Globalization's for girlies

Trade liberalization and globalization are especially good for women. Here's T. Paul Schultz:

Tariff, quota, and foreign exchange restrictions are found to be inversely associated with trade, and with the levels of education and health, especially for women...Liberalization of trade policy is consequently linked in the cross section to increased trade, to greater accumulation of human capital, and to increased gender equality.

He estimates that a one standard deviation rise in the share of exports and imports in GDP is associated with girls spending an extra 2.6 years in school and boys an extra 1.4 years. So it reduces gender inequality in schooling by 1.2 years. It also increases female life expectancy by 9.3 years and male life expectancy by 6.8 years. 
There are several mechanisms here. Openness to international trade increases the competitive pressures on companies, thus making it harder to discriminate against women. Also, in poor countries, trade liberalization increases demand for labour, which benefits women workers.
On both counts, the greater employment opportunities increase incentives to invest in women's health and schooling.
Or it might just be that countries that open their borders to trade adopt more civilized policies generally, which promote gender equality.

Comments

[dearieme]

My union's local branch stopped enquiring about "gender" on its forms because so many members scored it out and wrote in "sex". Bless 'em.