Trade and Gender: The Effects of the Determinants of the Gender Wage Gap

Studies that delve into the areas of gender inequality are necessary in order to identify factors which lead up to or are a direct cause of it. This research paper examines the extent to which exports, imports and FDI widen or narrow the gender wage gap in a cross country analysis taking into consideration both developing and developed countries. The paper also investigates whether this is case specific for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study focuses on export oriented industries in SSA in order to determine whether the gender wage gap here can be attributed to women being crowded into certain jobs that pay low wages and hence a contributing factor towards the seemingly widening gender wage gap. These determinants are measured against the gender wage gap according to country specific categories to assess if there is a trend. This study finds that imports, exports as well as GDP per capita and the percentage of female legislators in various institutions cause the gender wage gap to narrow. The findings suggest that certain policy interventions can be used to further narrow down the gender wage gap and lessen the effect of gender inequality especially in labour markets in the developing world to reduce the crowding of women in low paying jobs.