed.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConcerning general implications, our research highlights that to ensure gender equality in trade, it is not enough to make well-meaning declarations; rather, it necessitates a united policy-making initiative and the allocation of resources. One of the points of entry to discuss these issues at high levels is a trade agreement; it establishes a system and a hope. The hard work, however, needs to be done with domestic reforms, corporate responsibility, and empowering schemes that address the obstacles women encounter. The history of EPZs taught us that it is possible to incorporate women into trade, but in an exploitative way when it comes to gaining cost benefits. The current task is to incorporate women on equal terms, providing not only employment opportunities but also rights, a voice, and a career ladder. Gender and labor provisions in FTAs represent a move towards this direction by harmonizing trade policy with social objectives. They should be supported with strong measures so that the fine words become real work in favor of empowering women. The step toward EPZs and gender-conscious FTAs is progress in grasping the gender-trade nexus; the second step should be implementation, monitoring, and ongoing upgrading of these institutions to ensure that trade becomes a driver of real, gender-inclusive development.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConflict of Interest Statement:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eThe author declares no conflicts of interest concerning this manuscript. The study \u0026quot;Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements\u0026quot; presents independent research findings without any relationships that could potentially bias the results.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData Availability Statement:\u003c/strong\u003e This study draws its supporting data from publicly available sources and secondary literature, which are correctly cited in the written manuscript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStatements\u003c/strong\u003e: Access to these data and materials is not limited by any measures. For additional inquiries about research datasets or other specific information, please contact the author directly.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGhosh, J. (2004). Globalization, export-oriented employment for women and social policy: A case study of India. In G. 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Economic development and working conditions in export processing zones: A survey of trends. International Labour Organization.\u003cbr\u003e https://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2008/108B09_29_engl.pdf\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBahri, A. (2021). Mainstreaming gender in free trade agreements: Rhetoric or reality? Journal of International Economic Law, 24(2), 441\u0026ndash;465.\u003cbr\u003e https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgab022\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMonteiro, J. A. (2018). Gender-related provisions in regional trade agreements. WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2018-15. World Trade Organization.\u003cbr\u003e https://doi.org/10.30875/026d9f8d-en\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCompa, L. (2020). Labor rights and the United States\u0026ndash;Mexico\u0026ndash;Canada Agreement (USMCA): Progress or regression? Comparative Labor Law \u0026amp; Policy Journal, 41(2), 243\u0026ndash;267.\u003cbr\u003e https://cllpj.law.illinois.edu/\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[{"identity":"7651e2c4-1179-44c0-8beb-7f363fddceb6","identifier":"10.13039/501100012528","name":"Kazan Federal University","awardNumber":"101001","order_by":0}],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Kazan Federal University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Gender and trade, Free trade agreements (FTAs), Labor provisions, Female employment, Industrial employment, Export processing zones (EPZs), Women’s economic empowerment, Trade policy, International labor standards, WTO","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8295794/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8295794/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe given empirical investigation questions the introduction of gender and labour provisions into free trade agreements (FTAs) and their still-cursing implications on women entering the manufacturing industry. We have set up a panel that includes five developing economies between 2000 and 2024, and have used an event-study, or rather a difference-in-differences design, to track the causal impact of so-called gender-responsive FTAs on female industry employment. In our estimation exercise, it indicates no statistically significant change in the share of women in industrial jobs due to the support of FTAs with gender and labor clauses, and at best, a short-lived reduction is observed. We established the exogeneity of our treatment in advance, performing strict pre-trend diagnostics that support parallel trends in female labor participation between the treated and control units during the period preceding ratification of the FTAs. The overall implications of these results are that, unless accompanied by explicit strategies to address income distribution and inequality among people experiencing poverty, even the explicit inclusion of gender equity and labor rights provisions in trade does not necessarily increase women's industrial employment in the near term. We offer several plausible hypotheses for the reason behind this counterintuitive result. The first issue is entrenched labor market segmentation, and the second is the lack of enforceability of negotiated provisions. Evaluate the effects, ask questions, and ensure that most environmental designs are practical and feasible. Based on these factors, it follows that to realize the empowering potential of international trade, such as gender provisions in FTAs, there must be strong domestic labor institutions, a robust enforcement system, and complementary interventions, exemplified by targeted skills development programs and anti-discrimination laws. Therefore, developed countries have a moral obligation to strengthen the connection between trade policy and the economic empowerment of women by establishing a harmonized approach that may involve international agencies, such as the WTO, UN Women, and ILO, along with their respective governments.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Gendered Impacts Of Trade And Labor Market Institutions: From Export Processing Zone To Free Trade Agreements","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-12-09 09:29:49","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8295794/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6f78210d-5e20-4e1a-a0ee-304e1ee13efb","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 9th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":59334573,"name":"Development Economics"},{"id":59334574,"name":"Economic Theory"},{"id":59334575,"name":"Gender Studies"},{"id":59334576,"name":"International Economics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-09T09:29:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-12-09 09:29:49","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8295794","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8295794","identity":"rs-8295794","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}