Fair Trade and Justice: An examination of Fair Trade and its impact on indigenous Bolivian women.

Fair Trade is a multi-billion dollar, voluntary form of commerce where economically disadvantaged producers engage in export relationships that guarantee a degree of security and reduced business risk. Justice, as defined by Amartya Sen, is the ability to realize freedoms garnered through the development of capabilities and opportunities. Fair Trade affects capabilities through the development of skills and efficiencies and affects opportunities by generating income and market access.
The majority of Fair Trade producers are male landowners. Many have benefitted well from their participation in Fair Trade. Thousands of women also work in Fair Trade. Many are handicraft producers working in home based industries. Fair Trade does not distinguish between gender in its principles.
Women experience Fair Trade differently than men. They have the burdens of unpaid domestic tasks and limited freedom of expression due to male dominated cultural restraints (UNIFEM, 2010). It has been argued that programs, such as Fair Trade, transform women in “homo economicus” promoting their movement into the formal economy as the cure for economic development. (Hawkesworth, 2006).