Geo-Economics and the Rocky Road of Gender Equality

Feminists Impact Economic Development Praxis

Geopolitics and geo-economics—dominated by realpolitik and the Bretton Woods institutions—remain highly masculinist domains.The feminist agenda has gradually entered the corridors of power largely through instrumentalist justifications and sometimes ethical considerations. Although progress is slow, yet mainstream areas like economic policy and trade relations increasingly prioritise gender equality and labour rights. Foreign aid now often aligns diplomatic and economic interests with a focus on gender justice, largely due to evidence provided by feminist economists. They have consistently asserted that including women in economic activities is not only fair but also leads to improved GDP and national wellbeing.

Such arguments have impacted economic and social policy internationally and nationally. For example, the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have integrated gender indices and social and environmental safeguards into their programs in tandem with redesigning monitoring and evaluation tools to assess gender impacts. However, progress remains uneven and slow.

Trade-offs between Economic Liberalization and Gender Justice

Promoting gender justice alongside the prescriptions of economic liberalization contains tensions. This model limits the state’s role, pushing market-driven solutions alongside austerity. Developing countries usually prioritise rapid economic growth by attracting foreign investment and competing to produce cheaper goods. Low wages, weak labour protections, and informalisation of work are common outcomes of this growth model.

Economic liberalization reinforces gender inequality and gender stereotypes through the expansion of women’s employment in unpaid home-based work, domestic work and low-paying sectors such as garments and textiles. This results in strengthening pre-existing systemic inequalities; e.g., the gender wage gap has marginally (but unevenly) improved unevenly across countries from 30 per cent  to 35 per cent   during 1990 and 2021, far short of the 50 per cent  benchmark. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) highlights that over a billion women are excluded from formal finance, and women-led businesses receive only 2 per cent of global venture capital investments. These gaps reflect the failure of economic liberalization to address structural barriers, with far-reaching repercussions for communities and economies. Despite these challenges, initiatives to address gender injustice have emerged.

One notable example of such an initiative is the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), a trade arrangement that demonstrates a shift in rethinking global power dynamics.  The GSP+ deftly combines trade with human rights, labor rights, environmental protection and governance. By requiring eight indebted developing countries in Asia and Africa to ratify and implement 27 comprehensive UN Conventions related to these four categories, GSP+ status provides these countries with easier access to European markets by cutting its import duties on over two thirds of tariff lines for goods exported from these GSP+ countries. Notably, arms trade is expressly excluded from this arrangement.

GSP+ seeks to mitigate market-generated inequalities and benefit the people directly affected by the policies that their governments adopt to alleviate debt burdens by ensuring that labour rights, women’s rights, environmental sustainability and good governance are upheld.  

Pakistan, for instance, was granted GSP+ status in January 2014. The Pakistan government has reported that this status has led to economic and social progress in Pakistan. Trade between Pakistan and EU countries has doubled, and some social indicators have improved. For example, minimum wage increased by 10 per cent and 20 per cent in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively; while vulnerable employment decreased from 60 per cent to 56 per cent. Importantly, it states that the number of labour inspectors has doubled, enhancing labour rights enforcement.  

Additionally, the report indicates legislative improvements. New and amended laws relate to women and minority rights e.g., women’s property rights, Hindu and Christian marriage acts, anti-rape ordinance, domestic violence, violence against women protection centres, transgender, home-based workers, domestic workers, bonded workers’ rights, child protection, anti-harassment measures and environmental protection. Such legislative developments illustrate the potential of GSP+ to incentivise meaningful reforms in participating countries. The implementation of laws, however, remains a concern. Valid until 2027, GSP+ is criticised for being overly ambitious and difficult to implement in the short term even in a phased manner. However, it has led to improving citizens’ rights at the micro level.

Geopolitical & Geo-economic Interests and the Moral Imperatives of Gender Justice

Women’s rights are often vulnerable to reversal or improvement due to regime changes. Afghanistan’s protracted conflict since 1980, driven by big power rivalries, demonstrates that women’s rights as a geopolitical and geo-economic priority are contingent on the interests of different countries. The reversal of women’s rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s imposition of gender apartheid is a clear example in this context.

US China Rivalry in Asia

Afghanistan is a classic example of a geopolitical space, where different global and regional powers have clashed: the USSR and the US, along with their proxies and allies, fought in Afghanistan during the Cold War until the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Post-9/11, the US intervened with its allies to target Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. At that time, First Lady Laura Bush stated that the US was removing the Taliban regime as it did not allow women to smile or children to fly kites. Two decades later, the US withdrew, leaving Afghanistan under Taliban control again. The gains in women’s rights were reversed overnight. Afghanistan also remains a battleground for influence between Wahhabi/Sunni Saudi Arabia, Shia Iran, and its other neighbouring countries, further impeding women’s rights.

Chinese and Western trade relations with Afghanistan, based on oil, minerals, and connectivity with Central Asia, highlight how countries often prioritise their strategic and economic goals over concerns about gender apartheid and human rights. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has far-reaching consequences for economic trade and connectivity globally. However, the BRI has neglected gender concerns whereas it can promote gender equality through South-South cooperation.

Currently, China has made significant inroads into Afghanistan, both literally and metaphorically, extending its BRI and linking it to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Wakhan Corridor. Although China has yet to formally recognise the Taliban, it appointed an ambassador to Afghanistan in September 2023 and allowed the Taliban to control the Afghan embassy in Beijing. The Afghan ambassador presented his credentials to President Xi in January 2024. Notably, Chinese trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia has expanded after 2021. E.g., China began using the Wakhan Corridor to connect with Tajikistan for transporting cargo in October 2024 besides signing large contracts with the Taliban, including a 2022 agreement to implement zero tariffs on 98 per cent Afghan exports to China. In 2023, China also signed  a $540 million contract to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin, and resumed work on the Aynak Copper Mine, alongside securing contracts for lithium mining.

Significantly, the World Bank revived its $1.2 billion Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) in February 2024. The project, aimed at improving connectivity between the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, had been halted after the Taliban took over in August 2021. Now in a “ring-fenced resumption” phase, the project ensures that all construction payments and future revenue are managed outside Afghanistan, using international consultants and third-party monitoring to comply with the Bank’s environmental and social safeguards, including gender equality. Predictably, this development is welcomed by US and NATO contractors.

Additionally, the US and its allies continue to send around $80 million emergency assistance in cash every other week through the UN. The US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada also abide by the sanctions, which complicate Afghanistan’s ability to trade, especially in light of ongoing gender apartheid.

Whither Women’s Rights & Gender Justice?

In the geo-economic and strategic contexts, both China and the US alongside its allies are competing for contracts and projects in Afghanistan. Simultaneously, for reasons of international optics, countries have withheld recognition of the Taliban government, and made it difficult for Afghanistan to trade globally. Meanwhile, gender apartheid in Afghanistan has expanded steadily.

A grave concern is the UN’s acceptance of the Taliban’s refusal to engage in meetings where women’s rights are on the agenda as evidenced in Doha in July 2024. Feminist and human rights activists have raised the issue of gender apartheid at several platforms, including the UN Commission on the Status of Women’s annual meeting in March 2024 and on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council Meeting in June 2024. Therefore, the announcement that Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada have initiated the process to take the Taliban government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its gender apartheid while being a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) since 2003 has been welcomed by feminist activists. Although this process is slow and tedious, there is hope that the Taliban regime will be compelled to address the issue at the ICJ, with hearings anticipated in March 2025.

This case may receive support from Afghanistan’s neighbours, as the post-2021 refugee crisis has left many Afghans stranded in neighbouring countries enduring inhuman conditions. The solution lies in honoring Afghan citizens, especially women’s human rights. They must be allowed to work and live in dignity alongside their families. Evidence shows that many widows, single women, men and children are forced to engage in transactional/survival sex to survive, with severe physical and mental health consequences. Their resettlement to the West as a solution is impractical as roughly 3,000 individuals and families are resettled from neighboring Pakistan, while over 600,000 Afghans without refugee status remain in limbo. Ending gender discrimination, therefore, makes sense for multiple reasons, including instrumentalist ones. Convincing the Taliban to make Afghanistan livable for women is challenging but not impossible if regional and global powers firmly pursue the goal.

Toward a Gender Just Geopolitical and Economic Narrative

Overall, there is a golden lining in that countries can no longer pursue strategic and economic interests purely based on national interest. Instead, they must balance these pursuits with respect for human rights, including women’s rights. For instance, the Taliban regime's lack of alignment with international values on human and women's rights remains a significant point of contention underlying sanctions and non-recognition of the Taliban government.

Similarly, Pakistan’s GSP+ status has incentivised legislation in support of women’s rights, child rights, labour rights, human rights, and environmental protection. The cases for increased trade in the form of GSP Plus and competition in Afghanistan as well as access to the markets in Central Asia demonstrate the internal dilemmas within states on the one hand and competition among states on the other hand. to balance economic and political interests with moral and ethical considerations for including gender issues in policy negotiations.

Ultimately, the convergence of strategic interests and social justice holds promise for fostering a global narrative where sustainable development and gender justice are intertwined. This alignment is critical to achieving a world where dignity, inclusion, and peace are accessible to all.

The opinions and statements of the guest authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion and position of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.