We wanted to touch on another important issue which Fair Trade seeks to address. That is the issue of gender inequality and it's contribution to poverty.
The fact that women are not treated as equally as men may be a more apparent and publicly discussed fact than ever before, but the extent of that inequality, and it's correlation to poverty has become much more prevalent as a focal point for anti-poverty and development organizations as an absolute must fix.
Consider the fact that 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in absolute poverty are women and you will quickly see that empowering women to be financially independent and to increase their education and skills will do a great deal to solve the world's poverty issues. It is also shown in research that every additional year of education for a women is also a 10% drop in fertility, which reflects women delaying child birth and ultimately having healthier children and being able to secure themselves first.
Once again, we have to be excited about the potential for Fair Trade to help in this area. Most artisans involved in the Fair Trade system are women, and so choosing to spend our money on Fair Trade products directly addresses and contributes to the eradication of poverty. As women artisans producing Fair Trade earn fair wages and increase their skills and education, their communities develop as well. It is shown in research that women are more likely to spend their earnings on their families and communities rather than themselves......
A couple of interesting links on the issue of women and poverty:
